- We are up for a
It's Team Maker from Lakeland, Florida.
These are underdogs of the night, John Kuendig
and his border collie Maker.
Maker may look cute, but he's a lot
more than just a handsome face.
JOHN KUENDIG: My name's John Kuendig.
I'm 36 years old, and I'm an animal trainer.
This is my dog Maker.
He's a four-year-old border collie,
and he's the best dog on the planet.
[barking]
Good job, buddy.
I needed to get a demonstration dog.
So I sought out the smartest dog possible,
which would be a border collie.
Maker was the obvious choice, being
the smartest one in the group.
I took him home, immediately started training.
By the time he was four months old,
Maker knocked out 20 or 30 tricks, had started nose work--
Peanuts, buddy, peanuts, find those peanuts.
--protection work--
Nice, buddy.
--agility courses.
Ah!
JOHN KUENDIG: Maker's now four years old.
He plays 10 sports.
He knows 115 tricks.
They range anything from simple sits
and downs and rollovers to more advanced tricks and sequences,
such as Parkour.
He rebounds off of me.
He rebounds off my hands.
He'll rebound off a tree.
High-five.
Good boy.
One of Maker's favorite tricks is the fakie,
also known as the fake pee.
And it looks like he's just peeing
on anybody I tell him to.
While he's here, I'm gonna put as much time into him
as I possibly can, because he lays it
down for me every single day.
Are you a baby?
Thank you.
Are you the nicest boy?
I see you.
We're gonna be-- we're gonna go.
Don't worry.
CURT MENEFEE: This underdog here has
performed all over the country.
How will he perform here in the Canine Combine is the question?
Whew.
I almost feel like it's not fair calling Maker an underdog.
They do agility.
They do obedience.
They do detection.
This is an impressive team.
But they have less experience than police K9s,
who are getting in and out of cars daily.
CURT MENEFEE: They're our smallest dogs
in the competition, they're our youngest dog
in the competition, and they're our cutest dog
in the competition.
Ah, a little cockiness coming from Team Maker.
Let's see if they can back it up.
And they're off! - Let's go.
CURT MENEFEE: To automatically advance,
they need to beat Tuco's time of two minutes, 25.26 seconds.
Come on. Maker, let's go.
Come on, buddy, right here.
NICK WHITE: Oh, no, Maker's inexperience with vehicles
is costing them time.
Good boy.
NICK WHITE: But border collies are very fast and very smart.
Now he knows what to do, and he's through the other cars
without slowing down. JOHN KUENDIG: Good.
Let's go here.
CURT MENEFEE: Less than 30 seconds,
even with the slow start there in Vehicle 1.
Wait a minute.
Pull.
NICK WHITE: That ball has a little too much swing on it,
and it's getting hard for him to do it.
John comes in with the assist.
Great job. - Good boy.
Come on, up here.
CURT MENEFEE: I had a border collie once.
They're really smart dogs.
And once they get what they're supposed to do, they do it.
NICK WHITE: There's a book called "The Intelligence
of Dogs," and they actually list border collies as the smartest
dog in the world.
Pull.
Good boy.
CURT MENEFEE: See?
Once you get it figured out as a border collie, it's no problem.
He could totally do our jobs.
Lie die.
CURT MENEFEE: Heading into high jump,
they're just over a minute.
This way, Maker.
Up.
Good boy.
NICK WHITE: They're gonna fly right here.
Good boy.
NICK WHITE: Beautiful, once more.
Big jump, big jump.
[cheering]
NICK WHITE: And the 5 foot, boom, Maker gets it.
And he's going over the rope bridge.
- Wow! - Even without his helmet, John.
NICK WHITE: [laughs]
JOHN KUENDIG: Swim.
NICK WHITE: Whoa!
You talked about that dunk diving experience.
It's a bird.
It's a plane.
It's Super Maker.
JOHN KUENDIG: Maker, Maker, Maker.
CURT MENEFEE: To the finish line they go.
They will finish in less than two minutes.
NICK WHITE: Wow!
Maker even hits the button!
[laughter]
CURT MENEFEE: They're advancing to round 2.
How do you think they do?
Because civilian dogs don't generally do that
well in smelling competitions.
John puts in so much time with Maker, as we saw in round 1.
But it's gonna be really interesting to see
how his nose holds up.
CURT MENEFEE: All right, to advance to the final round,
they've got to find at least two items in less
than four minutes, 41 seconds.
NICK WHITE: Unlike other teams tonight, Maker
trains with peanut oil, so that's what's
used on the items in his run.
Let's see if he can roast the competition.
JOHN KUENDIG: Hey, find peanuts, peanuts.
Peanuts, find those peanuts.
Find those peanuts.
NICK WHITE: Well, right there, I see a nice sit.
And I don't know if John picked up on that,
but that's what I saw.
Maybe it's just John trying to detail a little more for him
to actually pinpoint the item.
But for me, that was a clear alert.
CURT MENEFEE: Ooh, but he picks up the wrong item.
But it'll be incorrect, so they'll go
back inside the luggage room.
45 seconds so far.
Check here.
NICK WHITE: And again, going back,
he knows something's there, right there.
Again, you saw that stare, that focus from Maker.
John easily picked up on it that time.
CURT MENEFEE: So one item in less than a minute,
they're on pace.
Next, it's the bedroom, where the scent
is on that decorative letter A.
NICK WHITE: Normally, I talk about how
I love seeing people be cool, calm, collected in here.
Maybe in John's case, I wonder, are you being a little bit
too cool, calm, and collected?
Right there, super-focused on that item,
I'd read that as an alert.
He looks back at John saying, hey, are you not seeing this?
John eventually sees it.
And that's gonna be his second item in less
than a minute and 30 seconds.
JOHN KUENDIG: Find these peanuts.
Find it, buddy. Find it.
Find the peanuts.
Go.
CURT MENEFEE: Now it's on to the living room.
NICK WHITE: Right there.
CURT MENEFEE: Hey, Maker's doing his job,
but John isn't picking up on his alert.
Ah, he did not pick up on that.
I saw that as a clear change of behavior.
Unfortunately, John did not read that.
CURT MENEFEE: And they're gonna run out of time.
Now underdog Team Maker has been eliminated.