Anderson, Lois

Lois Anderson

Barron County 4-H Volunteer and Pioneer

Lois Anderson, a pioneer in the dog project provided leadership in Barron County and throughout Wisconsin. Lois volunteered as a 4-H Dog project leader in 1966, one year after the project started in Wisconsin. She filled that role for 50 years impacting the lives of over 2500 Barron County youth Her efforts became a model for other counties as she helped to establish dog programs in six western Wisconsin counties.
Lois’s training included beginning to advanced level. As the project progressed, Lois expanded educational experiences to Drill Teams, Dog Agility, and Dog-related career programs. She encouraged project members to publicly share their obedient dogs in local parades and events. These included demonstrations at Farm Tech Days and a drill team at the 1987 Farm Progress Days. Lois partnered with advanced dog project members to create an 8mm film showing all levels of obedience training to be used as a reference for other counties.
In 1970, the State 4-H Office requested Lois to help plan the first statewide Dog Project Training Workshop for project leaders. In 1972, Barron County hosted the first State 4-H Dog Show and Lois chaired the Host Committee.
Lois was a founding and active member of the Barron County Humane Society for many years. Lois currently resides in her rural Rice Lake home with wonderful memories of her accomplishments with the dog project, which she influenced greatly.