My professional dog training journey began in 2019. My husband and I had purchased our first home and we decided it was time to bring home a dog. We were so excited to take him for walks, play with puppy toys, have him sleep on his dog bed and use his new food bowl. We also worried about puppy classes and enrolled him into a class before we even had him. Everything felt prepped and as ready as we could be for our new family member. This will always be an important milestone to me because I felt truly responsible for our new dog and I was determined to have a well mannered one in my home. Growing up, I had seen the dogs who sit nicely when asked or walk on a loose leash with their owners and have always envied that level of understanding between humans and dogs. Now, it was my turn and I have learned so much more about dogs than I could have imagined. There is still so much more to learn!
If you haven’t caught on already, I am a nerd. Working with dogs has encouraged that side of me even more. Not to mention riding horses as well. Animals have so much to teach us, and that’s the beauty of being human. We can understand life through multiple perspectives, and animals have taught me unconditional love, leadership, and bravery. They teach us without saying a word. Maybe a bark or two, but their communication is different, and training many dogs has shown me how to watch for those cues. Dog training is similar to going to school. We go to school to learn how to live properly in a society, to elevate our careers, or to specialize in certain tasks. Dogs do the same thing, and their beginning classes teach dogs how to exist with humans more appropriately. My goal as a trainer is to work on the communication between the owner and their dog. Each dog has their own personality to take into account, which only makes the task more exciting to figure out and problem solve. Dogs adjust as well as humans when it comes to learning. Once you tackle dog training, you can view “problem behaviors” through a different lens. Asking any animal to perform an action AND they understand what has been asked through performance, is truly an incredible feat! Imagine asking a two-year-old human to do something. It can be tricky depending on the two-year-old. The same goes for a dog. We are mammals, and there is a reason they have adjusted to living indoors with us and feel like family. The next task is to help dogs be excited about the behavior and to perform again. This is where the hard work begins and why I became a trainer. The dog my husband and I purchased was a Siberian Husky. We found a good breeder, and the sire was trained to be a therapy dog. This litter was very calm compared to other litters, and I chose my puppy, whose name is Sitka Bear. This breed is particularly humbling for any trainer, especially for new owners. He tested our patience, he pushed for freedom, he loved to work with us, and he had his independence. Not an easy task, and I learned so much! When Sitka turned 10 months old, we adopted another puppy. A 10-week-old Labrador whose name is Atlas. He is eager to please, needs to be told what to do, has to be by our side, and loves to play fetch. Both are dogs and both are so different in their own special way.
My training career began at PetSmart. I took therapy classes there with Shanna (excellent trainer in the Castleton area). She was picky about trainers and needed to hire one. I applied for the position and got the job! I trained under her for a few weeks, and then I was on my own. Taking people who scheduled classes starting with puppy classes and working my way up to advanced classes. I had multiple groups who stayed with my training throughout puppy – advanced, and it was such a pleasure to see their progress! I trained dogs through their stress program because many dogs were coming from homes after COVID-19 with lots of separation anxiety, reactivity, and overall poor habits. This experience taught me so much about dog training, but I wanted to focus all my efforts on training and no longer be part of the corporate world. After I worked with them for a year, I moved on to my own training and developed my own programs to enhance the communication side of dog training. I feel this is often overlooked because I want my dog to sit, but I am not forcing these behaviors. I work on molding them over time because they have long-lasting results. If I press my dog’s butt down every time I want him to sit, then I did not teach him to sit. I taught him “sit” and wait for me to add pressure to force you into a sit. Sometimes, this is helpful as an aid, but I need to reassess the training if that is my go-to. I also keep my client list small so I can focus on the problems owners face. Clients have life happening all the time, and I am available for their questions as often as I can be. Not the best-selling tactic, but I truly want to help owners communicate more clearly and fairly with their dogs rather than see more dogs put in the shelters. Having worked in shelters in high school, it is a societal problem in how we work with our dogs, and not the dog’s fault. Being a dog trainer is harder than it looks, and being faced with bite problems or living situations that are unfair to humans or dogs can be very daunting to discuss with owners. It happens though. I hope to find the best situation for all involved.
Dogs have given me so much in life, and I know they help give life to others as well. I have had the crazy dogs, the calm ones, and the nervous ones. After I started training my own dogs, I realized how much greater my relationship can be through this line of work. The key is communication. Training is learning the language with our dogs and helping our dogs learn our language as well. The training days never stop, and it is the relationship we have with our companions that matters.
