It All Started with a pair of Brown eyes

My training journey has an odd beginning, when I was a teenager, my brother helped me sneak home a pet rat named Luca. While my parents were less than pleased, one soon became 3, the minimum you should keep since rats are social, and over the years expanded beyond that. I noticed pretty quickly how smart these girls were. I noticed that they could be taught to repeat behaviors if given a reward, and taught my rats to do a number of tricks.

This included fun things like standing with hands together to “beg,” going to a designated place at the end of free roam time to be able to easily put them back in their enclosure, and to offer hands and feet for easy nail clipping. I was fascinated by their constant hunger for knowledge and of course yogurt drops, and their ability to learn increasingly difficult skills.

As I grew up and moved out on my own, I got two wonderful cats, a year apart from each other, and trained both to tolerate nail trimming using the same methods I taught my rats with. I taught them some fun tricks as well, and a year later, I was chosen by our senior dog.

Brodie was at an adoption event, and when I met him, I knew he was my dog. The early years with him were not easy. He was a handful, hard to train, reactive to a number of things, not at all food motivated, and a nuisance to others with his barking and poor leash skills. There was so much intelligence and cleverness behind those brown eyes.

I had to evolve my training methods in order to finally get him to the point he’s at now. He challenged me in ways that I never expected, and through my work with him, but especially when it came to public perception. There was, and is so much shame around having a dog who isn’t perfectly behaved in public. I had to learn to do this on my own to not feel shamed that my dog wasn’t perfect no matter how much progress he made.

We built a wonderful life together, working, training, and allowing him to just be the wonderful dog he is, flaws and all. Throughout the years with Brodie, I helped to train dogs and build my skills even more, while my main focus in my work life was focused elsewhere.

In 2022 we added another puppy to our home, Fletcher is a much different dog than Brodie. He’s sensitive, gentle, and so terrifyingly smart. I was lucky enough to adopt Fletcher at 3 months old. It gave me a chance to really get to know him as his personality developed, and train him from a young age. You will see him featured often in lessons and as an example when I’m teaching a new concept.