In my travels I’ve come across numerous opportunities to bring our Los Angeles Dog Training service to different parts of our county. A good friend of mine, Shirley Lewis of California Groomin’, told me of this place in Culver City that was looking for a dog trainer. If you know Shirley, you know that a recommendation from her is as good as gold. We set up an appointment to visit, Club Fido. We hit it off instantly. That staff is really down to earth and the place is super clean. I have to admit I was impressed, 10,000 square feet for your pup. We offer free unlimited group classes to our customers and we worked out a deal for us to meet at Club Fido, occasionally. It’s going to take some time to work out the bugs of course but I think this is the start of a wonderful relationship. As for my existing clients we will let you know how this will work very soon. If any one is interested in taking a tour of Club Fido please call them for an appointment
In my profession I come in contact with obviously numerous dogs. Honestly speaking, some I can’t get enough of and others I can’t wait till they go home! Some parents are thinking, I know a few of my kids friends that I feel that way about! Just kidding. A good friend of mine, Mr. Colden of Colden Kennels called me and told me about this pup that he felt would be a great match for me. I get offers like this quite often, as you can imagine in my line of work. He sounded so excited about her, I just had to check her out. I told myself the worse that can happen is I say “No, thank you.” Once there we were escorted to her, it was love at first sight. The puppy, now known as Roxy, was amazing. Full of energy, non-stop, a little firecracker. The last time I felt this way I was in Pennsylvania checking out Ajax (my almost 3 yr, Belgian Malinois). I look over to my brother Juan and he gave the nod of approval. Roxy came home with us and I immediately put her with my kids. They loved her just as much as their old man did. There’s a video on this blog of Roxy, under Puppy Love. When I’m training a person and there dog, I’m always telling them they need to keep their dog focused. All your troubles are due to your dog being out of focus, not understanding what you want from them. Teach your dog to focus on you and all those little things start to disappear. Before I end this entry I just want say, Thanks John, Roxy’s in good hands, I won’t let you down.
It was the beginning of the year when I received an email from a person, requesting my assistance. Her name is Linda and she explained that she was deaf. Linda had recently lost her companion and hearing guide dog to old age. She asked if I could help her find and train a new puppy for her. I told her that I would do my very best to find what she was looking for and the training I told her we would figure things out once the puppy was here. I was unable to find one for her but luckily a breeder in Washington was able to assist her (Samantha, Welsh Corgi). Linda contacted me again at our Sit Means Sit Los Angeles Dog Training office and we set her up for a free intro.
I pulled up to her house not knowing what to expect, I’ve had other challenges in my life, this should be a piece of cake. We sat down and she pulled out a notebook, we wrote out the entire intro. I explained to her that I have never certified a hearing guide dog before. Obedience, no problem but what she was asking, at the time I had no clue. She told me that she would assist me in training the dog for it’s hearing tasks, she obviously had experiance with that. I looked at her and wrote, “When do we start!” When we say we custom tailor a program to meet your needs, we mean it!
We started training about a week later. I explained to her the use of the remote collar and how it would enhance what she was attempting to do. I noticed that Linda was speaking very high to little Samantha which was scaring her. Very understandable given the situation. I instructed Linda to stop speaking. I told her I would teach her to rely on the remote and her body language to train Samantha. She is now a very happy little puppy on her way to great things. I told Linda I was very proud of her as well, despite our boundaries we are beginning to understand eachother and meet our common goal.
Like I mentioned earlier, I’ve had great challenges in my life, and this is not an easy task but the feeling I get from Linda’s smile when I leave keeps me motivated and pushing foward.
I think that as parents we all strive to make our kids look up to us. I remember back in my military days my focus was on making my parents proud. I would advise younger troops, “Everything you do, do it to give your parents bragging rights!” You know how parents are , ” My son/daughter is this and their doing this. What’s your kid doing?” Now, I find myself doing things to give my kids bragging rights, “Look what my Daddy can do!”
I went to my daughter, Cassandra’s, parent teacher confrence a couple of weeks ago, her teacher had great remarks about her. What touched me about our conversation is how the teacher expressed of my daughter’s feelings about me. She apologized to my wife and told her that the only thing that comes out of Cassy’s mouth is, “My daddy this, my daddy that.” To hear it from your children is one thing but to hear that they are telling the world about it is something else. I got the chills, to me there is no warmer feeling than to know that your son/daughter loves you and admires what you do.
I had some free time the other day so I decided to work with Cassy. I brought out a pit bull puppy named “Roxy.” I asked her to help me stimulate the puppy’s prey drive. I could have said, “play tug of war” or “pull a towel out for Roxy” but I wanted to see how much she pays attention to what I do. She even started teaching her to go through her legs. I was amazed, this girl is truly a shining star in daddy’s heart. She always tells me that she wants to be the best Sit Means Sit dog trainer! Sit Means Sit Los Angeles Dog Training is very fortunate to have her. I love you, Cassandra!
Yesterday, Mar 13, 2007 I had the opportunity to work with Tim Smith at a local park in Long Beach, CA. He came down on business but took some time out to play with us and our dogs. For those that don’t know, Tim was a No Limitations Instructor in Las Vegas, NV before opening his own Sit Means Sit Dog Training Bay Area. In a few hours he was already cleaning up our dogs obedience, bite, focus and decoys alike. I think Juan of Sit Means Sit Dog Training Los Angeles benefited the most. Juan is learning to be a decoy and Tim was able to teach him things that even I was failing to catch. Everyone knows that two heads are better than one, so I was very excited to have another set of eyes to aid me in the devlopement of Juan. Thanks Tim!
