Dog Trainer Bio – Troy Pfeifer
Troy Pfeifer
troyp@sitmeanssit.com
tel: 512.942.RUFF [7833]
Serving the Austin, Texas area.
Throughout my life I have always had at least one dog. I love dogs and spending time with them. Their unconditional love and affection is contagious and seeing people light up when they see a dog is priceless.
As a child, I never learned how to train a dog well. Our dogs would of course do the basics like sit, shake, and lay down – all with a lot of coaxing. They would also sometimes come when called unless distracted – which dogs always seem to be distracted when you most want or need to them to come. And, of course, they would pull when walked, some would jump up on people…I think you know what I mean.
Later in life I tried several different training methods and approaches. My dogs were definitely better behaved, but not nearly as good as the amount of energy I was putting into the training. They would start out pretty good, but over the coming days, weeks and months their behaviour would deteriorate. We always used strictly reward and leash training and never had the kind of success I would want and expect. Plus I never knew when they would decide to not listen and go and do their own thing – that is until I finally came across Sit Means Sit Dog Training.
Sit Means Sit uses a combination of training methods and coined the term attention based training. This is what treat, leash, pinch collar, etc training is really trying to do – get the dog to pay attention to you and not other distractions. The Sit Means Sit methodology and techniques made sense to me and, based on my dog’s response to the training, made sense to my dog. He was happy and understood what I wanted him to do and when I wanted him to pay attention to me. While, at the same time, I knew that he was going to do what I asked but most importantly, when I asked. Because of this, I finally felt secure having my dog off leash (when appropriate).
Sit Means Sit dog training also really took the time to make sure I understood why the training worked and how to train on my own so that I could continue the dog’s and my education after the formal classes. When the initial training was completed, my wife and I knew we would never need to find another way to train our dog, and the training our dog just completed would not wear off after a couple of months or years. Plus, with the great ongoing group classes we could continue to work with our skills and our dogs skills.
The group classes were great. We had the opportunity to work around other dogs with multiple distractions; received clear direction; got to play games with all the dogs; the dogs got to socialize and have a great time. But all the dogs in the class had “graduated” to the class – meaning they at least had the basics down so they were not disruptive to the class.
The group classes is also where I learned that Sit Means Sit dog training also works with very difficult to train and aggressive dogs (you know, they type of dogs most other trainers cannot or will not train). My dog was not aggressive, but sometimes some of the dogs at the group classes might be. Of course, if they were, they would be muzzled and under control so no other dogs or people were in danger. It was great to see a training program that would work with aggressive dogs and make the sociable and good and happy dogs and owners again. You know the training really works when you see a very difficult and maybe even aggressive dog become a great behaved and happy dog.
I worked with several different dogs and found that I really enjoyed being with the dogs and educating people how to train their dog and why it would make the dog and the owner so much happier. I also found that I was very excited about the idea of making dogs and their owners life better through training – it makes the relationship so much easier, happier and more rewarding. So, I made the decision to change and do what I loved.
I have been training with the Sit Means Sit approach now for several years working with dogs of all sizes and temperaments.