My Story
I started Journey Dog Training because I want to help the dogs people are afraid of. I want to make sure that every behavior dog gets a fighting chance.
I couldn’t give up on him, no matter how many people didn’t believe in him.
We all gotta start somewhere, right? I started by naively bringing home a six-week old puppy we named Sammy, having absolutely no idea what I was doing.
It wasn’t a great beginning. The breed I got? A lie. The puppy? Too young. I didn’t even think to ask the breeder if I could meet the pup’s parents. Didn’t think to check out how they were raised, what genetics I was buying into. And then I decided to keep my puppy inside, unsocialized, for the first several weeks.
Basically, if there was a mistake I could make, I made it. I did absolutely everything wrong, and it could have cost my dog his life.
Because that little six week old puppy had poor genetics that made him fearful of new people, and a predisposition toward wanting to fight with every new dog he came across. Basically if you were not a member of our immediate household, Sammy was pretty convinced that you shouldn’t exist, and was willing to tell you so.
By the time he was big enough for me to realize the serverity of his behaviors, I had trainers telling me they couldn’t help him. I had family members telling me that I should get rid of him. Other people just flat out told me to put him down.
But, you see, I’m what some may call a “stubborn” person. And I wasn’t going to let this dog go without a fight.
And that was when I was first introduced to something that would ultimately change the course of my life: Dog Behavior Modification. Dog psychology. Behavior work. Teaching dogs that maybe biting people wasn’t such a great idea.
I’d like to tell you that I immediately fell in love with it, but that would be a lie because training Sammy was hard. I worked for hours every single day trying to teach him that he didn’t have to be afraid, and that dogs could be friends. There were times when I sat in my car and wept in frustration, terrified that he’d never get better.
But he did.
And the better he got, the more I wanted to learn.
A passion woke inside of me, and I started seeing aggressive dogs in an entirely different light.
I paid for an internship in dog psychology. I studied drives and character traits, learned how to read a dog’s body lanaguage and modify their behavior. I spent hours studying, absorbing as much information as I could. My internship was supposed to go for a year, but after just three months the company hired me on as a trainer, faster than any other intern they’d previously had.
I worked for them for three years, and loved every second of it. Watching dogs improve, watching previously dangerous dogs be able to go out and experience the world that would otherwise have always been closed off to them, brought a happiness to me that I can’t fully describe.
This is my calling, and I knew I’d never be able to turn back.
I started Journey Dog Training because I love dogs. I love the behavior dogs that need to learn not to bite, and the little puppies who are working on understanding a sit. Seeing how much of a boon dogs can be in their people’s lives, through companionship or active service work, has enriched my soul in a way I’ll never get enough of. I love knowing I can help make people’s lives easier, that I can ease their stress and give them hope.
It’s a journey, and that journey looks different for everyone. Whether your dog is on your last nerve or you’ve just brought your new puppy home, I’m here for you, and I’ll stick by you until the end. Let’s get going. I promise it will be one amazing ride.