K9-101

I was thirteen and we had a ten year old German Shepherd that was getting old fast. A friend had found a nine month old German Shepherd puppy, but could not keep a dog where she lived so she asked us if we would like the puppy. My dad said we could only have the dog if I took her to obedience class. That was all it took. I was hooked. I could not wait until I was home from school so I would do my home work as fast as I could, then I was off to train my dog... From that point on there were only two things that I wanted to do with my life: become an Optician, or a dog trainer, better yet, train Seeing Eye dogs. Well, the optician won for awhile, but I never stopped. Training dogs is my passion. My first trainer was a gentleman named Larry Heist. He was the owner and trainer of one of the dogs featured in the Walt Disney movie "Big Red". The dog was an Irish setter. Larry taught me a lot about training for movies verses household obedience, food or corrective discipline, Which is better..