| Tell us about yourself: |
I'm a 30 year old dog trainer from Panama. I studied International Business at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. After graduating, I opened a pet boutique in Panama, that was open for 5 years. I always enjoyed teaching my dogs lots of tricks, but never had enough time or knowledge to train them properly.
My dog training journey began officially on early 2020, after realizing my own dogs needed an "intervention". I own two white swiss shepherds, Frankie (7) and his son Baruk (3).
Frankie is what I would consider a dominant dog. He's a pretty self confident and stable. His son Baruk, never received proper guidance, and turned out to become slightly dog reactive after a few bad encounters with out neighbor's JRTs. I used to take turns walking them with my husband and a dog walker, so I never really taught them to walk and behave properly. Baruk is insecure, and does not like meeting new dogs for the most part. He became leash reactive, and it got to the point where I could not handle walking both dogs at the same time.
After countless hours educating myself online, through various online lessons and Youtube videos, applying what I learned (correctly and incorrectly ) I succeeded in training both of my dogs almost to perfection (it comes and goes).
A lot of friends were impressed with Frankie and Baruks new behavior, and they asked for help with their own dogs. I helped several of them, and decided I loved training and it is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Here in Panama, dog training has never been considered a "proper career" and the country is extremely behind in effective training methods and tools. I have not been able to find a mentor at all so I'm very grateful to have access to this platform!
I'm excited to learn and become a better trainer 🙂 |
