K9Deb*
(pssssst ... who is she , anyway?)

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It all began one dark and stormy night ...
OK -- so it was a balmy, August evening.  Duchess and I were at our first  basic obedience class. I'd had dogs all of my life and had trained them on my own and was pretty proud of my abilities.

As we were waiting for class to start Duchess began growling at another dog. I, of course, tried to calm her in my best soft, soothing voice. "It's OK baby, shhhhhhhhh, be a good girl". The instructor, Robin, walked over to me, hands on her hips, and asked "Why are you praising your dog for that behavior?". Right then and there I became hooked. I already had an interest in dog training and behavior, but that moment told me that there was a lot more to it than I had ever considered. It was pure luck that I had happened to enroll in a class taught by a dog trainer with a strong background in behavior. Dog trainers can be behavior oriented, or not. Behavior counselors can be dog trainers, or not.

Robin took me on as an apprentice and we took each other on as friends. Within the year I was seeing clients on my own and learning more each day. Robin preferred the "training" part -- she trains for obedience, field and agility, among other things. I preferred the "behavior" part and "pet training" have no desire to ever see the inside of a show ring. Between the two of us we could handle anything our clients needed. Our business relationship ended when I moved to Florida, seven years later, but the friendship is forever.

When I got to Florida I began volunteering at the local animal shelter. That led to a full time position doing temperament evaluations on the incoming dogs, teaching basic pet obedience classes and providing pre- and post-adoption counseling. I came to that job with a good background and a lot of experience, but that didn't prepare me for the total emersion into canine behavior that comes with handling so many different dogs. I don't know the exact numbers, but my guess is that I handled somewhere around 15,000 dogs. Some for only a few minutes, others for days on end. No one can handle that many dogs without either learning to read "canine" fluently or finding some other type of work. I advise anyone that wants to enter the field of dog training or behavior to put in at least a year at an animal shelter. There is no substitute for the experience and knowledge that can be gained in that environment.

In 1998 I moved to sunny, southern California and worked at an animal hospital with attached boarding kennel. It was a completely different area of animal care, but one that I very much enjoyed, thanks to the incredibly knowledgeable staff and the super clients. I not only worked with our clients and their dogs, but I was able to use my knowledge of canine body language and calming signals to help the vets and techs communicate more effectively with their patients.  

I'm back in Florida now (yeah!!) and looking forward to getting to work!

I was going to talk about my favorite part of this job, but there isn't one. There are a whole bunch of them.

• Getting to the "why" of the problem. If a dog is growling at his owner I don't want to simply teach the dog to stop growling, which can be a dangerous course of action, I need to know what's on his mind.
• Getting a dog to do something that the owner thought was impossible and seeing the pride on both of their faces.
• The smiles that unfold as a group of dogs sit quietly by their owner's side while I remind them of Week One, when all we had was a group of wild animals on leashes.

If I had to pick one favorite thing, it would be the understanding in a dog's eyes when he looks at his owner -- when he would, if he could, shout from the rooftops "I get it! This is what you want from me? If I'd only known, I'd have been happy to do it!"

Deb McKean

Questions? Answers? Comments? Complaints? 

02/18/06