By Meaghan O’Neal
Special to The Laker/Lutz News
Don Grady, owner of Don’s Dogs, is a dog trainer that has a unique and effective perspective on dog training.
Don’s wife, Valerie, and family always told him that he should become a dog trainer because of his love for dogs and natural knack at training them. According to Don, he, “thought they were crazy” because he didn’t have any formal training. Don is a classically trained chef and worked in the culinary industry until the recession hit. Knowing that he had a gift for training, his wife submitted an application for him at a local pet store and it was during this job that the idea for Don’s Dogs was born, and he decided that he would like to do training on his own.
As a trainer, Don primarily focuses on obedience training. He also trains dogs with behavioral issues, such as shyness, aggression and fear anxiety. “I’ll teach any dog,” says Don, “it doesn’t matter how old the dog is.” He’s been very successful with older dogs, including his 14- year-old Border Collie mix named Zoey. Don claims that every day he “proves that the old adage ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’ is simply not true.”
In addition to teaching obedience, Don has begun training his other dog Abby, a mixed breed that he rescued, in Agility, an obstacle course for dogs. As the dogs run through the course, the trainer runs with them and gives them cues. Don describes it as a “dance between dog and owner” and says that it’s a great exercise for high-energy dogs that are well trained in obedience. Since he’s started training Abby in agility, Don has noticed her become calmer, which he attributes to her being able to have another outlet for her intelligence and energy.
When a customer begins training with Don, he goes to their home first since that’s where the dog and owner are most comfortable. Once he feels that the dog is adequately trained at home, he will take customers and their dogs on “field trips” starting with places with few distractions and moving to places with greater distractions. The final training sessions are in areas such as The Shops at Wiregrass where there is a high level of activity. Don says, “My thought is that if the dog can focus on you at Wiregrass on a Sunday afternoon, they should be able to do okay when you’re on a walk or at your house.” Seeing a dog’s progression in training is one of his favorite parts of the business.
More important to Don, however, is when he starts to see the training make sense to the owners. In the past few years of training dogs, Don has found that training owners is the hardest part of the job. His absolute favorite part of training is when owners have their “aha” moment. According to Don, “When they finally understand that they need to speak to the dog in a language the dog understands, training becomes easy.”
Don considers the beginning of his business an accident since he is just finding his calling. However, his greatest fulfillment in work so far has been found in his training dogs and owners to coexist and experience life together.
To set up a training appointment or find out more about Don’s Dogs, contact Don at (813) 784-2698.