Starmark Student

Well it has been a VERY long time since my last post and has taken what seemed like an eternity to make it to Starmark but here I am! Two months into the program and still going strong! I am so excited to share the details and updates! Free time is very limited here right now but I am making a promise to myself to get back in the swing of things! I will be updating info and details about my experience, my two new loves Aspen and Luna and answering any questions that come my way! Stay tuned folks! I’m gonna be a dog trainer!

Looking For My Own Training Classes

“Dog Training, it can’t be that hard right?!” These were the first words I thought when I decided I wanted to make it a career. WRONG. WRONG. WRONG. There is a TON of information on Training dogs. A lot. Maybe more than rearing a child. Okay, MAYBE that’s a stretch, but when you start getting into breed types, temperaments, training styles, theories, puppy imprinting, kennel management, behavior modifications, group training, obedience, agility and a whole slew of other information, it’s enough to make your head start spinning. So, I’m going to dog training school. It’s not necessary to go to school if you want to be a trainer, just a personal choice. I want to know EVERYTHING! I want to be the very best trainer I could possibly be!

Google; Professional Dog Training Schools.
Ohhhhhhhhh. Uuummmmm….
Okay, there are more D.T. Schools out there than I thought. Here is a list of some I have looked into and my OWN personal opinion of them.

• ABC – Animal Behavioral College
Let me say, this was the first one I came across and YIKES. I signed up for information and received my FIRST phone call within an hour and my FIRST email within seconds. These people seemed desperate to get me to attend their school. I REALLY started digging into their program and felt a little skeptical about online courses and their general methods. So, I did my favorite thing in the whole world! I googled reviews on their business. (I’m a review JUNKIE) Turns out people who attended their school were not pleased at all. No hands on training, the methods of training were unethical and the certificate was pretty much unrecognized and held no value and it’s about $3500! Sounds like a waste of my hard-earned money! Lots of people felt this way, time to ditch this idea and fast. However, ABC had different plans. I think I have totaled about 15 e-mails and 15 calls since signing up. Desperate is not attractive ABC! Move on, it’s over.

• TRS – Tom Rose School
This was the school my mom found online. It’s based outside of St. Louis, Mo., roughly 6 hours from my house and the second school I looked into attending. Once I had watched their video, read their course overview and received their e-mail pamphlet I was pretty much hooked. This was the WINNER! Hands on training, you have to get two dogs while your there to train, dorm rooms, option to go to masters course (after graduation). It all seemed perfect! A bit expensive, $13,475. Yikes! I had scheduled a campus visit after my return home from Montana and re-requested a new information DVD from them since the one they sent me was blank. The lady scheduled my appt., told me they made a NEW training DVD and they would send me a copy. She was really quite helpful and polite! I had a great feeling about this place! After a couple of weeks still no DVD. Oh well! I have this tour to look forward to! Not. I called to confirm my appt. a few days before arrival and was redirected to voice mail, left message. No call back. Called again, left another message. They finally called me back the day of my scheduled appointment, and wanted to schedule an appointment with me. They didn’t even remember me setting one up. Hummmm… Now that’s playing hard to get! Yeesh! I tried to find any reviews of this school and pulled up zilch. Almost no information at all. Hummm. Now, I was so excited about this place I guess I was a bit “blind” when I looked at their videos and information. Since I couldn’t find any information I started going over their site with a fine tooth comb. When I finally opened my mind and eyes I was not at all excited about what I saw. Shock Collars being used with prong collars at the same time on most dogs and shock collars on puppies and pretty much every dog for that matter. Oh boy, I am open to learning different training methods but this seems harsh. I just cannot bring myself to ever consider using these methods in such extremes. Also their Facebook page (The Dog House/training classes for dogs) had a TON of people complaining about pictures of puppies with the shock collars and dogs wearing both prong and shock. A LOT of people. I decided with this bad publicity and because of my own personal feeling towards this, it’s no shocker, I’m gonna have to choke out. 😦

• Karen Pryor Academy
I was pretty interested in KPA! Looked like a great program but I’m not to big on the “online” schools. We all have our own learning styles and mine is visual\tactile, I need a classroom and an instructor and motivation. I’m not the best at teaching myself so to speak. They also do four, two-day work shops in St. Louis. That kind of eased my fears of the online portion of it all. I wasn’t just going to rule this one out though. I had been following one of their graduates/teaching staffs blog for a while and loved her approach on training. She just made sense! I shot her an email and received a very nice reply giving me the skinny on things to look into and ideas on where to start. She had such great things to say about KPA that I just couldn’t dismiss it yet. The cost of the program is $5,300. The price is much more manageable. All in all it looked really great but I just couldn’t get excited about it. Only because I’m nervous it’s not going to match my own personal learning style. Plus I’m not to big on having to drive to St. Louis four different times in the span of 5 months. I haven’t found one bad review of the place or see any treatment I don’t like. It’s all positive reinforcement training (clicker training). That is a big plus for me! I love the whole concept of this program! Just wish it was classroom style. They do offer you a preview of the online courses (free) so you can test drive before you buy. The set up is great and user-friendly. It’s really better than I thought it would be. Maybe I will need to get my clicker ready, could this be the one?

• Starmark Academy
I was digging deeper into researching schools when I randomly came across this site about a week ago. I had an idea of what kind of school I was looking for and when this fell in my lap I gotta say, I was pretty excited. Starmark is located in Austin, Tx. Roughly 8 hours from my house. I’m not thrilled with the location, I’m a sissy when it comes to heat. But this place is EXACTLY what I was looking for. The campus has dorms, huge indoor training facility, outdoor training grounds, 2mi wooded hiking trail with obstacles, doggy swimming pool, lakes, looooots of land to train on and 200 kennel boarding facility. Why 200 kennels? Well, not only do the board dogs (as a business) but they foster homeless dogs that students get assigned to train to make them more likely to get a home! Now remember me saying how I wanted to work with homeless/neglected animals?! BAM!!! Perfect fit! Their training styles are humane and diverse. You also work with the kennel to get training on how to own and operate one if you have the desire to do so. Their class schedule is intense and jam-packed but that’s exactly what I was looking for! They also host a lot of shows, expos and workshops on the weekends that students are encouraged to attend. You are 100% immersed into all things dogs and it looks awesome! There are a lot of requirements for enrolling, FBI Background Check (12 week waiting period) you have to acquire yourself. I’m going to the local police department this week to get a copy of my fingerprints to send off. Copies of your high school transcripts, two letters of recommendation, an essay you need to write and an on phone interview before you can be accepted. It’s nice to know they don’t just take just anyone there. I will be surrounded by people who truly do have the same passion as me! Neat! They are a little pricey $9,795 dollars plus $1,560-$1,860 for housing and $300-$500 for supplies. Once you factor in living expenses I’m guessing it’s gonna run me about $15,000. :0 woah! I’m not phased, you get what you pay for and I’m sure this is going to be great! Time to start pinching penny’s and start saving every penny I make. They also offer student loans through SallyMae but I don’t want to start my path towards my career in debt, so it’s gonna be lots of ramen noodles for this girl! Classes start July 20, 2015. That’s plenty of time to save and prepare. Now, I need to get started on my application and paperwork. Fingers and paws crossed I get accepted. I’ll keep you posted on all the 411 along the way.

Nose to Tail All

I’m starting this blog about the journey of becoming something of a dog trainer. From finding information, test runs, trials, errors, schools, research and digging into the world of all things dogs.

I should start from the beginning and tell you a bit about me, not too much to bore you to tears. Just to give you an idea of who I am. My names Katie. Animals have been my life, love em. Hard. I have always had this NAGGING little voice in the back of my head whispering ideas and desires to work with animals. When I was young I thought maybe a vet? Let me start there. Hell NO. The amount of schooling, science classes, money, and time it takes to acquire that profession is just not attractive. Not to mention the things they see would send shivers down your spine (I worked in a vet clinic so I know what to expect.) I think what turned me off so much to the profession is one of my jobs at a veterinary office was to assist with comforting animals for euthanasia. After these beloved pets were put to sleep, it was my job to wrap them up and place them in a freezer, if the owners wanted them cremated. Nope. Not for me. No way, no no no no. Not to mention seeing the inside of any animal takes a strong stomach. Like steel. Mine is made of something along the lines of plastic. Strong, but has it’s limits. Thankfully there are wonderful people who have a desire to take on that job and take care of our pets! But this girls gonna pass and go running for the hills, like a dog with her tail tucked between it’s legs!

I buried my dreams in the back of my head after that experience and pursued another passion with a “different” kind of animal. I started traveling and working “seasonal” jobs. Working for Cruise Lines, Ski Resorts and National Parks. I have worked in Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington and Florida. I moved literary every four to five months for 10 years. Packing up everything I own in a car and moving to live in places where people vacation. It may sound great and wonderful! All puppies and rainbows. It’s not. Like any job it had it’s highs and lows. Now, when I say I worked with a different kind of animal, I am referring to humans. Tourists to be exact, at least in my trade. My responsibilities included, feeding, watering, pampering and assisting humans. I’m not going into details but lets just say that anywhere from 5 to 14 hours a day, 5 to 6 days a week (some more, some less) and ten years of constant human/stranger interaction is enough to make any sane person lose their marbles.

Now working in “seasonal” meant giving up dogs, horses, cats, and any other pets you could ever want. When you spend your life immersed in this lifestyle it takes major adjusting to not have a faithful companion. You get any animal fix you can, anywhere available. Examples include but are not limited to: Constant trips to a variety of pet stores or in my case any and all stores in town, people walking their dogs and me BEGGING to pet adorable four legged pals, going to friends houses you know has dogs, cats, horses, ferrets, ginny pigs any little furry creature you can just love up on and smother, zoos, watching any and all adorable youtube pet videos, caturday, (my chiver friends know what I’m talking about) and occasionally taking in “strays” for a few hours that wander into your yard. 😉 During most of these desperate interactions with any and all animals, I could always feel a little itch in the back of that dark buried corner of my mind demanding some attention. Especially when it came to legit homeless dogs.

While working in Montana I lived relatively close to an Indian Reservation. The conditions on this particular “Rez” were, for lack of better terms unfortunate. The poverty levels were well above average and many people were destitute. “Rez Dogs” were everywhere. A Rez dog (or reservation dog) is a term for outdoor, stray, and feral dogs living on Indian reservations. These dogs are suffering from malnutrition, abuse and neglect. It’s just a sad picture folks. My heart ached. Not for the people, but for the dogs. Anytime I saw a dog I would bee line to the nearest gas station, grocery store or fast food chain to get them fed. It broke my heart. And evermore present, the itch would return with every dog I fed, louder and louder.

I was having a chat with my Mom on the phone one day going on and on about how I was so ready to get out of the restaurant industry, ready to change my career while there was still time. My heart was just no longer in my work. I was flat out burnt out. My mom knows me better than anyone and has heard me talk about working with animals in some capacity for years. With her guidance I found a school that teaches the great craft of Dog Training! This is perfect for me! I looooove dogs! They never talk back, want nothing more than to please you and are just all around awesome! Who wouldn’t want to go into the business?!