Meet Dog Jitsu Training

My dog training career started in March 2015 when I adopted my first dog, Nala, a 3-month-old Pitbull puppy, with my then-girlfriend and now Wife, Cindy. I knew nothing about dogs at the time, and it showed. After cycling through several trainers ourselves, we found a trainer that we liked and started seeing the results we desperately needed. I’ve been hooked in the dog training world ever since. It was a slow 5-year transition from leaving my landscaping business of 10 years to making the full-time career jump into professional dog training. In the Spring of 2020, I took a full-time dog training position at a local facility. I learned a lot in my short 6 months there, but decided I needed a formal education to responsibly help dog owners to the level a paying client deserves. In the Spring of 2021, I enrolled in The Michael Ellis School for Dog Trainers in Santa Rosa, California. I spent 6 months in dog training school, fully immersed in everything dog. This program taught me how to raise puppies through adulthood, how to build motivation, how to properly introduce and use pressure in training, behavior modification, advanced obedience, competition obedience, nose work, and more. When I'm not helping other dog owners, I actively train and compete in a sport known as Mondio Ring. Training a competition dog requires a deep dive into advanced concepts that have helped me greatly in the non-competition sport dog world as well. I continue to develop my skills through ongoing education, including seminars around the country, advanced training programs, and regular consultation with a local mentor.