I have formed my own business, "Loose Leash Dog Training”, as a school for service dogs and therapy dogs, the first of its kind in this area. As a therapy dog team we have six AKC titles in therapy work and close to 1500 hours of service. We are certified in therapy work by the SPCA Serving Erie County Paws For Love Program. Margo, Bentley, and I have put in 100 visits to the VA Medical Center in
Buffalo prior to establishing Loose Leash Dog Training. All of us are very devoted team with a mission to help the sick, comfort the dying, be of service to sick veterans, and now training service dogs for them. Brody, my oldest boxer, and I worked in a school for autistic children for two years and it was one of the greatest experiences I had doing therapy work. I am a member of International Association of Canine Professionals and have my professional status which took seven years of dog training and working with dogs to achieve. I am a AKC evaluator and certified to give classes in all levels of this program. I have trained numerous handlers and dogs in my handling classes that have gone on to receive their certification in therapy work with the SPCA. We compete in agility, CPE and NADAC, UKC and AKC Rally and Obedience. I have done presentations as a trainer on therapy dog work, the effects a dog has on patients and staff, and information on training. These presentations were at the University of Buffalo, Niagara University, and with nursing students across this area. The power of a dogs nose always fascinated me and just recently I have been doing explosives searches with Ben and Margo. Thanks to Don Lent for giving me tips on this type of training which has been a lot of work for all of us. Also in the works, I am waiting for word on training with Homeland Security Buffalo Explosive Detection K9 Unit in order to learn more about explosive searches and would love to have this lead to something more. We are very active with classes and training. Home base for training is at All Dawgs Academy in North Tonawanda. I am very excited about what is going on and have a lot of things planned down the road. Thank you to all the people that have supported me in this move and I am very grateful to you all.
