What you’ll learn in this episode:
- What it means to be a Community Dog Trainer
- One woman’s path to becoming a dog trainer
- “Nacho” the dog with a 3,000 signature FB Petition
- The most important factor when training a dog
- Ways to get dogs engaged in activities they enjoy
Welcome to another episode of Free Range Dogs
Valarie Candelaria is a Community Dog Trainer in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. She started out as a dog owner with a loved but difficult dog, an aggressive 85-lb American Pitbull Terrier that she worried would need to have euthanized. Searching for solutions, she got a puppy and went to training classes with him. She would then come home and apply the same lessons to her 85-lb Pitbull who responded so well that he eventually overcame his behavioral issues and became a well-trained member of her family.
Valarie started training for the Humane Society in LHC where she specialized in working with difficult dogs who demonstrated fear, aggression, and other behavioral issues. She is very successful at helping these dogs become functioning as pets and able to be placed in homes.
Her reputation with difficult dogs led her to Nacho, a dog that had been brought to the Yavapai Humane Society in Prescott, AZ because his aggressive behavior towards humans and dogs was so unmanageable. He was set to be euthanized, but Nacho’s plight engaged the community and a 3,000-person FB petition circulated and put pressure on the Humane Society which reached out to the LHC Humane Society for help. Valarie agreed to take him on and spent 15 months working with him and successfully placing him with a family. His primary issue had been that he spent the first 3 years of his life in backyards with little to no socialization with people or dogs- he just had no idea how to handle them- but he was able to learn.
Valarie’s essential take on dog training, which Web agrees with, is that successful dog training primarily rests with the dog’s owner. Dog owners need to be engaged and motivated to teach their dog/s the skills they need to live with them in their homes. They need to be patient, consistent, and, most importantly, they need to connect with and learn to “read” their dog/s. As a Community Dog Trainer, Valarie is skilled at working with all types and breeds of dogs and their owners. She assesses each dog individually and trains them with tools and strategies that work best for that individual dog. For that success to continue, dog owners need to follow at home.
Lastly, dogs thrive when they have activities they enjoy that keep them busy and engaged. Valarie owns French Bulldogs which she enters in professional competitions. Other activities dogs can get involved with are agility training, flyball, scent work, frisbees, and hunting- depending on the breed.
FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE:
Valarie Candelaria
For Dog’s Sake! Training & Accessories
Ways to contact her:
928-230-8239- Texting is faster
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