The importance of proper training.

Avoid those mistakes that can hurt the chances of a lost pet finding safety.

The importance of proper training.

When I got Kelsy as a puppy, I always wanted to do some sort of search work with her where we worked as partners.  When she was 3 years old, in 2008, we went to the off-leash park to play, and I saw a notice on the kiosk at the entrance.  It offered training for people and their dogs to learn to find lost pets.  Instantly, I knew that was just the thing for us.  Starting in June of 2008, I started volunteering for Missing Pet Partnership, and I took the training course for the human’s part of the job.  After my 8 weeks of training, I started on the 18 months of training for Kelsy to learn to become a search dog that finds lost dogs.  Kelsy and I worked as volunteers for MPP for 4 years before I started our company, Three Retrievers Lost Pet Rescue.  Since June of 2008, I have worked at least 80 hours a week helping lost pets.  Most of those hours were volunteer hours, even after starting my own business where I charge a fee for the search dogs and for consultations.

As I help people with lost pets, and as I help stray dogs that are reported to the Lost Dogs of King County group, the number one issue I face is educating people on how NOT to help a lost pet.  If you aren’t experienced, you wouldn’t know that most of the instinctive things people would do for a lost pet are actually detrimental.  Because I had the training, and because I now have 14 years of experience, I know all the ways you can ruin your chances of helping a lost pet, and I know the best steps to take to give the lost cat or dog the best chances of coming home safe.  I have always tried to share this information with people, for free, through Missing Pet Partnership, through the free information on my Three Retrievers web page, through the Lost Dogs of King County web page, and through my newsletter.  Pet owners can get more detailed help with a phone consultation, or the services of the search dogs in the right circumstances.  Beyond those sources of information, I am also offering an online course for people to learn to do what I do.  I also train dogs to find lost cats and dogs.  I recommend the online course to people who may want to start a business like mine.  There is a huge demand for these services.  I also recommend this training for people who want to help lost pets on a volunteer basis.  If you’re like me, and you can’t sit by and not help when you know of a lost pet in need, then you may end up helping lost pets 80 hours a week like I do.

If you are going to invest a significant portion of your time helping lost pets, as a volunteer or if you are thinking of training your own search dog or starting a business, I highly recommend you take advantage of my experience and resources.  Many people become very passionate about helping lost pets and find themselves spending all their free time helping stray dogs and advising people who have lost their pets.  Be sure you are giving the best advice, and giving the stray dog the best chance of being reunited with his or her family.  You can always access the free information at our web page and in our newsletter.  If you take the 8-week course, the $350 course fee will be an excellent investment that helps you become as effective as possible in helping lost pets.  If you don’t want to take the course at this time, you can still access the entire textbook that goes with the course by subscribing to the paid newsletter at $7 per month.  My goal is to help as many lost pets as I possibly can, and I hope you will take advantage of me as a resource so you can join in the fight to protect cats and dogs in danger.  You can also learn more about the course by joining this group.

The information and experience I gained during my training with Kelsy, and during the 8 years we worked as partners, gave me the knowledge and tools I needed to save the life of Valentino, my current search dog.  He would not have survived if someone like me wasn’t available to help him.  Now he is helping save lives of lost dogs.  Tino is a magnificent dog, a great search partner, and my best friend.  Working with him is challenging, exciting, and rewarding.  I couldn’t do any of that, I wouldn’t even have my best friend, if I didn’t take the full training 14 years ago.  I’m very glad I took the course, and my only regret is that the training wasn’t available earlier in my life.  If I had even known this work was an option, I would have jumped into it much sooner.  If you have a passion for lost pets, I hope you will let me help you get started on the right foot.