Saving Lives Through Dog Training

Written By: Victoria Regan

Ever since I was a young girl, I wanted to “save lives”. At the age of 10, I wrote out a bucket list of 100 things and Number 3 on that list was Save Lives.

Throughout my childhood, and teenage years, I wanted to become an ER nurse, travel across seas to work alongside Doctors and Nurses in Africa and save lives.
But I never thought my path would lead to Dog Training, and I never thought Dog Training would also save lives!

Over the last 6 years, and hundreds of hours training dogs, I’ve experienced amazing things and worked with so many great dogs, but still, something was always missing. I was longing for something more, something deep, emotional, and life-changing.

It took me almost 7 years of training dogs to finally realize, what was missing… The people! The people were missing, I was so focused on the dogs, why they behaved the way they do, their thought processes, reactions, personalities, and each dog having their own unique way of learning. Between all of this, I forgot that the dog has a family and that dog training is so much more than just focusing on the dog. It’s about focusing on and teaching the dogs family… the whole family, dog, and human.

This is when my career as a trainer became more meaningful, this is when I was actually able to start changing and saving lives! The last year has been the most amazing and enjoyable time in my career as a trainer because I was able to save and change lives. Over the last year, I’ve been able to save the lives of 2 dogs that were highly aggressive and most likely would have bitten, or attacked someone, resulting in euthanasia. I was also able to help a family change their mind about re-homing their dog, and now they say “this is the best dog they’ve ever had”… But the greatest achievement is the ability to change lives, saving families from stress, struggling daily with their dog’s behavior, constantly feeling like their fighting with their dog over everything, and having restrictions on their dog which in turn restricts the whole family from living the life they want to live.

I have been able to connect with my clients at a deeper level, really digging to the root of the problems with their dog. Watching my clients connect, bond and communicate with their dogs more than they ever have before, brings me so much joy.

I’ve learned to focus more on the root of everything, because training goes way deeper than just obedience commands, focusing on the root of the human-dog relationship, to teach dog owners how to communicate at a soul level, how to discover and decode why their dog is behaving a certain way. But most importantly how to live in harmony and enjoy the life that the family and dog are living together.

I may not be saving lives in Africa, but to me, the work that I am doing every day with dogs and their families does change their life, and may even be saving some too!