OK, I've digested my cookies...or at least I'm not green anymore, so I'll tell you about how I started training and what I'm doing now. I'll try to keep it brief.
As a child, the only dog I had was a little dachshund named Fritz. I was told he ran away when I was 6, I found out in my 40's that he actually died from eating a tin foil pie plate that my dad gave him his dinner on...no one had the heart..or the guts to tell me.
When I was about 9, my best friends dad ran a school for (dogs) protection training, it later became a Schutzhund school...
Anyway, I spent every day there, looking back I'm sure they wondered if I had parents.
I have to say that if there was one thing that I could erase from my memory it would be how my friends dad (a retired police officer), treated these wonderful dogs. All of the dogs were GSD's except 2 and some were so poorly treated that you couldn't get anywhere near them. I hated my friends dad but I couldn't stay away from the dogs.
There were a few dogs that my friend and I would "work with", that were owned by her family and that's where the bug bit...hard.
When I was a teen, I helped a local trainer (comp. obedience and other dog sports), and she was my first mentor. It was at a time when Barbra Woodhouse was "the queen" and every dog wore a choke chain, it was the way things were and I was happily involved in every aspect of her training business. She was strict but kind, and I'm forever indebted to her.
I competed in obedience and agility (with Rumble, our family's giant schnauzer) and other dogs and helped her (my mentors) clients prepare for same for the next 7 or so years.
I ended up through a series of circumstances back in Schutzhund for the next few years but not much had changed with respect to the methods of training and I just didn't have the stomach for it. I quit, with more emotional baggage than I care to elaborate on.
I ended up going back to school and became a chemical engineer, worked for Shell Canada for 11 years and as a private consultant, all the while spending all my evenings and weekends doing training for animal services and our humane society and working at a training facility teaching all levels of classes. I also took kinesiology and bio mechanics and got my fitness certifications (owned The Body Counsel, personal training and fitness consulting during that time....didn't love it..), which served me well later on with Structure and Action testing for dogs. I never dreamed that my engineering and kinesiology would transfer to my dog life, but that's exactly what Structure testing is based on.
I opened my first training business in 1991. I went back to school for animal behavior studies. It was slim pickens at the time and I ended up taking other realated biology stuff as well (primatology, ehology...).
I decided then to focus more on behavior than general training or sport/competition training and offered private in home training along with my multi level classes from then on.
I've attended courses/seminars in both Canada and the States. I think I've followed some of the more well known trainers through their changes in philosophies and have thoroughly enjoyed the ride. I added a few certifications along the way and have learned so much, but I'm still learning every day.
Today, I handle all the behavior training and foster home education (volunteer) for several dog rescue groups and volunteer as well for our wildlife rescue. I do quite a bit of bite investigation and aggression work as well as the normal behavior sessions on an in home private basis and I still teach classes for all levels.
I know I've forgotten some things but I'm zonked and have been typing way too much today.