Since someone brought up Chaz being pretty empty, I'll make a thread! : p
So, since we're all a bit more "dog people" than the average pet owner, what got you started? Was it one dog (yours or not)? Seeing a demo? A trainer? Reading stuff online? How did you get to where you are now?
For me, I was given a puppy when I was 7. She was a BC/Lab mix and super sweet. There's no way I would do what my parents did (got 2 puppies at the same time, one for me and one for my little sister) but we lived on 60 acres and it ended up working out. I named her Princess Diana (haha) and we basically grew up together. She was a wonderful dog and super smart. My mom had no experience with training dogs and they just kind of intuitively worked together and learned tons of stuff.
I volunteered at an animal shelter when I was old enough, training dogs really basic manners (sit, down, wait politely for food, greet a stranger politely, etc.) to make them more adoptable. I loved it for the most part and it made me desperately want a dog of my own. I wasn't in a place to have a dog for most of my college, but when I moved into a nice big apartment my senior year my schedule evened out, life became a little more predictable and I got Hugo : )
So, since we're all a bit more "dog people" than the average pet owner, what got you started? Was it one dog (yours or not)? Seeing a demo? A trainer? Reading stuff online? How did you get to where you are now?
For me, I was given a puppy when I was 7. She was a BC/Lab mix and super sweet. There's no way I would do what my parents did (got 2 puppies at the same time, one for me and one for my little sister) but we lived on 60 acres and it ended up working out. I named her Princess Diana (haha) and we basically grew up together. She was a wonderful dog and super smart. My mom had no experience with training dogs and they just kind of intuitively worked together and learned tons of stuff.
I volunteered at an animal shelter when I was old enough, training dogs really basic manners (sit, down, wait politely for food, greet a stranger politely, etc.) to make them more adoptable. I loved it for the most part and it made me desperately want a dog of my own. I wasn't in a place to have a dog for most of my college, but when I moved into a nice big apartment my senior year my schedule evened out, life became a little more predictable and I got Hugo : )