ROCKINGHAM — Dog owners love their furry friends and want the best for them, but sometimes their canine companions need to learn some manners or how to play nice with others.
That’s where Dana Brigman and Allison Sweatt of K9 Coach come in. Together, the two teach obedience training and behavior modification for family dogs out of Brigman’s Ledbetter-area home.
“Part of my mission is about keeping dogs in their home or the dogs that are in the shelter, making sure that they’re coming out and going to a good home, so we do that through the obedience training,” said Brigman. “The dog has behavioral issues whether it’s food resource guarding, toy resource guarding, dog aggression or human aggression. We make the assessments needed to try and find solutions to rehab those dogs.”
Brigman began as a trainer in 2011 but has been doing animal rescue since 2001. It’s what led her down this path, she said, after being a Microsoft employee for 21 years and spending too much time on airplanes and in hotels.
“I really felt like I needed to do something that was bigger to give back to an area of passion to me, and this is the path,” she said. “I think the animal rescue side led me down this because I got some pretty difficult rescue dogs and got really good at helping them find homes and getting them on the right path. So when it was time to leave Microsoft and figure out what I wanted to do next thing in life, people were like, ‘Really you can’t figure this out?’ So I went to trainer school at National K9 in Ohio and came back and opened my own business.”
Brigman, who was born and raised in Rockingham, moved back in April. She is now a member of the IACP, the International Association of Canine Professionals.
Sweatt, who is already director of Richmond County Animal Advocates, jumped at the chance to work with Brigman after seeing a posting on Facebook about the company looking for a trainer.
“I really wasn’t happy doing what I’d been doing — not the rescue, but my job,” Sweatt said.
The two met for lunch and Sweatt started two weeks later in June.
There are currently four dogs on the property now, and Brigman said the comfortable number is six, but at points during the summer there were as many as 11 staying in the makeshift kennel and office in her garage.
“We were tired and decided that was too many for us to give the quality of service that we want to give to each of the dogs for their rehab program,” said Brigman.
It’s not hard finding clients with social media and marketing, but with Brigman having started a previous business in the Mecklenburg County area, she still sees clients coming from there.
“We’re finally starting to get clients out of Raleigh and Wilmington and other regions through marketing and advertising,” she said. “So, kinda the clients find us because of our social media marketing. People will find us and say, ‘If you can do that with that dog, I know you can do it with my dog.’
“We also get some referrals from rescue groups because I offer a live, free Q&A. We’re trying to reach that demographic that can’t afford it but need it. We’re getting it through rescues, social media, marketing, the way anybody would get business these days.”
The minimum a dog would stay is two weeks and that’s for the “happy-go-luckys” that just need manners. The aggressive cases stay for a minimum of four weeks and Brigman said that’s usually the norm.
K9 Coach doesn’t find homes for the dogs that visit, however. They either need to have a home or have a foster home that’s going to follow up with the protocols put in place when their training is complete. Brigman said K9 Coach wouldn’t take a rescue dog that doesn’t have an identified foster to go to, but she and Sweatt do try to coordinate with rescue groups to make sure dogs eventually find that home.
“We’ve done that many times with the American Pit Bull Foundation, for example, and then they’ll send them to some really great foster homes who continue our work and then they’re finding them a home on the back end,” she said. “Our work is really about solving the whole dog. So it’s not just sit, stay, lay down and come, it is really understanding the breed, the needs that they have.
“Like the dachshund are naturally scent hounds, so we want to tap into that. We spend time every day, not just with the obedience training but that state-of-mind work, the off-leash work, the preparation, all of that. Whether it’s play or socialization with us, taking them to Mercantile, taking them to the park, we want to create for them here the lifestyle their family wants to lead with them at home so that they can continue that effort when they leave.”
K9 Coach tries to provide as much free knowledge as it can through its blog, Facebook page and YouTube videos — so much so that someone could perform do-it-yourself training to help solve problem behaviors.
Added Brigman, “There are solutions and things that don’t have to cost a lot of money to get the dog in a good state of mind, the kids interacting in a good way and make sure the dogs get the best life possible without harming the children. We’re trying to make information available.”
Reach reporter Matt Harrelson at 910-817-2674 and follow him on Twitter @mattyharrelson.