A Dog Trainer

by L.A. Craig

Unleashed is located in a Second Street storefront on the fringe of Petaluma’s burgeoning Theater District. You can find the firm in the Yellow Pages under “Dog Trainers” but the listing is somewhat misleading. “We don’t actually train dogs,” says Mandy Kennedy who, along with business partner and longtime friend Charlie Reinhart, opened the place some 3½ years ago with encouraging results. Both women rose through the Marin Human Society ranks to become consummate professionals. “We train the owners, and the owners train the dogs.”

About the first thing you notice stepping through the door is that there’s enough floor space for a small dance studio. Then it becomes clear the space is meant for people and dogs. That fact is reinforced when an inquisitive and vocal little Welsh corgi named Biscuit jumps in your lap, turns around twice, then jumps down to push a treat ball around until all the treats have fallen out and then some.

“Biscuit was surrendered to the Marin Human Society by his owner and has become a fixture at Unleashed, at least for the time being,” says Reinhart, whose 25 years of experience includes fostering that little dog for the second time. “He was biting people and snarling and he was afraid of everybody. Now he’s like a different dog and has all the little dog privileges, like being able to lay on the back of the couch and climb in my lap while I’m driving. The main thing was teaching him that people are an access to good things.”

Lots to do when it comes to doggy behavior

Kennedy punctuates the point. “Training not only makes things manageable for the owners, it also greatly improves the quality of life for the dog,” she says. “Well-behaved dogs get to go everywhere. Dogs who aren’t well-behaved have to stay in the yard.”

Since training varies from individual to group sessions and occurs either there, or at somebody’s home, or on downtown streets, every day is different for Reinhart and Kennedy. There’s always plenty of administrative work to do, voicemail messages to answer, and appointments to check. Then there’s the let-me-see-your-papers process to check documentation on mandatory puppy vaccinations. And there are the sessions themselves which require two other trainers, Athena Labberton and Jacquelyn England, and an assistant, Judy Gamet.

The courses include the seminal Puppy Play School and Unleashed Puppy, and Smart Starts for dogs at least four months old. Those are prerequisites for Look Who’s Walking, Roll Over Rover, Dogs Can Dance, Top Dogs, and Downtown Dogs. In the latter, owners and their dogs navigate around downtown for practice. Neighborhood denizens have come to recognize the exercise and cheerfully offer to be distractions for the dogs.

“We also focus on a wide range of individual canine behaviors from simple housebreaking and loose-leash training to dog aggression and separation anxiety,” Kennedy says. “Sometimes training is breed specific,” which means the behavior in question is inherent so is managed rather than fixed. “Some people come for one lesson, others come for years to build stronger relationships with their dogs and develop the mutual understanding that keeps both owner and dog happy,” she says. “Training is a big mental challenge for the dogs so they sometimes leave here exhausted. It can be very frustrating trying to communicate with another species. That’s a big part of what we do.”

Reinhart loves to lead people out of worst-case scenarios and into sure solutions. “Dogs are members of people’s families,” she says. “But [people] come in thinking they’ll have to get rid of the dog because he keeps jumping on grandma and knocking her over. Then there are people who say they are thinking of getting a dog and have a purebred in mind. There are advantages to purebred dogs, but we are huge proponents of rescued dogs. And it’s never too late to start working with a dog.”

Not all roses, all those dog noses

There are only a few things on the downside at Unleashed. “Telling somebody their dog probably isn’t a good match for them is really hard,” Kennedy says. “It’s the hardest thing we have to do. But that’s why people come to us, for our professionalism and objectivity. We have to see the owner and dog together so we can read the body language and note the interaction.

“Of course we always encourage second opinions,” she says. “Charlie and I don’t always have the same opinion about things. If that’s the case we refer the person to somebody else. The reward comes when you get a voicemail from somebody telling you what a fabulous dog theirs is becoming. Then we sometimes have to deal with non-dog people like bookkeepers and accountants who have no clue about what we’re doing here.”

In the evening, several owners come in for a session called Dancing With Your Dog. Working in the back lot of an adjacent feed store, the group is working out a Christmas dance routine to the tune of the classic “Jingle Bell Rock.” Various moves are called out square dance style by England, a canine certified freestyle instructor, and the owners use hand signals to guide their dogs through spin-and- reverse and around-and-through movements. The effect is artistic and gives the owner-dog relationship a perfect showcase.

“We start with visual things,” Reinhart says. “Dogs are visual by nature. And hand signals don’t intrude on the music. I recently had someone say that I was very lucky to work with dogs and not have to deal with humans at all. I had to laugh.

“Getting a dog to sit or stay sounds like a small thing,” she says. “But it’s huge when you consider that those small things improve people’s families. Dogs love to work. Those who have work to do are better off . They have much more drive and enthusiasm.”