Life is a balance of risk and opportunity. Judy is extremely grateful for the opportunities presented to her, and for the courage and encouragement to take risks.
For her entire life, Judy has adored and trained dogs for fun. In 1980 Judy took a risk and purchased her first Doberman, Thatcher, who provided opportunity and necessity to learn the art and skill of Dog Training. Along the way, Judy took advantage of every opportunity to meet and befriend luminaries in the dog world and following their advice, in 1984 she founded the training school Dealing With Dogs. The main purpose of the original school was to train Thatcher’s eight puppies, long before they would be accepted into traditional dog school.
Business grew and expanded, and Judy was very lucky to attract many creative trainers who shared Judy’s vision of kinder, gentler training methods for pet dogs, which the public demanded.
After a successful career, awards, international TV series, and many thousands of puppies later, Judy still believes in the essential power of early puppy training. To quote Dr. Ian Dunbar from Dog Star Daily, “early handling, socialization and training acts as a behavioural prophylactic and protects adolescent and adult dogs from ending up in shelters”.
No longer responsible for daily demands of business ownership, Judy is happily still associated with Dealing With Dogs and concentrates her efforts where they will do most good. She hosts monthly, free, Puppy Parties for baby pups between 8 – 12 weeks old. Judy leads group classes, appropriately named Puppy Love, to educate and excite new puppy owners, and she is Director of our apprentice program, mentoring and training many new trainers to her standards.
Almost 30 years later, the biggest asset of the company is the trainers, with the same vision that founded DWD: train the dogs to stay in their homes. Train with rules, rewards and love.
Judy is available for housecalls in Oakville. Email Judy at: judyemmert@sympatico.ca
Find her on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/dwdpuppylove