Kidsburgh: Zoom Training Classes Can Help Dog Owners Stuck In The House
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Brownie is Hannah Murphy's new best friend.
"I love, I literally love him," she said of her new puppy. "He is just like the nicest guy ever."
Murphy and her family got Brownie as a puppy during quarantine, and the 14-year-old has been training her dog with Paul Anthony at Unleashed in Gibsonia ever since.
Murphy says, "I didn't really want to train at first, and then I found out that it's just fun to train with a puppy."
Paul Anthony, a former K-9 officer, is a professional dog trainer and competes internationally in mondioring.
He teaches people how to train their dogs to do everything from fun tricks, walk on a leash and sit and stay.
Anthony says because puppies or newly adopted dogs haven't been out of the house much because of the pandemic, it's especially important to teach them socialization.
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"Socialization is huge because you're going to come in contact with another dog or another human. So that's number one, to teach the dog how to relax, to teach it how to stay out of that adrenaline," Anthony said.
So can an old dog learn new tricks?
"We can train just about any age of dog," Anthony said. "But it's like a child. If we teach them our ABCs when they're young, when they're 10, it's a bit harder."
With most kids and adults home more now, there's never been a better time to train a dog.
Murphy has been home from school and says, "It's been very fun. I literally am happy that I started off with a puppy and that we got him at the time that we did. It was perfect timing too."
Anthony does private, group and Zoom dog training classes. He says you can learn from a book or video but personalized training is different.
You can ask your vet for recommendations on dog trainers.
