Raise a Dog You Can Take Anywhere

When I was a toddler, there was a small white dog that lived next door to my great-grandmother’s house. That little dog terrified me. Any time I got near the fence, he would chase me and bark like I owed him money. Around that same time, my grandmother had been trying hard to wean me off the bottle with no success.

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Then one night, I had a dream. In the dream, me and that same little white dog were talking to each other through the chain-link fence. He looked at me and said, “Hey kid, it’s time to get rid of that bottle.” I handed it to him through the fence, and he ran off with it, never to be seen again. The next morning, I shocked my grandmother by walking straight to the trash can and throwing the bottle away. That was it — done.

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From then on, I thought of dogs as guides in my life, even before I had the words to describe it that way.

I used to wake up early just to watch the Crufts and American Kennel Club dog shows, mesmerized by how many different kinds of dogs there were. I was determined to memorize the differences in anatomy, form, and function for each breed. I made friends with strays in the neighborhood and trained them to “sit” and “down” using pieces of Slim Jims and Rice Krispies Treats. There was one dog everybody called Oreo — a big black-and-white herding mix — who basically became my first neighborhood training student.

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Kids on the bus teased me because I’d spend the whole ride looking out the window, taking note of every house with a dog in the yard. I even had an imaginary dog I “trained” after watching too much Cesar Millan. Eventually, my mom got tired of hearing about dogs that didn’t exist and got me my first real dog for my 16th birthday — a Jack Russell terrier/hound mix I named Joshua Kyle Artis.

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I loved that dog, and he adored everything I did. I impressed the neighbors and people all over town when they saw me training him in public — but the person I loved impressing most was my grandfather. He hated dogs and told me I could only keep Josh if he was well-trained. So I made sure he was.

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When I went off to college, I missed Josh badly and cherished every moment I got with him during school breaks. I haven’t owned another dog since, but I plan to get a shepherd in the spring of 2026.

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During COVID, I had to rely on dog training through apps like Wag and Rover to make ends meet. And every job I had after the pandemic, I somehow ended up organizing community dog adoption events. Eventually, I went to work for a dog training academy. That’s where I learned the ins and outs of grooming and training, how to run group classes, and—most importantly—how to teach people to train their own dogs.

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At some point, I knew I was meant to break away and do things my own way.

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I stacked up as many certifications as I could:
• GoodPup Positive Reinforcement Training Certification
• AKC Temperament Test Evaluator
• AKC Canine Good Citizen & Urban CGC Evaluator
• Canine Decoy Certification (yes — I can safely handle and catch dogs trained to bite on command)

 

Every step of my life with dogs has led me right here.

Now I’m ready to help you build the kind of relationship with your dog that changes everything — the same way dogs have shaped mine.

 

Are you ready to do the work?

 

Then call me.