HYDERABAD: Dogs are no longer bought just to guard the house against burglars. Nowadays, buying a dog is not only an economic investment, but an emotional one too. As more and more families adopt these four-legged creatures in their lives, the role of a dog trainer has become bigger. We talk to three dog trainers in the city about their profession and the nitty-gritty of training those furballs.
Philip Butt
We have been training dogs for more than 30 years. Our dog training centre is called Commando Kennels and we were consultants for the Dog Park in the city. When we started out, the main purpose of buying a dog was to guard a house. So we used to provide guard dog training primarily. They would prefer aggressive breeds. As time went by, people started living in flats rather than in independent houses, and they started looking for breeds which can live with them. It is no longer about an animal which you can control, but about having a creature you can live with. So now most of them come for companion training, and it is the most popular training course now. The Companion Dog training teaches the dog to obey simple commands like sitting and walking, and to retrieve things. Along with training courses, a sea change has come among the pet parents too. In our training courses, there is a handing over process in which we hand over the trained dogs to the pet parents. In this process, the pet parents too need to learn to take over the controls. Earlier, home staff like drivers and security guards used to come for the handover process, but now it’s the pet parents themselves who come. They are more invested in their pets and do not mind multiple sessions to take over the controls. In our institute, we teach dogs to sniff out explosives too and our trainers are sometimes called to serve in war-torn regions. We have a training course where people are first trained to control chickens, and then dogs.
Sugandhar RS
I have been training dogs for the last 18 years. I loved pets from my childhood. I was that child who gets dogs from the streets and hides them in the house. After my 10th board exams, my father got me a German Shepherd puppy, and that changed my life. In the era where there was no YouTube and Internet was very expensive, this puppy taught me everything. Once while I was sitting in a computer class which I had joined on my father’s insistence, somebody told me that there was a course on dog training. I used to ride a bicycle 20 km to that training institute just to see the dogs getting trained. My family started calling me ‘Dog Man’ and no one was happy with my obsession, but I persisted and joined the course. There was no looking back. Now I run a residential kennel called Ararat Kennels that has 40 dogs. One fond memory I have is of a labrador named King which was taking part in a competition. It had to pick a scent, and it picked the wrong one. After picking, the dog had to walk a distance of 10 metres. Somehow, from the look of disappointment on my face, it understood that it was not the right one. So then it went back and picked the correct one! That taught me that dogs are one of the most perceptive animals ever.
Vijaybabu Unnamatla
I have been in this profession for about nine years. I was never a dog lover and was, in fact, scared of them. I then got a job as an accountant in a dog training centre and used to see the dogs performing various tricks there. After sometime, I realised that they are very intelligent animals and I also saw them acting in movies. That is why I developed an interest to train them. After I came in contact with them, I was overwhelmed by the love I received and took up training professionally. My favourite breeds are German Shepherds and Rottweilers. I remember training a Rottweiler which was huge and people were scared of it. But it bonded well with me and even won the first place in a competition. When asked how much time it takes to train a dog, he says that the duration differs from dog to dog. It takes 1-3 months to train different breeds of dogs, taking their individual behaviour and attitude into account. He insists that it is very necessary to train the dog parents too, because it is possible that the pet forgets all training if the parent does not know how to interact with it.
— Kakoli Mukherjee
kakoli_mukherjee@newindianexpress.com
@KakoliMukherje2