The Make Your Dog Epic Training Method
How Our Training System Was Created
I have come up with my own dog training system after years of training and learning from the best dog trainers in the industry. One of my strengths as a person is being coachable. When I go to learn from a trainer I brain dump all of the preconceptions I have about dog training and try to be a sponge soaking up all of the knowledge they have to offer. I will constantly be on a journey to learn all there is about dog training. I have traveled the United States learning from some of the best trainers there are with one goal in mind: soak up knowledge so I can create a dog training system that not only gets the best results but is also the easiest for the dog and client to understand.
With our mission in mind “Obedience but never at the expense of personality.”
I went on my journey. Most people don’t know but there is no governing body over dog training so the range of training varies so much from:
- Positive reinforcement training
- Clicker Training
- Model Training
- Mirror Training
- Compulsion training
- Alpha Dog Theory
- Operant Conditioning
- Discriminated Operant
- Active Avoidance
- Discriminated Omission
- Passive Avoidance
- Classical conditioning
- Fear conditioning
- Taste Aversion
There are so many different ways of training not only that but you have the different tools that coincide with the methods. Such as:
- Flat collar
- Choke chains
- Martingale collar
- Prong collar
- Gental Leader
- Pinch Collar
- Haltis
- Harnesses
- Heeling sticks
- Treats
- All the different kind of treats
- Clickers
- Target sticks
- Shock collars
- E-collars
- Whistles
- All the different leashes
The list goes on and on. When first learning it can be very confusing. I thought to myself while training that there has to be a better way. I found a trainer named Tim Smith and his 7F method of dog training is a foundational aspect of our training. I learned and continue to learn so much from Tim Smith. When I went out and learned from him, the information I gained GREATLY outweighed the cost of learning from him. His underlying foundation in life and dog training is “Serving.” When you are going through life, working with dogs, Working with clients, in all you do you should be serving and through that give glory to God and be an Advocate for Christ. Here are a couple of pictures from my time training with him. He also taught me how to teach my dog Achilles “Retrieve”. If you ever see me with one of my dogs on a baseball field I owe it to Tim Smith for teaching me how to teach it.
He also thought it would be fun for me to take a bite from one of the dogs they were working with.
I told them I wasn’t scared but my face obviously tell you I lied HAH!
Here is a fun video where we went and were talking to people on the strip in Vegas about
the different types of dog training and we showed some tricks off with my dog Achilles!
I have gained experience from having worked
with thousands of dogs as a dog trainer
from the teachings I have learned from Hollywood Dog trainers like Joel Silverman and Bryan Renfro as well as trainers who changed my whole perspective on dog training like Tim Smith with 7F Dog Training and others.
Go to our website www.MakeYourDogEpic.com to see more information about our training method and philosophy. I understand there are many ways to train a dog, however what we have done at Make Your Dog Epic is learn many different ways and methods of dog training and have compressed it into our own transferable, teachable, repeatable and scalable methodology that we feel is the easiest way for both humans and dogs to understand. My passion is helping both you and your dog in the most repeatable and duplicatable way possible.
My goal is to provide you with the best dog training experience possible that is the easiest to transfer to anyone in the family. We refer to our method as Focused Based Positive Reinforcement Training and Methodology. When you sign up for our 50 Cent lesson we will show you how we train your dog transparently and right in front of you so that you can see our dog training best-practices and systems first-hand. However, this book is meant to lay a foundation for Dog Training no matter what method you use. Our ultimate goal at Make Your Dog Epic is to give dogs a better life through world-class and transferable dog training. In our society dogs that listen get more freedom to go out in public or even just interact with the family and friends of dog owners. Dog owners that have a well behaved and well trained dog want to introduce their dogs to people! However, regardless of what your dog training goals are, we will get you there. We’ve structured this book so you can read it out of sequence if you wish. Feel free to jump around while reading the book. However, reading it in order will offer you significant benefits. In order to emphasize certain key themes and ideas we have repeated certain concepts in the book. We hope you enjoy this book and journey on your way to having an EPIC dog!
Our Mission: Obedience but NEVER at the expense of the dog’s personality. If you have to crush your dog’s spirit to get it to listen, what’s the point?
I also went to learn from Joel Silverman and Bryan Renfro at a dog training conference called “Dog Training For Film & TV Course” I learned a lot during my time training with them! It was much more than just dog training! I talked to them about the conference in the interviews below! Listen to find out more!
This is a photo of me with Celebrity Dog Trainers Joel Silverman and Bryan Renfro:
Animal Planet’s GOOD DOG U
Rin-Tin-Tin TV
Animal Planet’s GOOD DOG U
Dreyfuss from the TV series Empty Nest
Fred the Cockatoo from the Baretta TV
Animal Actors Stage at Universal Studio
Who Is Joel Silverman?
The legendary dog trainer Joel Silverman was born and raised in Southern California. And at the very young age of just 13 years old, he trained his family dog, which was the first animal he ever trained. Shadow. During this period of celebrity dog trainer Joel Silverman’s life, both he and his family decided to spend their summer vacations in beautiful San Diego, California, which is in southern California. During their vacation time spent together in San Diego, California the family would often visit SeaWorld. After spending multiple summers watching professional trainers riding orcas, Joel Silverman became very interested in whales and the whale trainers.
At just 16 years old, Joel Silverman got hired to be a trash collector at SeaWorld. However,after investing years of his time into assisting the trainers, Joel Silverman got hired as an actual trainer to work at the world-famous SeaWorld. Joel began training both Pacific and Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphins and California sea lions. However, eventually and after years and years of diligence and training, Joel Silverman became a trainer of orcas at SeaWorld!!!
In 1983, Joel Silverman began to change his focus to training the celebrity animals that people see when they watch movies, TV, film and commercials. In fact during the years of 1988 to 1992, Joel Silverman became the trainer for Dreyfuss from the TV series Empty nest. Then in 1989, Joel Silverman went on to host and create his first dog training video called Joel Silverman’s Hollywood Dog Training Program. This dog training video went on to sell more than 300,000 videos!!! Then 10 years later, in 1999, Joel hosted his first TV series called “GOOD DOG U” which aired on animal planet for a decade from 1999-2009.
Learn More About Joel Silverman Today At:
https://joelsilverman.net/
Buy Joel Silverman’s Books Today Below:
Rituals
Understanding how, why, and when to either motivate or eliminate your dogs natural behaviors
Hardcover – July 15th, 2020
What Color Is Your Dog?
Train Your Dog Based on His Personality “Color” (Kennel Club Books)
Hardcover – June 16, 2009
More What Color is Your Dog?
Understanding how, why, and when to either motivate or eliminate your dogs natural behaviors
Paperback – September 30, 2015
Bryan Renfro
Bryan Renfro became known as one of the top dog trainers in all of Hollywood in the 1980s and 1990s. Bryan Renfro became well known and respected within the animal training industry for performing at the Animal Actors Stage at Universal Studios in the 1970s and 1980s where he personally trained Fred the Cockatoo from the Baretta TV series.
Bryan Renfro went on to train Bandit from Little House on the Prairie TV series and he even trained Boomer from the Here’s Boomer TV series. Bryan actually performed with the animals he was training in the show. Bryan then went on to work on both sides of the camera when he went to work on the Rin-Tin-Tin TV series as a dog trainer. Bryan worked as a stuntman from 1988-1993 on the Rin-Tin-Tin TV series which was filmed up north in Toronto, California.
Learn More About Bryan Renfro Today At:
https://joelsilverman.net/bryan-renfro/
Buy Bryan Renfro’s Book Today Below:
Hard Work & Dumb Luck:
How a Road through Gangs, Drugs, and a Jungle Ended Up in Hollywood
March 9th, 2021