The Dog Wizard Medina can help your pup really shine
By Patricia Nugent
Medina Mayor Dennis Hanwell and a host of city and county dignitaries lent a snip to the recent ribbon-cutting reception at The Dog Wizard Medina training facility.
“We were pleasantly surprised to receive so much attention, as well as official proclamations from City Hall and the dignitaries,” says Steve Martin, who, along with his wife, Aurelia, owns the popular dog training service. “It was meaningful to us that they were pleased that we set down our roots in Medina, and also that we rehabbed and repurposed a property that was in pretty bad shape.”
For several years, the mobile dog training service had been looking for a headquarters to house classes and boarding, but they were waiting for the perfect fit.
A Path Toward Coexistence and Harmony
Aurelia explains their mission is to strengthen the bond of owner and furry best friend, so they both enjoy a harmonious life.
Through private lessons, group lessons, day training, and board and train sessions, the team takes a positive, customized, pet-centered approach to training. It has been successful for countless dogs, whether teaching puppies obedience, reducing separation anxiety, controlling behavior issues, aggression rehab and more.
“We always try to find out the root cause for a dog’s particular behavior,” she says. “For instance, 95% of aggression is actually based on fear. The dog doesn’t know what’s expected of them, how to behave in a situation, so they act out.”
Whatever level of training, they emphasize that the process is a partnership between the trainers, owners and dogs.
“Timing is integral to training,” says trainer Bobby Rearrick, who recommends training begins as soon as a puppy has his or her first two sets of shots. “Owners should be proactive rather than reactive. Your dog is hungry for knowledge and looking for an environment of structured leadership. The sooner you create that, the better.”
The team explains that dog training is often compared to dealing with small children. In some ways that’s true, but there are significant differences. For instance, you don’t want to pet a dog that is behaving badly to get them to calm down, because you are conditioning the bad behavior.
“Studying wild canine behavior helps us understand our domesticated animals better,” says Aurelia. “The owner needs to be the alpha. When you go on walks, it should be you walking the dog, not the other way around.”
Dealing with Covid
“It seems that many families welcomed dogs into their life during the pandemic, which is great,” says Aurelia. “However, now that people are going back to the workplace, we’re experiencing lots of cases of dog aggression, people aggression and separation anxiety.”
Whiskey, a boxer the team worked with and helped a family adopt, suffered from stranger danger.
“He would lunge, bark and snap at people as a defense mechanism,” says Bobby. “We had to brainstorm the best strategy to turn his behavior around, so he’d function nicely within his new family.”
The Dog Wizard Medina Training Center is located at 226 N. State Road, in Medina. For more information, call 330-461-9287 or visit TheDogWizard.com/Medina. Just fill out the contact form on their site and they will reach out to you.