In PPG's ongoing series of member profiles, this month BARKS features Rose Lesniak of Rose Lesniak Dog Trainer, LLC in Miami, Florida.
"In her first career, Rose Lesniak was a performance poet working in New York City.
She then moved to Florida where she worked at the Miami Beach Police Department in the Special Victims Squad.
As part of a team there she assessed and investigated the abuse and neglect of children.
Q: Can you tell us a bit more about yourself, how you first got into animal behavior and training and what you are doing now?
A: At the time, I was working in the Miami Beach Police Department in the Special Victims Squad and I was also training my dog Martha. I loved it and so I began an online journey to study dog training which culminated in my graduating from the Animal Behavior College.
Petco then selected me to be a dog trainer in 2004. Five years later, I opened my own dog training/behavior consulting business. Now I have a small and successful business and am able to choose which clients and families I work with.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your own pets.
A: Right now, I am dogless, having lost two dogs in the last two years. My Wheaton terriers Martha and Joey experienced a good senior life and died at home in my arms at the age of 16, assisted by my compassionate vet.
Q: What is your favorite part of your job?
A: Seeing dogs think a cue through. I love changing a dog from being anxious or reactive to a one that is thoughtful, loving, confident and reliable. I also love the fact that dog parents think this is magic instead of science and I enjoy teaching them to use force-free techniques.
Q: Why did you become a dog trainer or pet care provider?
A: I became a dog trainer because I love the work. I also wanted to control my own schedule. I’ve always been creative and know I can help solve problems in a family. I love the rush of walking into people’s homes to help. I communicate intuitively with animals and humans. It’s fun to deal with all types of humans and dogs. I love driving from house to house and, luckily, I’m good at time management.
Q: Are you a crossover trainer or have you always been a force-free trainer?
A: I was trained as a positive trainer but at the beginning of my career I assumed that active pressure would sometimes work. The more I read, the more I attend seminars, the more I study under various masters, the more dogs I work with and the more I study science… These all led me to understand that force-free, creative, patient, and positive reinforcement is much more effective in training and communicating with animals.
Q: What are some of your favorite positive reinforcement techniques for the most commonly encountered client-dog problems?
A: It’s my belief that a single technique never works with all dogs or humans. Whether I am counterconditioning or luring or teaching a behavior chain, it’s most important for me to move at the dog’s pace. I work with multiple reinforcers when teaching: auditory, visual, and I also use good food rewards. Secondly, it’s important for me to teach the human parents how to relax, have fun and enjoy communicating with their dogs.
Q: What reward do you get out of a day's training?
A: Seeing dogs and their humans succeed is the greatest reward I can achieve: Going from house to house; feeling the joy of partnership; solving problems where problems occur; and working with humans to achieve an understanding of how their own emotional behavior affects their dogs are all important to me.
Q: Who has most influenced your career and how?
A: I have no one professional who has guided or influenced me the most. People come into my life from all walks and teach me what I need to learn. Every client I work with teaches me something. PPG has helped especially by giving me more knowledge and scientific data that only serves to confirm my belief in force-free training.
Q: What do you consider to be your area of expertise?
A: Working with human-to-dog and dog-to-human relationships is my special expertise. I love the challenge of solving behavior problems. I love bringing life back to a shut down or shy dog. I enjoy working with puppies because I can assist in shaping behavior to create a great dog, with the goal of communication between dog and human.
Q: What is the funniest or craziest situation you have been in with a pet and their owner?
A: One time I was working with an elderly man and his young girlfriend. He had bought her an expensive English sheepdog pup because she thought the pup was “cute.” After three training sessions, his girlfriend left and went back to her mother in Russia.
That night the elderly man went to a club and drank himself into a hotel bed.
He called me early the next morning and asked if I could go over immediately. He was losing his mind, he said. I went to his home and there was the pup still sitting in his crate with poop all over himself, the crate and the expensive floor. The man had left the poor pup there for over 13 hours. He was screaming, “I never wanted him anyway… you take him!”
I grabbed the pup and his papers, got into my car and asked myself, “What am I going to do now? With various options and legalities running through my brain, I drove around with this poor, scared, poopy pup.
Eventually, I decided to call the man’s attorney who was out of town and happened to be eating dinner with a couple. It so happened that this couple had met the pup earlier, loved him, and wanted him immediately. They adopted him on the spot and I then worked with them to help train their new pup.
I still see this couple at various events with their dog. Ten years later, Charlie still remembers me and is always happy to see me.
Q: What awards or competition placements have you and your dog(s) achieved using force-free methods?
A: Personally, I do not believe in any dog or human competitions and shows. My reward comes from seeing progress made between humans and dogs.
Q: What advice would you give to a new trainer starting out?
A: I think people are good at what they love doing, so do what you love. Work on your walk. Look straight ahead. Breathe out your fear. Know what your gifts are. And remember. What you give, comes back. And Dr. Patricia McConnell once advised at a conference, “Don’t get involved in other trainers’ gossip.” I thought that was great advice.
Rose Lesniak Dog Trainer, LLC (RoseLesniakDogTrainer.com) is based in Miami, Florida.
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