It was Saturday morning and dogs and their people were gathering at Highland Canine Training. While the school in Harmony, NC, actually does train people to be professional dog trainers, this morning's session was especially for Obedience Class - dog owners learning how to train their dog.
Photo by Kim McKinney
Stasia Dempster is the teacher for the obedience class, with some of the current trainer students circulating for assistance.
Dempster always loved animals and for her tenth birthday she begged for a dog. Before it would be considered her dad required she research and write a paper about dog ownership. She wrote about the care and training of dogs and she won her dad over. Her parents gifted her with a Golden Retriever. She hasn't stopped learning about dogs since.
Dempster loved working with her dog and joined 4-H and they did obedience and agility work there. She ended up also working with horses in the program.
When college came, she got degrees in psychology and marketing. Afterward she worked in white collar corporate jobs and hated them. She decided to quit.
Owners and their dogs in obedience trainingPhoto by Kim McKinney
She started working at a kennel, where she often pulled double shifts and worked very long hours.
"I had never worked a job that I could work that kind of long hours and be happy with it," Dempster said.
She knew she found her career. She next worked for a veterinarian as a mobile vet tech and learned a lot from her. She continued to have a special interest in the behavior of dogs and started researching the best ways to handle problems she did not know how to solve. Dempster decided she wanted to take things to the next level and started looking into dog trainer schools. It was then she found the Highland School.
Two-and-a-half years ago Dempster's husband came over from Great Britain, they got married, and they immediately moved to North Carolina so she could attend the school.
Photo by Kim McKinney
"This school teaches you everything," Dempster said, "I was certified to train service dogs, search and rescue dogs, police dogs, behavioral stuff. I got to work with a lot of aggression cases because I didn't know how to deal with it."
Dempster had always planned to move back to Florida to start a training business there but when asked to contract with the school as a behaviorist she and her husband decided to stay. She has loved the opportunities that the Highland School presents to her here. Dempster now does a lot of the obedience and scent training classes and also helps train dogs for search and rescue.
Photo by Kim McKinney
As a program based on behavior modification, Dempster's psychology degree comes in handy. The obedience classes allow her to not only improve the behavior of dogs, but she can help their owners learn things about themselves that may impact their pet's behavior.
Beth McMahan attends the class with her dog Floyd, a mix of Australian cattle dog, pit bull, and boxer.
McMahan says, "I really like the class. It's reinforced some things I was doing right and helped to eliminate some things I was doing wrong."
McMahan's dog Floyd is16 months old and was one of the older dogs in this particular class, but Dempster has said people should never feel that their dog is too old to learn.
"I've had a dog in class 13-years old. Like humans, they are never too old to learn."
Photo by Kim McKinney
The school offers all kinds of services and classes for dogs. The most obvious is obedience, but others classes are in scent training, search and rescue, service dogs, agility, and even dog tricks. You can find info about the classes offered here.
Jason and Erin Purgason started Highland Canine Training, LLC, in 2005, specializing in pet training by behavior modification. In 2006 they began their school for dog trainers. Now their business has exploded in all different directions, with another school for dog trainers in Alabama, specialization in multiple dog training areas, classes of all types, the operation of a non-profit, a podcast, and affiliated trainers all over the country. People come from around the world to utilize some of their special services.
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