Hello, my name is Laurent Gabriel and I’m the owner of Elite Professional Dog Training. I’m located in Winter Park, but I serve all of Central Florida. I’m Orlando Florida’s Best Dog Trainer because I have a 99% success rate training dogs since 1990.
How I Learned Dog Training
Let me give you a little information about myself so you know where I come from and how I learned dog training.
Short story, I worked under and with four exceptional dog trainers and learned from the very best professional dog trainers including Gottfried Dildei and Phil Hoelshur.
When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a veterinarian. I remember the days when my father would, as we’re riding on the road, he would tell me that anytime I would see an animal on the ground I would cry and say, “I’m going to help that animal.”
My Neighbor Was A Dog Trainer
Fast forward to Jacksonville where I was living with my mom and we found out that my neighbor was a dog trainer. My mother was saying, “Hey, well, if you want to be a veterinarian, why don’t you go talk to the next door neighbor?”
Me being a kid, I was a little shy, but I rustled up enough courage to go over and ask him, and he was an old school guy, so he was like, “yeah, let’s see what you’re made of.”
Why Kennel Work Is Important To Dog Training
For the next six months, I did kennel work (cleaning kennels, taking dogs in and out of kennels, exercising dogs, giving dogs attention). Why is kennel work important to dog training? In my opinion, I think kennel work is one of the most important parts of learning how to be a dog trainer, how to interact with the dogs, the approach, because you’re dealing with different types of personalities.
Whether it be fearful dogs, whether they are aggressive, whether they’ve been traumatized, the happy go lucky ones — the ones that we all love — but you don’t always get to deal with that.
Six months later, he gives me my shot and he teaches me the basics of how most dogs trainers learn. Of course, leash walking, loose leash walking, sit, down, stay, the whole nine.
“You’ve Got To Figure It Out”
But there’s a twist. He told me, “I’m going to give you a dog and no matter what the problem is, you’ve got to figure it out.”
My first dog was a 140-pound Rottweiler that was aggressive. It was more so territorial from a lack of socialization, but I didn’t know that. I’m a kid. Anybody that the dog didn’t know, he would go after them.
He’s in boot camp”and the trainer says, “here you go.” And I laugh and he goes, “Well you’ve got one to two options: you can train the dog or you can get out because I can do it myself.
“But in order for you to become the trainer that you want to be you have to be able to take on these dogs. No matter what is thrown at you, you’ve got to figure it out.”
I figured it out. And that set the journey to where I am now.
I Worked With First Dog Trainer For 10 Years
I worked with my neighbor for another 10 years, and surprisingly I didn’t go to school for veterinary medicine. Instead I went to school for computer science. I was actually the first student to get a network security license and certification from college. Total opposites, right?
What I did do though is I kept my dog training going. When I graduated from college, I moved to Orlando back in 2005. In 2007, I decided I’m done with corporate America, so I need an exit plan. Dog training was the thing.
I Always Wanted To Own A Dog Training Business
I’ve always wanted to own a dog training business. Why not start now? So me thinking that I’ve worked with him, I’m in Central Florida, I’m a dog trainer, but no one knew who I was.
What I would do was go to different veterinarians, doggy daycares, food shops, you name it, and I would parade around different dogs.
Paraded Dogs Around Winter Park Farmer’s Market
I would even go and parade dogs around the Farmer’s Market in Winter Park when they used to have it in a small area. I would take my Perfectly well behaved dogs and showed them off to people.
It wasn’t until 2008 I actually got my first dog. And then from there it took off. Now again, me being young, me being cocky, I would take on anything, any dog, any problem. Didn’t matter what it was or how bad because I had something to prove.
Other Types of Dog Training
But what I didn’t know was that there are other types of training. Let me explain that. I wanted to go more into the protection training, because face it, it’s a macho thing. But I enjoy doing decoy because you got a good workout.
Decoy dog training is teaching a dog to bite a person in a bite suit. The dog is learning protection training on commands but the person wearing the bite suit has to be skilled as the decoy.
Working With A Second Dog Trainer
I love to work out, so I don’t mind sweating. Not to mention I get to play with dogs. I called a guy by then who was located in Chuluota, Florida. I was up front with him. I said, ‘hey, I’m already a dog trainer, but I’d like to learn more because I heard that you’re great at what you do.’
He said, “Yeah, come on over.”
This Is Where I Learned A Lesson
This is the first time my ego was shot and where I learned a lesson. I have this Labrador. His name was Brock. (I love Labs) and so he comes out and he shows me his Shepherds and he has a Belgian Malinois. His Malinois was just phenomenal.
Me, I’m like, ‘oh, let me bring out my Lab.’ And I brought my Lab out and he looks at me, he goes, “that’s great for home obedience, but if you’re going to get into competition, you need to forget all that you just did and you need to do it this way.”
Not Every Dog Can Do Performance Training
That was my first step into performance training. So it uses more motivational — a lot more –motivational training. The use of a reward system — whether it be a ball, whether it be a toy, whether it be treats — whatever the dog likes, you use that to get the best out of the dog.
Now, not every dog can do it – performance training. You just have to find the right dog and you have to be the right type of trainer.
