A Conversation With A Fort Collins Dog Trainer
Local dog trainer shares her passion for dog training and what other dog owners should expect in teaching their own canine companion.
Training is an important part of the dog-owning process. Especially in the dog-friendly community of Fort Collins, having a well-behaved pup is essential to enjoying everything the city has to offer.
To get the inside scoop into all-things dog training, I spoke over video chat with Melissa Bishop, who is an associate dog trainer and the agility program manager for Fort Collins’ Summit Dog Training.
Bishop’s personal and professional experience as both a retired musician from the U.S. Navy Band in Washington, D.C. after 21 years and training dogs for 20 years, makes her an expert in dog behavior and discipline.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q. Can you tell me a little bit of the story behind where you’ve come to how you got to where you are now at Summit Dog Training?
A. So I am relatively new to Fort Collins. I’ve been here a little over two years and my husband, we moved out here from the Washington, D.C., area. My husband got a job teaching at CSU[Colorado State University], so that’s what brought us out here. And the minute, well, when I knew he had gotten the job to come out to CSU, I looked at dog trainers in Fort Collins. I found Summitt and Amber Kwan, who is the owner of Summitt, the head trainer. And I emailed her and said, ‘Hey, I’m going to be moving to Fort Collins. Can you tell me what Fort Collins needs in terms of dog training? What is it like there?’ And she assured me that Fort Collins was a fantastic city for dog owners. We got to know each other a little bit, she told me she happened to have an opening on her team.
At Summit we’re certified training professionals. And what that means is that for Summit that we are all committed to force-free, humane, scientifically proven methods of training dogs that focus on positive reinforcement. And at Summit, we’re really interested in helping people create really great adventures with their dogs, preparing them for a life of doing cool things that we’re able to do here in Colorado, like hiking, going to breweries, being just really good canines around town, all kinds of things. And then helping people live with their pets harmoniously.
Q. Is there anything that you took away from your time in the U.S. Navy band that you have brought into your work as dog training?
A. As a professional musician, I understand the value of practicing things and carving out time to rehearse things, to practice. Because what we practice, we get better at.
And so I think sometimes people feel overwhelmed if we give them a lot of homework in a dog training lesson or in a class and they think they have to spend an hour or two training their dog every day. And honestly, you really only need maybe five minutes here or there a time or two a day. And you can make a huge difference in the behavior of your dog with daily consistent practice.
So one of the things that we know, is that if we practice a negative thing, like for a person, if we practice scrolling through Facebook every day for an hour or two hours, we get really good. It’s just part of our habit, our day. Whereas if I want to replace that habit, if I can just get used to like a few minutes a day of doing something else, like reading or journaling or exercising or whatever, and making it a small habit.
And so with our dogs, if we don’t show them what we want, which might be, you know, eating, they’re eating their meal out of eating a frozen meal out of a toy or chewing on a bone. If they then practice behaviors that we don’t want, like practice chewing our furniture or practice digging in the yard, they just get better at it. So we can kind of set up situations where we’re giving them the appropriate things to chew on or do or engage their brains with. And those become then habits.
So I think an answer to your question, I think the value of practice and making something kind of a daily habit is something that I’ve kind of I see from both sides of my life as a professional musician and also my life as a professional dog trainer.
Q. Is there a personal philosophy or mission statement that you hold individually in how you train dogs?
A. “Sure. I mean, I would say individually and then collectively at Summit. Like all of us, I think we share this passion for helping people understand how dogs behave; what’s normal, what might not be quite so normal, or might be a little bit extreme. But recognizing that our dogs are dogs and that when we give dogs good choices and set up their environment to help them make the choice that we want, we can eliminate a lot of the conflict that often happens when people have dogs and don’t quite understand their dog’s needs and how that can fit into their needs, you know, to their household.”
Q. I read in your biography that your dog trained even at a young age. What has motivated you to continue in your work?
A. I think what has motivated me to help people train their dogs is that I see I see a lot of people struggling with either just knowing how to how to train their dog or they’re dealing with behavior challenges.
Many of our students come to us because they have dogs who are barking at other dogs or get destructive when left alone. You know, we have a lot of what we call reactive dog students, where dogs who see other dogs kind of it’s almost like they lose their minds there. And it’s very, very common now because we’re asking our dogs to do a lot. We’re asking them not only to live in our homes with us but then also be in neighborhoods and communities and situations where they’re in contact with a lot of other dogs.
We have this idea that dogs should love everyone and should love every other dog, and that’s not always the case, right? And sometimes what the dog needs is not exactly what the human expected. I think, initially, I was drawn to dog training because of how much I love dogs. And, you know, people think, ‘Oh, you’re so lucky, you get to spend your day your whole day with dogs all day.’ Well, honestly, I’m spending my whole day with people and the dogs that they love, right?
So while I think an earlier version of me would think, ‘Oh, you know, dog training is great, I’ll get to do agility all day long with my dogs and my students' dogs.’ Really, what I have found is that dog trainers can make a difference in their communities by supporting their human clients, their students, as they try to help train those dogs to be good canine ambassadors; to be to fit into a society that sometimes isn’t very easy for them to understand. Dogs are a different species and they have different needs, and sometimes those needs don’t always line up with what the family needs.
Q. How about your own experience with your own dogs?
A. I do. I currently have five and right now I’m looking at four of them and one is behind me, I know they’re all sacked out, and I’m really grateful that they’re not barking during our interview. They range in age from almost 16 and a half, so I have a really old dog and then I have an almost two-year-old dog. So I have five dogs and I’ve done agility with all of them at some point in their lives. And they’re just wonderful companions. Each one of them is different. I feel really grateful that I’ve gotten to share my life with all of them. They make me happy, sometimes they make me crazy. But together or separately, I just adore them.
Q. Any final thoughts that you would like to share?
A. Dog training, I think we get really serious about it sometimes that we think there because there are things that are very important skills for our dogs to have to live successfully with humans. And some of that is coming when called like if you had your dog. Teaching a dog to respond to their name and come when called. It’s hugely important, but I think when we approach things with a sense of fun like when we approach things joyfully with our dogs, it becomes less, I don’t know, heavy.
When we can make something really fun for our dogs, it becomes really fun for our own selves. So being prepared to be silly, sometimes with your dog. You know, raising a puppy is not for the faint of heart. And the adolescent part of puppyhood, like that kind of six to 18 months of age, that’s hard. think people aren’t prepared for how hard that can be.
So if we can take a step back and realize that they’re just being dogs and that it’s just behavior and we can change behavior, we’ll be better off and appreciate them for being dogs and appreciate what they do, what they have to do to live with us.
To learn more about Bishop and Summit Dog Training, visit their website here.
