Business Aims for Better Pets

Brett Butler started Alpha Dog Training for a simple reason, though what he and his partners do isn’t so simple all the time.

He wanted to help.

“There are around 8 million dogs put to sleep a year for bad behavior,” he said. “God has given me the gift to successfully fix these behaviors, and as a dog lover I feel that I need to do something about this.”

He’s right.

Each year, millions of healthy dogs are euthanized for a number of reason, including animals that cannot find a home, dangerous strays from overpopulation and bad-behavior dogs who owners think they cannot rehabilitate. More than 4.7 million people are bitten by dogs annually, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. These bites send 800,000 people to the hospital; an estimated 12 people die each year from their wounds, the association said.

For Butler, that’s unacceptable.

“I grew up with dogs, and I’ve always have had them,” said Butler, 26, who grew up in Lilburn and now lives in Snellville. “A lot of people think this is magic but it's not, it doesn't happen over night.  It's a lot of work, and we have to be consistent.”

He and his partners – his brother, Ken, and his buddy, Lee Roberts – all agree that owners have to assume more responsibility for their pets. Maintaining an alpha position, or being the leader of the pack, is essential, they believe.

In a three- or ten-week training process, the partners take dogs from basic voice commands to an advanced, everyday scenario – walking around in Home Depot. Sometimes it goes beyond just training. In one case that Butler recalled, the team had to coach an obstinate pit bull that did not want to walk. After a few days of working with the dog, he wasn’t so lazy anymore, and the team could move on to obedience training.,

“We do all of our training on praise physical and verbal,” Roberts said.

Alpha Dog Training teaches all breeds, and ages six months to eight years old. They work on aggressive behaviors, but they also have done some police canine training, such search and rescue and drug searching. In addition, Alpha Dog Training also adopts out pets and rescues animals. Some perks go to owners of rescued dogs, including a 50 percent discount on training. Still, its mainstay operation is pet obedience.

Roberts said that owners must engage in continuous training of their dogs to reinforce commands. To help with that, Alpha Dog Training requires owners to participate at the end of training.

“I have owned and been around dogs all of my life, and I have tried training them on my own, but it is easier to let the professional do it,” said Jason Stanford, a customer. “I’ve learned some great training tips and techniques from Alpha Dog Training, which not only makes my dog better, but makes me a better owner.”