Petaluma Resident Launches Dog Training Business

Written by Peter Fournier

It was now or never for Trish Hernandez.

“I turned 40, and I had that moment," she recalled recently. 

So the Petaluma resident launched a new dog training business called "Sit Happens," which opened last month.

Hernandez has two words of advice for new dog owners: exercise and patience.

“People don’t exercise their dogs enough. They expect their dogs to be happy because they have a large yard, but he’s not happy," she said.

Hernandez said when she’s training dogs, she will use a tiny piece of a hot dog to help if it gets to that point.

“But you don’t give them too much,” she said. “You give them such a tiny (piece), and I don’t always rely on treats. I try not to train with treats, but I will for positive reinforcement if I have to."

In fact, she tries to avoid giving too many treats.

“A lot the time, you’re going to forget the treat because you want your dog to listen to you without the treat around,” she said. “You give them something that they never ever get, ever."

Hernandez said dog owners shouldn’t just throw a new animal into a house with a child.

“I have a specialized program, to get your dog if it’s never been around kids, to accept kids,” she said. “People don’t understand; you got to stroller train your dog, you got to ergo train him…it’s huge. There’s a lot of steps to get into it.”

The Connecticut native originally moved to the West Coast in the late 1990s to attend Moorpark College’s Exotic Animal Training and Management Program in Southern California where she learned to train eagles, camels and other exotic animals.

Hernandez graduated with an AS in Behavioral Studies with an emphasis training. She worked for Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael for four years before taking a position with the Marin County Sheriff’s Department.

But, she says, the most difficult animals she's had to train was a human being: her son.

To learn more about "Sit Happens," check out their Facebook page