“Come”, instructs Somu Suresh and his canine friend obediently follows. It is the same with his other commands of ‘stay’, ‘sit’ or ‘sleep’, the dogs dutifully obey. A dog trainer by profession, Suresh is one of the city’s first certified dog trainers. The 37-year-old resident of Madhurwada has trained over 800 dogs in a span of 20 years.
Suresh has always been fond of animals. So it was not surprising when he decided to take up dog training as a profession soon after his schooling. He first trained his pet Pomeranian, Bamblu. The then 16-year-old decided he wanted to make this his profession. Backing his passion with formal certification, he completed a dog training course from Commando Kennels, Hyderabad in 1998.
Training the canines
He moved back to Visakhapatnam and started a dog training institute called ‘Sea Guard Kennels’. Initially, the institute offered boarding along with the training. However, two years later he had to stop the boarding facility as it was too much work. He began to house-to house train from 2000.
Suresh’s day begins at 5 am. “Dogs are most alert from 5 pm to 9 am and hence that is the best time to teach them. So we train the dogs in the evenings and early mornings,” he explains. His brother and brother-in-law also work alongside him.
Suresh trains each dog to obey commands and fetch things. The training ideally should start when the puppies are three to four months old. Though the structure of the course is set, the methodology changes for every dog. “We spend the first day of the training just observing the dogs and trying to understand their behaviour. We take into consideration the reaction of the dog to strangers and vehicles and then choose our method. I train each dog for half an hour every alternate day,” he says.
According to Suresh, a properly trained dog should be able to understand and obey commands, walk and stay silent at home. “Though we teach them basic commands, retaining all this depends on the owner who needs to keep the commands in practice,” he says.
“Most people believe that dog trainers are very harsh with the pets and also hit them. That is not true. Dogs are sensible animals they gauge your mood by the tone of your voice and react accordingly ,” he says.
Changing trends
Having been in the profession for over 20 years, Suresh has been a witness to the changing trends of the pet industry in the city. He says that owning a pet, especially a dog of exotic breeds has always been a status symbol. However, these days social media also plays a huge role in making people keep pets.
“Several people adopt a dog because they see it on social media and want the same. Not many bother to research about which breed to adopt or what needs to be done to ensure the pet’s proper maintenance. Several breeds such as the Rottweiler, German shepherd or Saint Bernard are not suitable for apartments. Smaller dogs like Beagle and Dachshunds are more suitable for apartments; but people do not take these factors into consideration,” he adds. He says that while a decade ago breeds like pug, Labrador and Doberman were preferred, today Cane Corsos, French mastiffs and French bulldogs are the trend. Addressing the growing demand for pets in the city, Suresh along with 10 other people started the Visakha Kennel Association in 2018. In the span of one year, the association has already hosted four pets shows in the city.
