It’s a ruff life

Erica Clemente, of Baldwin's Grey Hawk Dog Training, offers a few basic tips on raising a properly behaved pup.

Courtesy Grey Hawk Dog Training

My name is Erica Clemente A.B.C.D.T. and I am a certified dog trainer and Owner of Grey Hawk Dog Training L.L.C. I am a proud, life-long

Baldwin resident and my office is in Baldwin as well.

My love of animals has brought me experience in dog grooming, veterinary assisting, pet sitting, large animal care and finally culminated in my becoming certified as a dog trainer at Animal Behavior College.

There, I learned the tools I needed to understand how dogs learn, and how to diagnose problems, be they complex — as in the case of aggression — or day-to-day problems like chewing or housebreaking. As a mother of children from 7 to 20 years old, I also understand that people sometimes have to be creative in their training approaches because our lives aren’t simple.

People ask me questions about their dogs all the time. We seem to have developed an idea in this country that dog training is easy, but it can, in fact, be very challenging. While problems like aggression or separation anxiety are outside the scope of this column and should handled with a veterinarian or a qualified trainer, the most common questions I am asked have equally common solutions, so I will address those first.

Walking