About Us

     For as long as my wife Sandra and I can remember, we always had a love for dogs. Growing up, we have always had dogs in our families, and we were able to teach them the basic behaviors of sitting down and other little tricks. After high school I decided to serve my country and joined the United States Marine Corps. After ten years of service, I returned home and reconnected with my high school crush. We dated for a few years, and we decided to get married and start a family.  Sandra started to notice some problems, that I was having not only physical but emotional problems. We made appointments with the VA for assistance and after some visits I was diagnosed with PTSD, neck, spinal and knee problems. Like most veterans I found myself in a situation I could not handle alone. 

      As a Marine Corps Veteran, suffering with PTSD and physical disabilities, my wife and I looked for assistance but found limited resources but plenty of medications. Not willing to accept that was all there was, my wife and I started to research Service Dogs and how they can help me not only physically but emotionally. As we looked around at many local dog shelters, we saw many beautiful dogs, but it was something about them that just wasn't there for me. I started to give up hope, so my wife told me to give it one more chance, so we went to one more shelter. Here we saw this beautiful British Bull dog, I told my wife that she would be awesome especially since the Marine Corp mascot is also one. As we asked about her, we were told that she was up for adoption but only if the other dog in the pen was adopted with her. This broke my heart as we couldn't have two dogs at the time. 

     As we continued to look around the shelter, we were blessed to find this beautiful year and half old German Shepard mix dog named Henney. We were informed that Henney was in a program that was dedicated to training service dogs for veterans and was not adoptable for non-veterans. With a smirk on my face, I asked if I could talk to the trainer so I could see how she was. The trainer (a fellow Marine Corp Vet) explained to us that Henney had just started the program and had some issues that he was working on with her. He asked if we wanted to go for a walk with her, he told us that she was a very strong puller and was very hard to control. The trainer said he had never seen her so well behaved with anyone, especially the first time they met.   

     You can say that Henney and I matched from the beginning. I know that we chose her but we really, we believe that it was the other way around, she is the one that chose us. We adopted her and started training with Henney and the trainer and started to learn basic skills, but we saw more in her. We realized she needed to learn more than just basic skills, so my wife and I started to seek out other trainers. Along the way we met other trainers that claimed to know what they were doing or some that used harsh training methods some even claimed that they used different training styles for every dog, but they really just copy paste the training and change dog’s name. 

     My wife and I discussed it and decided that we would train her ourselves, so we started to research the requirements for training Service Dog and how to perform her tasks. We were able to learn how to train her for my needs and eventually have her earn her AKC certifications. During this time, we not only made some great connections but also learned a lot more different training techniques to help us better train Henny. Henny has earned her Service Dog certifications and has not stopped performing her tasks after many years. This led us to get our AKC Evaluator Certifications and other CPD Dog Training certifications and becoming members of Association of Professional Dog Trainers International (APDTI). After a few years of learning and training we opened Sofia's Dog Training LLC to help others with their dog training needs. Now we have taught and trained many owners and their dog companions to make better choices and be better behaved. We have also trained many Service Dogs to perform tasks and assist their owners, many of them helping them during flights continental and international.