About Us
Tyler Rollins
I grew up in a small farm town in Mid Missouri. I had three dogs growing up, plus countless other animals. We never officially trained any of the dogs, but they were well behaved and didn't run off, except for a few times. Maggie, Sugar, and Smudge were their names.
Fast forward to joining the Marine Corps. That is where my interest in how dogs work, started. I volunteered and was chosen to go to a IED Detection Dog Handler's Course. Seeing those dogs work and find explosives around the farms of North Carolina really was amazing. Learning change in behavior, learning how their noses work, I became fairly obsessed you could say. Four months later I am in Afghanistan with a dog. Patrol after patrol getting to see these dogs work and find bombs day after day, truly amazing. The amount of lives these dogs saved is countless. Not only were they out there saving lives, they made things easier. It's hard to explain the amount of stress we go through over there, but even these rough and tough working dogs bring a sense of home every day. Balou, my detection dog shown below, was the comfort my platoon needed. We never really talked about it, but just going out back on our rest days and playing some fetch or showing everyone how he works, was the a gift Balou didn't know he was giving us. After our deployment, Balou went back to war a couple more times and then on to TSA. I'm not sure where he is now, but I know he did amazing work and brought smiles to everyone he worked with and came in contact with, unless they were a bad guy with explosives.
After the military, I went into the private sector working the detection dogs again. Nothing to fancy, or overseas. Just Bed Bug detection. Yeah, I didn't know that was something either until I went searching for a job haha. I had 3 dogs I worked with. Olivia, Ross, and Khole. I would consider these guys more like working pets, compared to Balou in the military. Though we weren't out saving lives or bad guys, boy did we bring some relief to a lot of people. These guys worked just as hard as the IED detection dogs. So there were a lot of similarities.
From there I took some dog behavior courses and spent a lot of time self studying. Finally after years of training dogs on the side and working full time in different jobs. I decided to go back to training dogs were I was actually happy. Now I am here, STL Dog School and helping people gain control of their dogs!
We are here to listen.We've seen it, we've dealt with itFill out the form and tell us about your dog!
Our Methods
First and foremost, we are very direct with you as the owner. We are here to help you and help you build the relationship with your dog that you are looking for.
We will point out where you are messing up, the small things that are causing problem, and get you on the right path for you and your dog.
When it comes to training dogs, we come with a balanced method.
We give tons and tons of reward and praise when the dog is doing the right thing and the behaviors that we want, but we will also give an appropriate correction when your dog is acting out, or doing things we do not want them to do.
Keeping it as simple as possible, there are three ways in which a dog learns:
1. Rewards for the good stuff
2. Lots and lots of repetition of that desired behavior
3. Corrections a.k.a. Accountability
We teach and show the dogs how to do certain commands by using different types of pressure, whether it be leash pressure, spacial pressure, or e-collar pressure. Through this process the dog learns how to "turn off" these pressure by doing the command we told them to do. Once the pressure gets turned off, we use rewards to show them what they did was the right thing.
Then we do this over and over and over, in different places and in different scenarios.
Once they know what is expected of them and are responding to the commands quickly, we hold them accountable if they make the decision to do something different.
For example, we have been practicing the "Sit" commands and have gotten lots and lots of reps in. Now, for whatever reason, the dog decides to say "naahhh I'm going to go over here and smell these flowers." At this point, we give an appropriate, but firm, leash pop and guide them to the position we wanted.
Our ultimate goal is for you to have a dog that is cool, calm, and collected in any situation that fits your lifestyle.
We will point out where you are messing up, the small things that are causing problem, and get you on the right path for you and your dog.
When it comes to training dogs, we come with a balanced method.
We give tons and tons of reward and praise when the dog is doing the right thing and the behaviors that we want, but we will also give an appropriate correction when your dog is acting out, or doing things we do not want them to do.
Keeping it as simple as possible, there are three ways in which a dog learns:
1. Rewards for the good stuff
2. Lots and lots of repetition of that desired behavior
3. Corrections a.k.a. Accountability
We teach and show the dogs how to do certain commands by using different types of pressure, whether it be leash pressure, spacial pressure, or e-collar pressure. Through this process the dog learns how to "turn off" these pressure by doing the command we told them to do. Once the pressure gets turned off, we use rewards to show them what they did was the right thing.
Then we do this over and over and over, in different places and in different scenarios.
Once they know what is expected of them and are responding to the commands quickly, we hold them accountable if they make the decision to do something different.
For example, we have been practicing the "Sit" commands and have gotten lots and lots of reps in. Now, for whatever reason, the dog decides to say "naahhh I'm going to go over here and smell these flowers." At this point, we give an appropriate, but firm, leash pop and guide them to the position we wanted.
Our ultimate goal is for you to have a dog that is cool, calm, and collected in any situation that fits your lifestyle.
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