Deborah Luik founded Spot-On Dog Training in 2010 to provide personalized training for people and dogs in their own homes where most of their behavior, desirable and undesirable, occurs.
Deborah has been training animals all her life including starting (gently breaking) horses for an Arabian horse breeder and has been training dogs exclusively for the last ten years.
Deborah has been teaching classes, mentoring apprentice trainers from a national behavioral college, performing behavioral counseling, and evaluating dogs for propensity for aggression at the Houston SPCA since 2006.
Deborah says:
"One of the things I loved about the SPCA was chance to work with all types of dogs. I also tested dogs for propensity for aggression. Imagine seeing hundreds of different dogs going through the same standardized introduction while documenting the results of their interactions. It really crystallized their body language for me and gave me a vocabulary so that I could explain their signals to others rather than just relying on my "gut feel."
In 2008, she became a Certified Pet Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA), an accreditation that requires several hundred hours as a lead trainer and a four hour exam to achieve. She is also an AKC approved Canine Good Citizen evaluator.
Prior to the HSPCA, having already gone through a training program designed by the Behaviorist, Ian Dunbar and training shelter dogs, she apprenticed at the Berkeley East-Bay Humane Society in Berkeley, CA. There she assisted with basic pet dog training classes and ultimately reactive/aggressive dog classes and more advanced obedience and rally obedience classes.
Deborah believes in the importance of animal rescue. She also believes in the importance of a trainer living out, on a 24x7 basis, the advice she gives her clients! For both those reasons, she has fostered more than 25 dogs from German shepherds to Chihauhaus with a wide variety of behavioral issues. Her own dog, Fergie, a Keeshond, was her 18th foster dog and is now a Canine Good Citizen and a lovely pet.
Deborah has a BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. She was previously in the computer industry working with a variety of clients to create customized software solutions to meet their business needs.
Deborah says:
"Dog training is my vocation of choice. I've always loved solving problems for people, but what's so great now is that I get to help people on a subject I care about as much as they do.
I really want everyone to not just love their dogs despite their faults but to know how teach and motivate their dogs to behave well and make that dog successful at doing it. That makes both the people and the dogs happier and that's extremely satisfying to see."
Spot-On Dog Training adheres to the Delta Society's Professional Standards for Dog Trainers, an important document that offers guidelines for the professional dog trainer. It includes information on dog behavior, trainer skills and ethics, tools and equipment, and more.Download the standards in PDF form
