Corey Hardwick is a Professional Dog Trainer and he has learned how to listen. Enjoy this interview with one of the most humble and kind people I’ve had the pleasure to talk to.
What is your earliest memory about being crazy about dogs?
I grew up on a 3-acre farm with chickens, goats and multiple indoor/outdoor dogs throughout the years. I had Jack Russel Terrier named Buster, a Dachshund named Scooter and a Rottweiler husky mix named Benson. I start training professionally until I was 19-20 years old. (Corey is now 27)
Was there a particular dog that inspired you to become a trainer?
The dog I adopted in the first 3-4 weeks when I moved out on my own. Her name is Dova and she is completely deaf. She was about 7 years old and had history of attacking cats at the shelter. She wasn’t super dog friendly. The behavior issues she had started me on the path to become a trainer. She was the dog that I did my training course with. She and I graduated together.
Why did you choose to become Fear Free Certified?
When I first started working, it was at the animal shelter. I was being trained how to handle the dogs in a forceful way. Most of the dogs were being aggressive and I believed it was due to how they were being handling. Then I noticed a shift happening at the shelter. The manager started requiring everyone to be Fear Free certified.
So Fear Free made an impact in your training because the training you had at the shelter initially wasn’t so good, then Fear Free came in and changed everything.
There was an immediate difference. A lot of people were handling the dogs forcefully out of fear. They didn’t want to be attacked. When I started to understand body language and how they prefer to be handled, I started working with some dogs that were really dangerous to walk Instead of putting them on a control stick, I would try to use a slip lead and just go for it. The dogs got comfortable faster. It seemed like a switch flipped in their head. Once I put a leash on them, walked them outside, showed them the fresh air and let them go potty, it eased their tension because they were so fearful to begin with. Then everyone else started doing it.
What do you think is the biggest body language sign owners miss?
Freeze. A dog will still come up to a person even though they are nervous and people will start petting them. A lot of the time those dogs will freeze and you don’t really see it because you’re actively petting them. That freeze is the biggest sign that a dog is about to bite. People will say “my dog was doing nothing, then just bit”. That “doing nothing” is the freeze. That’s the biggest sign people overlook.
What insights did you bring from the shelter to your training today?
A lot of dogs are fearful at the shelter and they seem quiet and reserved because they don’t want to put themselves out there. Then they are adopted out to a home. Sometimes when they get into a home, have a consistent schedule, realize they are safe and protected, they then can be more vulnerable. That often gives them more confidence to start acting more assertive toward dogs or people they are fearful of. That was the biggest learning curve for me. This results in constant miscommunication between the shelter and the adopters.
What is your biggest success story?
At the shelter. On the about section of my website (https://positiveonlypups.com/about) there is a tall white and tan dog. His name is Prince. He came into the shelter at 1 year old. He had developed severe fear toward people and dogs. Taking him to the vet was nearly impossible because he was so reactive. When the owner brought him in, I wondered how I was going to handle this dog without him reacting to me. I ended up throwing a bully stick on the ground and the owner handed me his leash so I could walk him into the kennel. The next day, he was being very reactive in his kennel and no one could get him out. I tried to get him out and couldn’t. I spent about an hour trying to get a slip lead on him and eventually did. We now know that he was super sensitive around his head and neck and that’s why he was so fearful of the slip lead. Once I got him out that first time, we became buddies. He was at the shelter for close to a year. I left the shelter and continued to try to get him adopted. Luckily, he went to a foster and has been with him close to a year now. Half way through, the foster decided to adopt him. Prince now lives with 3 or 4 humans and a 60 lb female pittie. I still have contact with him all the time since I watch him while his people go on vacation.
Tell me about the 2 organizations you feature on your website, Peaceful Souls and Liberty Acres.
Peaceful Souls traps dogs that have gotten loose from their owner and are very fearful of people and very smart. This makes them hard to trap. Sometimes they are loose for months. Some have injuries and are in bad shape, but they are too fearful to get close to people. When Peaceful Souls hears about a dog like this, they will track it down, map it, feed it and do whatever they can to give the dog a consistent schedule. This helps them trap it and get it into the shelter where it can get the helps it needs. I’ve seen so many cool success stories from this rescue. If you see a dog loose that no one can get close to, these are the people to call.
Liberty Acres takes a lot of senior dogs. If there is an old dog that is aloof and stuck in a really busy, chaotic shelter, they will take the dog and give it a “cabin” to live in. They get to live their life out in these cabins and on many acres of land. They go on group walks together and hang out. The dogs are available for adoption, but they don’t try to push dogs onto people. They are going to keep the dog forever. Liberty Acres is a big sanctuary full of old dogs.
Tell me about the custom digital portraits that are on your website.
One of the shelters I worked at had an artist there that did digital portraits. I thought that sounded like fun. She was making cool digital portraits of the dogs that were up for adoption and putting them around the shelter for people to see. I ended up getting sick and was down for 2 weeks so I gave it a try. I got obsessed with it and started doing it for fun, then a volunteer at the shelter said, I’d pay you to do more of these. I started posting them on my social media and got customers. I can create it on my iPad, print it onto a canvas, then you can hang it up on your wall.
There is one with a person and a dog on my website The person was of one of the volunteers at the shelter and the dog was a puppy that was born without an anus. This volunteer took this dog in and loved him. Purdue did a number of experimental surgeries to try to reconstruct it’s anus. The pup lived with the volunteer until it passed at about 3 years old. Because of the problem it had, it leaked stool out of its rear all over the house, but this volunteer just loved the dog so much. This was a gift to him.