OUR HISTORY

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Derby Dogs is run by husband and wife team, Eric and Tanya, with the help of our wonderful assistant, Taylor.  We are a licensed and insured family business and the proud owners of 5 active breed dogs.  Eric is a US Marine Corp Veteran who formerly worked in commercial diving and large scale event production.  Tanya worked in the non-profit/performing arts sector as a development director and production manager.​

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Derby Dogs was founded back in 2007, we had recently raised our first two puppies together and discovered how much we enjoyed training and participating in classes with them.  We worked with many fantastic trainers who taught us how to use positive reinforcement methods as well as sound diversion and body blocks to redirect unwanted behavior.  We also learned how to set up clear boundaries and how to reinforce them!

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For the love of dog we decided to became foster parents for a local rescue group. We socialized and prepared several pups for life in their new homes with the help of our own balanced pack who were fantastic role models for our fosters. We realized how much we enjoyed training and working with a canine pack and wanted to do more.  What started out as a part time hobby soon grew into a full time business!!​​​​

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 We continue to train and compete with our own dogs in various activities including Dock Diving, Agility, Nosework & Rally.  Tanya is also a volunteer Search & Rescue K9 handler with 2 of our dogs through CARDA.  As a certified team, Tanya and Derby (our oldest) deploy to help find lost and missing people; our youngest (Jolene) is currently in training.