How Our Trainer, John Capek, Discovered a Passion That Became a Career

Life sometimes gets away from a person.  In fact, it seems to me that the only time I do not feel like the world has me trapped in a blender of work, deadlines and miscellaneous stresses is: a) time spent with my family, b) time spent fly fishing, and c) time spent with dogs.  Milan Kundera once said, “Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring–it was peace.”

Dateline 1993.  I had recently graduated college and moved to Salt Lake City to join the workforce and begin a career in business administration.  It was, after all, what I had spent the previous 4 years and quite a bit of money studying.  It was my first taste of independence….not being at school 4 hours from home independent- 2000 miles away from home independent.  I had my first “career” job, my first apartment (that I didn’t split with 5 other guys) AND…. I got my first dog.

Mitre was a rescue.  He was a 4 month old Rottie who was full of zest.  I didn’t know it at the time, but before I even got him home he had already began to change the course of my life.  You see Mitre was considered to be a “dangerous breed.”  One of the conditions of his adoption was that I enroll him in and complete a basic obedience course.   That basic obedience course turned into advanced obedience- which then turned into basic protection, then advanced protection, then tracking, then agility…….I was hooked.  Mitre loved to work and I loved working with him.  The owner of the training facility noticed my new-found passion and offered me a proposition:  enter a training program for Master Dog Trainers, and upon certification manage his boarding/training/grooming operation in Sandy, UT.  Six months later I had a new profession.

Look for part two next week on how my new canine companion changed the course of my life, and helped me discover a hidden passion that I never knew existed.

What has your dog helped you discover about yourself?