Today we’d like to introduce you to Lorenne San Clemente.
Lorenne, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up learning to train dogs and spent many years helping family and friends with behavior or obedience problems in their dogs. When I was 18 I had a close friend who was still in the Air Force who was struggling greatly due to many unfortunate scenarios he experienced during his years enlisted. At the time I had my first personal Belgian Malinois whom I had been training consistently for almost 2 years and it gave me the idea to set him up with a service dog. Though I had never done it before, I eventually convinced him to let me try. I put a bit of specialized training on my dog then paired them. Thanks to her, he was able to take his kids to watch the fireworks for the first time in 10 years. This was the when I realized I truly had a knack for training dogs and helping people. Within the year I started working with clients to help improve their dogs behavior, or obedience and began learning more about specialized training for service dogs, protection dogs, agility, detection, and much more. Thanks to the desire to never stop learning I continued to grow as a trainer and eventually began taking on more difficult cases which eventually led me to taking a training job at a facility in the Ocala area. I spent a couple years there before deciding I missed working with clients privately and leaving to begin fresh in Mims. I now have a fantastic assistant trainer who has the same eagerness to learn and desire to help everyone meet their goals with their dogs.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My desire for knowledge and drive to help others has made training both a wildly fulfilling and incredibly stressful road to follow. I have spent the past decade learning continuously, aiming to share my knowledge in hopes that others will benefit. One of the most challenging aspects of my work is navigating how to teach dog owners, with relatively little knowledge of dogs, consistent beneficial interactions with their pup. Another challenge I struggled with for many years was emotional burnout. I tend to give my all to every dog and client which often resulted in being extremely emotionally fatigued by the end of every day. These two issues paired with the standard small business struggles (money, time, resources) eventually caused me to walk away from training all together when I was 20 and enlist. I was injured and discharged within a year but working away from the dogs reminded me of why I fell in love with it to begin with.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
San Clemente Training is focused on providing high quality dog training to everyone who wants it. We believe fewer dogs would end up in shelters if more people had access to affordable training that was tailored to their dogs individual needs. Along with that, we want to provide a safe place for owner to learn about their dogs so they can better understand why their dogs present with behaviors we as people, consider bad.
What sets us apart from most other training companies is our flexibility in training and affordability. We tailor every training plan to each individual dog as well as their owners lifestyles. For an older person who has poor mobility, it wouldn’t make sense to ask them to run backwards away from their dog even though that is a movement we often use when training. Instead we work with the owners to make sure they can physically do what we teach as well as maintain it in their day to day life with as little overall disruption to the natural flow of things.
I personally specialize in the Belgian Malinois breed but have an extensive working history in behavior modification with working dogs.
We are most proud of our wide range of knowledge for training. We are considered balanced trainers but have a background in force free training giving us the ability to work with dogs who suffer from severe fear aggression all the way to training medical alert service dogs or protection dogs. Another thing we are extremely proud of is that we offer our services for the lifetime of the dog. This means if a client graduates, they can still contact us anytime for that dog. I have clients in Nebraska, California, Arizona, Arkansas, and Northern Florida from years ago who still contact me with their questions and I am always happy to help anytime they need.
San Clemente Training has a wide variety of training options. We offer group classes, private in home sessions, private on property sessions, and board and train options. All of our training options are set up to be as flexible as possible so for people with difficult or unpredictable schedules, we will find a way to work with them without it intruding on their normal daily life to much.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
I have two main pieces of advice for anyone who wants to train animals of any kind.
1) Never stop learning. Anyone who believes they know everything will be left behind. The world of animal training is forever growing and changing thanks to science and practical application. What was considered standard training practice 50 years ago can often now be considered outdated and useless knowledge thanks to better methods having been found. Thanks to researchers, we have learned so much about the psychology of dogs and have since been able to modify our training methods to be better understood by our furry friends. Anyone who dismisses new information is eventually going to fall behind. So, as I said, never stop learning.
2) Be understanding. Owners are human. People don’t know what they don’t know. Everyone who reaches out to try and help their dog deserves to be treated with respect. It’s not their fault they don’t understand why their dog is barking or growling. It’s not their fault they don’t know why their dog pulls on their leash. And most of all, they don’t know that their dog has most likely trained them. People are doing their best, so to be a good trainer, you need to understand the people you are working with.
Pricing:
- Group Class $35
- Private in home $50-$80 (+$0.70 per mile)
- Private on property $50-$80
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.centralfloridadogtraining.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanclementetraining?igsh=enFtNjN4bDNzcnE1
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DkfV3M2CN/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@sanclemente.train?_r=1&_t=ZP-94Ob28x2PPD
Image Credits
Emily Almodovar Warner
Fuego’s Furtography
