At
Creekside Resort, master trainer Melissa Cocola is the alpha of the pack.
Creekside Resort
is an upscale dog kennel and training facility in Walworth,
Wayne County. If you turn into the driveway there, off
Sherburne Road, you will hear something very strange
for a place where so many dogs are in residence. That
something strange is silence. Arrive at any other dog
kennel and you are greeted with a Big Bang of Barking.
The difference here is one person. Creekside Resort
(the kennel) and Positive K-9 (the dog training operation
at the same address) are run by Melissa Cocola. In human
terms,Cocola is pretty, petite and female. But in dog
terms she is the alpha of the pack. Around canines she
is quiet, steady, focused and in charge. "Dogs
need rules, boundaries and limitations," says Cocola,
who has trained more than 4,800 dogs in the last 14
years. She's a nationally certified dog trainer who
apprenticed under four experts and has completed dog
behavior course at Cornell University. Correct discipline
and training for dogs, says Cocola, requires praise
and motivation-not food treats.“There’s
nothing in the dog world that includes a dog giving
another dog a bone,” she says.” That’s
human psychology, not dog psychology.” One of
the deepest secrets of modifying a dog’s behavior
is one of the simplest, Cocola says: exercise.While
in residence at Creekside, dogs (some of them boarded,
some there for training) are walked or let out, or trained
eight to 10 times a day. The Walworth facility has a
system of dog trails on its seven acres of land. A half-acre
fenced
- in pen, allows four legged
clients to run free and get what they need as pack animals:
group play. That includes free use of the facilities
outside. (The picked-up waste is trucked away weekly
by a contractor.) “Its part of keeping a stress
free environment,” says Cocola of the frequent
exercise and abundant time outdoors. Cubicles in the
resort itself don’t include drains. No need. “It’s
rare we have an ‘accident’ in the building,”
she says. Creekside has two main buildings, both tasteful
and practical, and lightly suggestive of miniature hotels.
The reception area of one building is where new dogs
are signed in. It features a prominent glass dish of
dog cookies, non-slip floors (geriatric dogs, like their
human counterparts, have trouble with footing) and a
canine waiting lounge. There you’ll see an array
of low doggie beds, stuffed toys and –yes-wide
screen television. Cocola has a big DVD collection of
Disney dog movies, as well as TV classics starring Rin-Tin-Tin
and Lassie. Cocola is the Big Dog at Creekside. She
also trains dog owners to be the leaders of the pack
in their own homes, by dispensing advice on appropriate
dominance. For instance, owners should eat before their
dogs eat. They should not allow the dog (at first) to
sleep on the bed. They should go through gates or doors
ahead of their dogs, since controlling territory is
dominant
behavior
too. Scott Miller of Pittsford boards his 11 year old Labrador retriever Brody
at Creekside. When the family recently bought Dante, a Doberman puppy it soon
turned rambunctious and uncontrollable. Off Dante went for three weeks of obedience
training with Cocola. “When we went to pick him up, I was overwhelmed,”
says Miller. “He was the perfect gentleman, and still is” What Cocola
does with dogs works, but she’s eclectic and flexible about how she does
it. “I don’t have a training method,” she says, and doesn’t
believe any trainer should stick to one script. “We have a different dog
on the end of the leash every day. It’s not one size fits all.”
There are many clashing methods for dog discipline out there Cocola calls them
“split religions”. One group insists on food rewards, another on
strict physical discipline/ Advocates of the “pure-positive” method
tell dog owners to ignore bad behavior and reward dogs for anything good. “But
it’s unnatural to ignore bad behavior,” says Cocola and such forgiveness
is unknown among dogs that roam in packs. As for strict discipline, she is very
plain: “There’s never any reason to raise your voice, yell or hit.”
In the wild, says Cocola, alpha dogs are not violent: they are calm and assertive.
On a spacious lawn in front of the resort, Cocola demonstrates her style of
discipline training.
On short leather leashes are Murphy and Elliot, two
dogs among many on site (capacity:35) for a week or
more of training. They make an odd couple. Murphy
is a blunt, powerful brown pit bull who as a post
training treat likes to crash into nearby Red Creek
for a reckless swim. Elliot, taller by a head, is
a fluffy white bouvier de Flanders, who prefers dithering
with loose gravel on the driveway. His flaw is not
so much disobedience as it is distraction.
Helping the
process are remote controlled collars that can deliver
a flea bite like static pulse or and irritating audible
cue. A typical dog will wear this collar for
six months. Cocola admits collars are controversial,
but insists that a few out onthe market-if tested and
fitted by a professional like herself-are worth the
time. “It’s a safety net” that works
out to 350 yards, she says.
When a dog is off the
leash, it gives the owner a means to remind the dog
who is in charge/ In general, says Cocola, a dog needs
the same things for discipline a 5 year old child
does, or a teenager, daily exercise, structure, mental
stimulation and –yes- a job to do. For a dog
that can be as simple as carrying its own water in
a pack while on an outing. Good dog food is important
too, she says (with preference for premium chow with
no dyes or preservatives). “They meet our needs,”
says Cocola of dogs, and the love and loyalty they
give humans. “We have to meet theirs”.
At Creekside, with partner Rob Maher, and in the Positive
K-9 business, Cocola often works days that stretch
out to 14 or 26 hours; yet she only takes a few days
off a year. “I love it,” Cocola days of
dog work. “It’s not a job.” But
she does have one pet peeve, so to speak: There’s
no state requirement that dog trainers be certified,
as she is. That means hobbyists dominate the market,
says Cocola, and fall into well-meaning ruts that
don’t work. One example: group classes of 15
dogs or more, all in one room with one trainer. Cocola’s
clients from as far away as New England and Canada,
remain fans, and are guaranteed a life time of follow-ups.
(Positive K-9 gets up to 75 training inquires a day.)
“I jokingly call her the Dog Whisperer,”
says Lindsay Hobbs, referring to a term usually applied
to TV dog guru Cesar Millian (Cocola calls the comparison
“a high form of flattery”.) It was in
2001 that Hobbs from West Henrietta, called Cocola
for help with an unruly Australian shepherd puppy
named Sydney Thunder from Down Under. When Sydney
arrived at Creekside for eight days of training, he
was difficult. “He seemed to think of us as
chew toys,” said Hobbs of herself and her husband.
But when Sydney came back home, he accepted that he
was no longer in charge of the pack” his owners
were. “She brought him back a completely transformed
boy,” said Hobbs of the new Sydney. “I
thought she brought back a carbon copy.” Dogs
are all individuals, says Cocola, “I learn something
from each and every one I train.”
Corydon Ireland is a Rochester-based freelance writer.
