Meet Karin Chan of The Driven Dog

Today we’d like to introduce you to Karin Chan.

Karin, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was that kid that snuck pet turtles and snakes under my bed, kittens in my closet, hoping to not get busted by my mom. Naturally, I got involved with animal rescue fairly young, and thought I would go to vet school. During my undergrad years, I was what I realize now, to be fortunate enough to recognize that the veterinary field just wasn’t quite for me. A little lost but still heavily involved with animal rescue, I started a dog walking and pet sitting business to help fund animal rescue work. I was quite successful at it, and in turn, was able to do a lot more rescue work. I eventually found myself a little obsessed with trying to train and understand dog behavior, as an attempt to help dogs find the right homes and become better and safer members of their family and the public. One thing led to another, here I am, almost 8 years later, a professional but still obsessed with trying to understand more and more of dog behavior, cognition and behavior modification. After a move from Chicago to LA about 3 years ago, I purchased a business in Gardena and have been able to greatly expand my dog training services.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It of course has not been a smooth road! I moved half way across the country for a dude I broke up with 6 months in. Found myself in a market I knew little about with no network to support my self-employment. It was a pure stroke of luck and fate that I ended up purchasing the business when I did. I went from being a one-woman company with no one to account for but myself, to a five-employee facility overnight. It was a total shock and it has been a tremendous amount of stress. I had to cope with the anxious thoughts of failing not just myself, but five people whose paychecks depended on me to make the right decisions. I had to let go of my ‘touch of’ (ok, maybe full blown…) OCD/perfectionism when I realized that I couldn’t do everything all by myself. Asking others to help meant accepting that the task would be done, but not always exactly in the way and timeframe that I would have done it myself. It’s a wonderful adventure that has been full of very important and sometimes harsh life lessons.

And to top it off, if I ever call to complain to my mom about hardships at the shop, she sends me some sort of altar or good luck talisman. So, my lobby looks half like a pet shop, half like a Buddhist altar.

Please tell us about The Driven Dog.
The Driven Dog was born about 8 years ago in Chicago. At the time, I was fairly on the purely positive band wagon of training but I was also getting frustrated with how unsuccessful I was when dealing with tougher dogs. I always felt like I was missing something. Being the nerd that I am, I continued to seek out seminars and workshops to help me understand more, and better. At some point, I learned more about all of the quadrants in operant learning and it truly felt like puzzle pieces were falling into place.

Word of mouth had been my best source of business back home in Chicago, and I’d end up with a lot of dogs that were fairly serious aggression cases. And yes, I have definitely been bitten by dogs of various sizes. When I decided to move out to LA, I really thought it would be a great time to switch it up and perhaps I would get a more varied clientele.

But actually, I still end up getting a lot of aggression cases, compared to other trainers in my area! I don’t like to say that that is what I specialize in, but I do happen to have a lot of experience with those types of dogs.

About the time that I learned about a more balanced training approach, I was also introduced to sport and working dogs that compete in bite work like French Ring, PSA, or IPO. I have been hooked since then. Some people think it’s an overly aggressive sport, but I like to think of it as Jiu Jitsu or Karate for dogs. These are dogs that inherently want to bite due to hundreds of years of selective breeding.

Everything in their DNA says to do this. So we teach them the rules and proper technique along with impulse control and it becomes an outlet, rather than a dog that’s a loose cannon. In being involved with dogs like this for so many years, I learned how drive and aggression works in a dog, offense versus defense, how to manipulate and control it. It made me a better trainer. This is probably why I tend to be good with aggression management with client dogs!

I’m also a Certified Canine Fitness Trainer (CCFT) through Fit Paws USA and University of Tennessee.

Because of all the sport work I do with my dogs, I am very cognizant of treating them as the super athletes they are. Human athletes don’t slide off the couch after eating a tub of fried chicken and jump right into a sport competition and neither should our dogs. Warm ups, cool downs, stretches and conditioning are just some of the things we may add to our dog training programs.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My grandfather used to have this gorgeous, giant Doberman. I was probably around 4 years old. His name was Atucky and he lived out in the backyard, tied to a big dog house my grandpa built. I used to think the dog house was like a castle, my grandpa had nailed these shiny black roof shingles all over it and it would sort of glisten and sparkle in the sun. I would crawl into the dog house and basically give my grandma a heart attack. Atucky was never aggressive or even rough with me, but my grandma probably thought he was going to eat me.

Contact Info:

• Address: Chewy’s Dog Gym
  546 W 182nd St.,
  Gardena, CA 90248
• Website: www.TheDrivenDog.com
• Phone: 5626599663
• Email: info@thedrivendog.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedrivendog/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDrivenDog
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/thedrivendog
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-driven-dog-long-beach
• Other: www.ChewysDogGym.com

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.