Franzi
What brought my here was my divorce, funnily enough. I liked the property. I was looking for something with a nice yard and it had everything that I needed.
I spend a lot of time by myself, with my animals. I don’t venture out much, but I do love the forest preserves around here. Those are very, very pretty. I think there's a lot of negative opinions about North Chicago, but at least this area has been very quiet, very peaceful, and quite enjoyable.
Very friendly. Everyone's very nice to me, so I'm very thankful for that.
You mentioned your animals, and wanting a home with a yard. There’s always some activity going on out here…
I've been a dog trainer for almost 14 years, now. I initially went through animal behavior college, and then I was under a mentorship privately for about six and a half years with a behaviorist. I learned a lot. I was also very active in rescue work, which was very rewarding for a long time and then it kind of just trickled out. I was active in dog shows for a while, before I ended up taking a position in a facility as their main trainer for almost four years. Then it was time to do my own thing. It’s a lifestyle, 24/7, not a 9-to-5 like people normally have.
Is that because people leave their dogs with you for training?
At times, but what I do most is going into people's homes. I do classes as well.
When it comes to being at home, a lot of my work revolves around my own dogs. [Cyprus] is a sports and competition dog and he's also my service dog. There's a lot of work that goes into this stuff that probably a lot of people would be surprised about.
You’ve heard the saying that “it takes a village” to raise a child. The same for canines. It takes so much socialization and knowledge, even before you decide to get a puppy. There’s so much stuff that people don’t know about, but I wouldn’t have a job if it wasn’t for that.
It's hard sometimes when you try to educate people. There’s those that want to learn, and that will actually take what you're telling them and educate themselves. And then there’s those with blinders on. They live in that fairytale world of cute viral videos. They’re seeing something and saying “that's so adorable!” whereas I can see that dog has behavior issues. It takes a lot of the cuteness factor out for me. In that sense, it's sometimes hard to just enjoy them as a pet.
When you were studying animal behavior, was working with dogs always the goal?
Before I was a dog trainer I did a lot of stuff with languages. People are sometimes very flip and flop on certain things. And self awareness is not always... Canines are very straightforward. Their communication is all body language. Of course I don’t know what’s in his head, but the body language is the same across the field; all dogs have it. You know their motives. At this point, dogs make more sense to me than most people.
But dogs do have their own mind and motivations, and they even know how to manipulate people…
They absolutely do. There's definitely some players that know how to manipulate the game to their advantage.
When I went to school, a lot of the focus was to correct certain behaviors. Over the years of being on my own, I’ve learned that their feelings are very valid, just like us when we're scared of something. Once you actually know what you're looking at, you can learn how to deter behaviors and change them into something else, rather than reward or trying to correct them all the time.
If you weren’t working with dogs, what would you be doing? Something completely different? Working with a different kind of animal?
I’ve been doing this for the greater part of the last 14 years. And it's a very rewarding job. Not just for the animals’ sake, but I've also met the most wonderful community from it. Some of the most generous, kindest, sweetest people that I've ever come across. I don't think I ever would want to go down a different road, or that I could see myself doing something else.
You’re always teaching others. What’s the last thing you learned?
To have more compassion. There's obviously many different reasons why someone would have to rehome their dog. That can happen. But years ago I was a lot more judgmental than I am nowadays. I think if you really know that you can’t give what they need, sometimes rehoming is the best solution– as long as you take the right steps to make sure that your dog ends up in good hands.
What’s your idea of the perfect day?
Doing something with my animals. I'm very active in competition sports. Specifically, we do rally. We do agility. We do tracking– and we are starting disk work. So my perfect day is going to a sport event hanging out with a bunch of dog people and having fun.
To be clear, when you say competition sports you’re not talking about taking your dog with you to a football game.
No, no, there's actual dog sports. In dog training there’s the obedience portion of the deal, but there's so many different sports that you can enroll your dog and that are fun and give them an outlet.
You shared that your commitment to your own animals and helping others with theirs is a lifestyle. What are your other passions?
I love music, hiking… but like I said, a lot of these things– even my art– goes back to them, because I do animal portraits. It’s all one giant cluster.
This is my life. For a lot of us trainers, this is our life purpose, 24/7.
What are you most proud of?
I'm proud whenever I get a student that really struggles and they stick it through: when I see that behavior is starting to change and that bond to grow and I'm able to make a difference in the person's and the animal's life. If the training helps the animal stay in its home and for that bond to to actually grow into something– that makes my job quite worthwhile. I deal with a lot of fear and anxiety cases, and reactivity. My job is not just all fun and games. There's a lot of really serious situations attached to it.
What are the three most important things people should know or think about before bringing home a new dog?
The first is that genetics are a thing. There’s a lot of people that go into a pet store or look for a rescue and pick one because it looks cute. They don’t spend enough time with these animals to actually get to know them. When you get a Border Collie, you can’t be surprised that it barks at strangers. They’re supposed to protect and guard things. It’s part of their DNA.
The second thing is, are you financially able to provide– not just the vet costs that come with a dog– but also training? People are sometimes surprised how pricey training can be. Obedience training is one thing, and you have to know what you want to achieve. There's a lot of different things you can do with your dog that will strengthen the bonds with them, and they all cost money.
Last, commitment and consistency is the thing. Your dog is only going to be as consistent as you are with your follow-through. When you say the dog is stubborn or the dog has had a bad day, nine out of 10 times that's just not true. It’s you.
Franzi’s artwork revolves around her passion for animals. Here, digitally-drawn portraits of Kairo and Sofia.
Cyprus, a Border Collie, is not yet a year old and has won seven competition titles. “He’s incredibly intelligent and he’s my best friend,” Franzi says. “That dog is my heart.”
This conversation has been edited and condensed.