Neil Cohen

My Amazing Journey…from Frustrated Dog Owner to Master Trainer

Hi, my name is Neil Cohen. I have been a dog person my whole life. Even after being bit as a child, I never can remember a moment that I wasn’t drawn to dogs.

When I was 5, we moved to the suburbs and adopted our first dog. I can remember everything about that day. We went to Bide-a-wee on Long Island and walked the aisles, looking at all the sad, mad, happy and downright crazy dogs. Everyone was barking and howling, except for one. We found this beautiful, calm border collie mix. She was black and white, and her tail never stopped wagging for a second. That was her, our dog. And we named her Fluffy (pretty original, right?)

Fluffy was a great dog, aside from stealing socks and pulling off my brother’s diaper, she perfect. Times were different then; we just opened the door and she ran around the neighborhood. Somehow, she always came back when you called. Just like kids knew that the streetlights lighting up were a signal to head for home, she did her business and came home for dinner.

As we grew up, we got a few more dogs but Fluffy was our constant companion. She never had any real training and, in our eyes, never needed any. We lost her after 17 wonderful years and will always have her in our hearts.

When grew up and moved into our first suburban home, I felt it was time for our family to have a bigger dog. One I could hike with, one that would keep the bad guys away. And we adopted Cody. A strong, confident year and half year-old boxer with virtually no training. He was a sweetheart but barely even housebroken. He was found wandering the streets in South Carolina and a somehow wound up in a Cocker Spaniel rescue. Well, I figured “how hard could it be?”, I mean, I had dogs my whole life, I could train this one. It was a disaster. Everyone that walked in was greeted with enthusiasm. So much enthusiasm that they were knocked down stairs, bumped into walls and covered with slobber. He chewed toys, chased chipmunks and walking him could have been an Olympic sport.

But I was committed to making this work. I watched videos and read books. He learned all kinds of tricks, but he still couldn’t control his enthusiasm and we were frustrated to say the least.

Then, by chance, I happened upon some Youtube videos of Fred Hassen, the founder of Sit Means Sit. Fred had built a huge following posting a new dog training video every day. Sit Means Sit wasn’t yet a franchise, but Fred was sharing his unique method of attention-based training with the world and training trainers how to use his system. Now, I wasn’t looking to be a dog trainer. I had a successful business that I enjoyed. Fortunately, Fred was the sharing type and I was able to learn enough to make positive changes in Cody’s behavior. We were hiking off leash, people could visit us. All was grand.

Eventually, a Sit Means Sit franchise opened in Fairfield, CT by an amazing trainer named Allen Burnsworth. We quickly became friends and Allen took me under his wing. The plan was that I would train dogs on the weekend in Westchester, saving him the drive from Connecticut.

Like many things, plans don’t always work out as you expect. Allen was given the opportunity to take over a Master Territory on the West Coast and wanted to sell his franchise. Of course, he told me this at 2 am on a Thursday. It took me all of 17 seconds to decide this was what I was meant to do. Four days later I flew to Las Vegas to begin my training with Fred. Intensive isn’t the word for it. Our days were long, 10-12 hours of mostly hands-on instruction. We spent hours at the shelters, training dogs without names, helping to get them adopted. After a month of tutelage, I headed home to start my new career.

Five years later, training hundreds of dogs and transforming lives, I’ve never looked back. Dog training has given me almost everything I could have dreamed of. I met my wife, Jamie, through her dog Sarge. I was given the gift of time with my kids, Justin and Kayla. And I have an enormous pack. Three of my own: Pepper, Sarge, and Eddie, and all of my client’s dogs, as I consider each one of them part of my family. Together with my dogs we have brought smiles to Veterans (through K9 Caring Angels Therapy Dogs), we entertained 10s of thousands of fans as the Batdog for the New York Boulder’s baseball team (Pepper is the first and only dog to Batdog in a profession All-Star game), and, most importantly, we have helped our clients to lead happier lives with their dogs.

All because I was a frustrated dog owner.