Welcome to Myrph's Dog Training & Dog Park
     
 

About Myrph

 
     
  Myrph McMahon

Some quick facts about Myrph...

  • Myrph has been training dogs and teaching people for over thirty years

  • Many of Myrph's clients are repeat business. Consistently, they remember her and come back many years later with their new pups. She is now working with a fourth generation of returning clients.

  • Myrph's background includes over seven hundred hours of canine behavior study, course-work and conferences. She competed successfully in the obedience and field trial worlds for over ten years before moving on to more meaningful work with dogs. In that time, she titled three dogs with seventeen different titles in obedience, field, tracking, and conformation. Her companion dog Chelsea ultimately earned the title of "Top Scoring Chesapeake Bay Retriever in the USA in AKC Licensed Obedience Trials".

  • As important as her expertise in dog behavior and training, Myrph possesses 15 years of experience in the human services field, counseling people. She also has formal education in the teaching field. One can be an excellent dog trainer, but for that dog trainer to successfully help people with their dogs, one must also have excellent listening and teaching skills.

 
  • Myrph has certified both of her current companion dogs as Therapy Dogs.  She proposed, piloted, and successfully operated the Therapy Dog Program at Catholic Charities Mental Health Services.

  • Myrph possesses an exceptional gift in communicating with dogs, and has become expert in teaching owners to understand how their dogs communicate with them.  She is consistently successful at identifying problems and creating successful interventions both for the people and for the dogs. The most important ingredient to a well-behaved dog companion is an owner aware and in control of her own habits of interaction with her dog.

  • Myrph teaches you how to utilize your dog's natural instincts to build a healthy bond.  The end result is a well-behaved dog and a long, rich, and happy companionship with your dog.
     

"I believe that dogs can bring immense amounts of richness and joy into the lives of people. My passion is to help people achieve the joy of companionship with a dog for themselves."

   
 

 

"As a youngster, I was identified by my family and by our neighborhood as someone who could get a dog to do almost anything. I worked on a horse farm, but I had an uncanny knowing of dogs and feeling of comfort in the company of dogs. Every night the weather permitted, I slept in the barn with the family dog. He followed me about into the woods and around the neighborhood and watched over me.  I much preferred his company to that of the other children in the neighborhood."Myrph and her Dogs

"After years of formal study of canine behavior and years of training and competing in field, tracking, bench and obedience with my own dogs, I entered the field of professional dog training.  I began as a professional trainer of hunting dogs, which was very lucrative.  However, I became greatly discouraged and deeply pained when, after working with a dog for several weeks, developing a friendship and mutual respect with this animal, I saw what happened to him when my work was done. After the hunting season was over, the dogs I had come to love were often sent back to a life of isolation, sometimes a life of discomfort and filth, relegated to an outdoor cage with automatic feeders and water deicers, ignored and abandoned until a few weeks before the next hunting season. At the time, hunters commonly believed that one could not enjoy the company of a good hunting dog in the home, as the indoor home life would "soften" the dog and also destroy the dog's superb olfactory powers. My efforts to dispel this myth failed. Ultimately I found this work to be heartbreaking. After six years of building a sizeable clientele and a good reputation as a trainer of hunting dogs, I decided I couldn't continue.

"I then made the decision to work solely with owners of companion pet dogs rather than hunting dogs. I find this work to be more rewarding than any other work I have done. We are remarkably successful, these pet owners and I, in learning to communicate and interact effectively with their dogs.  I love to watch what happens when a frustrated dog owner grows into a person who truly enjoys their dog."

 

 

 

Please inquire via email or phone regarding private appointments or class schedule

© 2018 Myrph's Dog Training • myrph@myrphsdogtraining.com • 607-727-1036