Marjorie Satterfield says the key to successfully training a pet to be obedient is to first successfully train the pet's owner. Most of the time it is easier to train the pet, she says, because pets learn specific words and adults are not consistent in giving their commands, says Satterfield.

An award winning author, breeder, exhibitor, judge and trainer, Satterfield will offer her popular dog training and behavior counseling classes as adult evening education classes at Central Technology Center, Drumright, beginning in September.

The Central Tech evening classes will include Puppy Kindergarten for six weeks, Basic Dog Obedience for eight weeks and Beyond the Basics for eight weeks, with classes meeting for one hour each week. Pet owners participating in the training will need to bring their dog to class and then practice at home the techniques Satterfield will share during class sessions.

The Stillwater mother and entrepreneur began her career at the age of 12 after a prized pet was killed by a passing automobile when the dog bolted from her home to chase the car. Satterfield vowed then that she would never have another pet that was not disciplined to obey simple commands and began training herself how to train the pets. She first trained her neighbor's dogs for cash and later opened her own business training dogs when she graduated from high school.

Today, Satterfield's 14 year old son Clay is assisting his mother in training pets at Happy Talz Dog Training and Behavior Counseling center in Stillwater . Clay has already decided that he wants to follow his mother's career path as a professional animal trainer. To date, "Marj," as she is known by friends, has finished 30 dogs to the title of AKC Champion and has a total of 25 obedience titles. Marj's career has spanned every medium from television and radio shows to books to the classroom.

Marj advises those interested in getting a pet and giving it obedience training to invest in a well bred animal and consider what the dog was originally bred to do. "Most people will get the dog that they either had as a child, or one like the neighbor's dog, and those are the two biggest mistakes most people make in selecting a dog," says Satterfield. "The dog may fit your neighbor's family but will not fit yours, or was a suitable fit for you as a child but is not appropriate in your environment today."

Mixed breed dogs are fine pets, says the instructor, however dogs are bred with specific learning and behavioral traits and patterns and owners should not expect the animals to accomplish tasks they were not bred to do. Some mixes, however, do tend to render the dog so conflicted as to render it virtually untrainable says the veteran trainer.

Satterfield also points out to her students that poor pet nutrition can affect as much as 90% of oral misbehavior, such as over-barking, biting and destructive chewing. Emphasis therefore is made in her classes on nutritional counseling for the benefit of the pet's well-being and to assist the owner in accomplishing the pet obedience goals that have been set.