Katie Buvala

Katie Buvala is a dog trainer and blogger from Phoenix, Arizona. She runs Focus, Fido! Dog Training, specializing in teaching hyper, out-of-control dogs to chill out, focus, and listen to their owners.

Katie's training techniques are based on the work she's done with the most hyper, wound-up dogs there are: those who have spent weeks or months living in cages in animal shelters. Katie began doing volunteer work in the world of animal rescue in 2003. Over the years she has held the roles of kennel cleaner, dog walker, trainer, and adoption counselor.

Katie runs the dog training blog3LostDogs.com, which provides training how-to articles and videos geared toward owners of adopted/rescued dogs. Katie started 3LostDogs after seeing so many animals surrendered to shelters because of behavior problems that could have been fixed. The blog aims to help dog adopters solve their canine issues so that fewer dogs end up in the pound.

Katie trains and competes in agility and disc dog with her own adopted dogs, the three “lost” dogs for whom 3LostDogs.com was named.

Blog posts by Katie Buvala

Entertaining a Pack of Preteens is a Lot Like Training Puppies

Katie Buvala | Mon, 03/21/2011 - 13:51

In a moment of what was either brilliance or insanity, I turned to address the pack of preteen girls swarming in front of me. “Hey guys. I have an idea for a game...”

We were at a birthday party for a family member. It was getting late, the party was wrapping up, and I had wandered out to the backyard, where about half a dozen of my younger female cousins were playing. I sat down on the patio to observe. I wasn't sure what they were playing, but it involved a lot of screaming and giggling and running. I must have caught the tail-end of the game, because pretty soon, they started winding down.

They were getting bored.

How I Screwed Up My First Puppy

Katie Buvala | Tue, 07/27/2010 - 09:44

Meet Friday, my nine-year-old shepherd mix. I adopted her when she was eight weeks old. She was my very first dog. In hindsight, I realize I should have gotten an older dog, but my family's thinking was that with a puppy, we could shape her behavior into whatever we wanted. Ha! What they don't tell you is that it's hard to shape a puppy's behavior when you don't really know what you're doing.

Hi. I'm new at Dog Star Daily, and I am honored to be here. For my first post, I figured I'd introduce you to The Dog That Started It All – and how I sort of failed at raising her.