About Doggy Stars
Doggy Stars started as a service dog, training, and disability blog at a time when Sirius was taking a break from hands-on dog training due to health problems. As Sirius received treatment and started to feel better, they wanted to come back to hands-on dog training. Since they already had this website, making it into an actual training service made perfect sense.
Their passions include education, acceptance, and accessibility and you can see that throughout the many articles that are written to help you, with many places to start training and several training plans for specific behaviors (such as teaching your dog to jump up and off of things and how to teach your dog a formal retrieval).
If you love your dog and want what's best for them, you might find lots of good information in the Doggy Stars' Blog. Feel free to look around to get a peek into Sirius's point of view to see if you're a good fit for working with us.
Meet Sirius
Their Certifications
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Certified Professional Dog Trainer - Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA) through CCPDT
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M.S. in Anthrozoology through Canisius University
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Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Evaluator through the AKC
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Certified Trick Dog Instructor (CTDI) through DMWYD
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Catch Certified Dog Trainer (CCDT) through CATCH Canine Trainers Academy
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GoodPup Certified Trainer (GCT) through GoodPup
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Stunt Dog Judge (SDJ) through DMWYD
Their Experience
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CPDT-KA in good standing since 2016
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Life-time passion of dog behavior and dog training
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First professionally trained dogs at the age of 16
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Worked with puppies still with their litter, puppies in their new homes, teenage pups, adult dogs, and senior dogs
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Created successful training plans for various species of education animal at a wildlife rehabilitation facility
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Worked with many owner-trainers to successfully train their own service dogs
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Helped many dogs beat their debilitating separation anxiety
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Helped many dogs learn emotional stability and be able to overcome leash reactivity
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Worked with dogs of all sizes, from teacup poodles all the way up to Cane Corsos
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Earned Trick titles up through the AKC Advanced Trick Dog (TKA) / DMWYD Advanced Trick Dog (ATD)
Meet the Pups Behind Doggy Stars
These are the pups who live with us and inspire us daily (while also challenging us to always learn more).
Ruff Life's Quetzalcoatl
Service Dog In Training (SDiT)
Quet was born May 2025 and has been hard at work learning what he will need to know as a service dog as well as learning to be brave in any situation (he's already very good at that!). You can follow along with his journey by going to his TikTok through our LinkTree.
Perseus Titan
Mostly-Retired Service Dog
Percy was born Sept. 2018 and was trained mostly by Sirius, though other trainers also participated in his training. He is mostly retired as his anxieties have gotten worse as he's gotten older and we want to make sure that he's comfortable and happy.
Hero
Loved Family Pet
Hero was born Nov. 2018 and was originally being trained as a facility dog. Unfortunately, Hero has icthyosis and his main handler started developing terrible allergy problems, so we took him in. It was decided that he should be washed out of training due to his skin condition, so he now lives a comfy life as a beloved pet.
Orion
Passed Away 2022
Orion was born July 2015 at a service dog training facility Sirius was working at. He learned quickly and was briefly a service dog before being retired while young due to bad hips and knees. We unfortunately lost him suddenly in July 2022, just weeks after his 7th birthday, but he is still remembered with love.
Training Philosophy
(And why it matters!)
You want what is best for your dog and your life and so do we. Since dog training is unregulated, it can be hard to determine if a dog trainer will fit your values while helping you on this journey.
Compassion
Care and love center our training philosophy. We want your dog to learn to listen and be able to better regulate, but not at the expense of their personality or happiness. That's why compassion is an important part of how we train.
L.I.M.A.
LIMA stands for Least Invasive, Minimally Aversive. What this means is that we focus on humane training methods and what we want your dog TO do, but we are knowledgeable with a wide range of techniques and tools and will use what works best for you and your dog.
Science
We make sure to stay up to date on canine science and the most recent canine behavior research. And we want to make sure you can understand that, as well, to help you understand your pup and their needs.
Efficient
Dog training takes time, but we understand that both time and money are limited. So we make sure that we're doing everything as efficiently as possible so that you can get the most for your time and money.
Fun
If you enjoy something, you're more likely to remember it and your dog is the same! So we want to make sure that you and your dog are learning, but also able to have fun and remember everything we go over.
Customized
Every dog is different as is every life and home. We want to make sure to set you and your dog up for success. So every training plan and training summary is personalized to you. We customize everything so that you and your dog can achieve your goals.
