A Message from Ed Frawley, Owner of Leerburg

I bought my first video camera in 1978 and produced my first dog training video in 1982. It seems like yesterday, but time passes quickly when you are having fun. I have been very lucky to have had a career doing something I love.

Never in a million years did I ever think that one day it would be possible to teach people how to train dogs using a computer. Heck, ten years ago I didn’t think it would be possible.

The first VHS video I produced back in 1982 was titled Training a Competition Obedience Dog. That video was 2 hours long. Today I chuckle because it quickly became evident that it’s impossible to teach everything there is to know on competition obedience in 2 hours. If it were possible there would be 100,000 dog training centers out there holding 2 hour classes every night pumping out competition obedience dogs.

The core issue of producing training videos has always been the limit of how much information we can put into a video. While a VHS tape only holds 2 hours, a DVD can fit 3 ½ hours. Unfortunately, that’s often not enough time to teach complicated skills. That has always bothered me.

Then a few years ago, along came streaming video. Streaming video has opened another door to the world of dog training. It gives us the tools to instantly provide the amount of information that is sometimes necessary to teach.

For the past year, Leerburg’s IT staff of five talented computer programmers have focused their energy on writing our own dedicated online computer program. It is tailored specifically to teaching people how to train dogs.

We have some very good friends who are gifted instructors/trainers. They know how to teach dog training. Our program gives them the flexibility to design and lay out a course according to the needs of the topic being taught.

Some of the features of the Leerburg Online program are:

1. Course material that will be professionally filmed
2. Weekly class discussion through forums
3. Live online chats with peers and instructors
4. Students being able to seamlessly upload short videos to the discussion forum for that week
5. Graded tests on the course material

Leerburg’s online program offers a new level of interaction with students. With the advent of the internet, dog training has come further in the past 15 years than it did in the previous 150 years.

Online training will never replace hands-on instruction, but it can bridge the gap between a DVD and attending a dog training school or seminar.

I hope Leerburg Online University serves as great instructional resource for your dog training endeavors whether it's in basic dog obedience or K9 training.