Each day he's on the road making rounds, like a doctor doing house calls.  But he doesn't write out prescriptions or dispense medications. What he does give out are dozens of dog biscuits and continuous words of praise, and, along with a refined obedience regimen, helps transform any problem pet into the best behaved canine on the block. 

And for Tom Beitz, a pet behavior specialist and trainer, it's all in a day's work. Beitz, 47, owner of the Academy for Puppies and Dogs in Hamburg, has been solving pet problems for about 10 years. 

A former Hamburg resident and financial planner looking to embark on a new career, Beitz teamed up with a friend who already had a dog training school.  "I tailed him for a couple of days and thought it was really fun," Beitz said. So he gave up his white shirt and ties for jeans and dog leashes, and after months of training, began his own dog obedience business. "Most people, when they hire me to do the training, they're at their wit's end. It's like either 'cure it or kill it,’" says Beitz.

He teases pet owners, telling them that dogs usually catch on in the first week. "The owners catch on in the third or fourth week," he laughed. "Some dogs learn faster than others, like people." "I'm pretty frank with people right up front," he admits, "and let them know it's not Puppies playtime. I tell people you'll get out of it what you put into it."

Beitz specializes in eliminating problem behaviors, such as aggression, separation anxiety, excessive barking, chewing, running away, housebreaking, jumping up, soiling, and other annoyances. And, because most of the problem behaviors occur at home, the key to his success is that's where he conducts his training - at home. 

Not only do dogs learn new behavior, but their owners do as well. "Sometimes, owners are reinforcing behaviors and they don't even realize it," says Beitz.

Pet owners have to learn how to work with their dogs and give proper commands, he explained, because they're with them most of the time. Beitz visits his canine clients, does obedience training with them, and then instructs their owner in proper commands and training techniques to practice with the dog during the week, until he returns again.

And how does he know if the owners keep their promise to work with the dog? "I can tell by the way the dog acts." And it's not uncommon for pet owners to excitedly tell Beitz their dogs are "reborn," after just a few days of training. 

"Dogs are conditioned response animals," he explained. "If they know the conditions are the same all the time, the response will be the same. If we change the conditions, the response is going to change."

To round out his business, Beitz also trains dogs on the hidden fence, a pet containment system that uses visual, audible, and sensitivity stimulation to boundary train a dog. He is the only authorized dealer for a world-wide pet containment company and covers southern Erie County, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties. It's a large area to cover, and Beitz admits the toughest part of his job is the driving. 

He uses the new low stress, gentle method of training a dog on the hidden fence, a concept developed by Richard Weinssen, also a pet behavioral specialist.

"All the systems that are on the market today basically have various levels of correction. A low level of correction on other brands is about equal to a medium on the system I use," he explained. "For some dogs, even a low level of correction is too much of a correction."

The levels of correction are so low, he explained, humans barely even feel them. "The dogs are hearing the beep, they're getting a tickle, it doesn't mean anything to us, but it really does mean something to the dog. You can increase the correction level, and once you find where the dog will respond, it makes all the difference in the world."

Dogs don't just learn the boundaries with his training, Beitz explained, they learn that the yard is a fun place to be in. 

With the new low stress method, the antiquated way of shaking the boundary flag in front of the dog's face is history. All it did was to create anxiety when the dog was in the yard, Beitz explained. When he used to do that type of training, dogs were leery of him when he came to visit, associating him as the "bad guy."

"I don't have that problem any more," he laughed. "Dogs are glad to see me!"

And with the low stress training method, Beitz has even dogs as young as ten weeks being trained on the hidden fence. "My commitment is that if someone puts the fence in, they want it to work. I'm going to stick with them and come back until the dog is trained on the fence."

An option to the hidden fence, which can run around $1,500 for installation and training, is off-leash training.

Beitz has developed his own low stress off-leash training method. "I use a remote trainer, which uses a very low stimulation to get the dog's attention." He starts with on-leash training, doing the basic sit, stay, heel commands. He then introduces the stimulation in an off-leash situation. 

He also does seminars on dog safety for schools, canine behavior for groomers, and pet wellness for breeders and kennel owners.

Beitz holds a bachelor of science degree, and continually attends educational seminars. Two of the most prominent were the University of Cornell School of Veterinary Medicine "Solving Canine Behavior Problems," and a hidden fence conference conducted at Triple Crown Training Academy, the most prestigious training school in the world.

"Some dogs are bad, but you can make bad dogs good and good dogs even better. I wouldn't be in business if we didn't live in such a permissive society," Beitz stated. "Frankly, it's a matter of saying sometimes you have to put the brakes on. A little discipline isn't going to hurt your dog. He's not going to love you any less because you disciplined your dog." 

Some might say Beitz has let his business go to the dogs. What a better success story than that.