Former Navy SEAL Mike Ritland is a soft-spoken guy—but he knows how to get a dog’s attention. “It’s all about how you carry yourself,” says Ritland, who’s been paid up to $100,000 per animal to train dogs for the military and homeowners at his Trikos school in Dallas. “Training dogs for the military is no different than training your dog to not bark—They always respond to non-verbal communication, reinforcement and psychology.”
In his book How to Train Your Dog—The Navy SEAL Way, out today, Ritland explains how to use the SEAL mindset to transform your dog into an elite pet. “Whether I’m teaching a Belgian Malinois how to search a building for someone to bite or training my grandmother’s Sheltie to stop dragging her around the block on a leash,” he says, “I’m using all the same principles.”
