ABOUT LJT TRAINING INC.

We offer a wide variety of services that may appear unrelated but LJT Training is all about helping people and their pets live “happily ever after.” Our goal is to help people help themselves our emphasis is on coaching or mentoring not dictating.

Trainer Laura Totis of LJT Training, Inc.

Laura has been working with dogs since 1978. Her own dogs have been trained and worked for search and rescue responding to 9/11, the Baltimore Harbor search, and Hurricane Katrina. She has been the training director for Oriole dog Training Club, and Mid Atlantic DOGS. She has trained dogs for pet detection, mobility and hearing assistance, and therapy work, even to locate desert tortoises for a research project. She has taught classes and seminars for Law Enforcement Training Specialists, many SAR units, the Animal Behavior College, and the Missing Partnership; throughout the United States. She started the new sport of Snifferdog for people and pets looking for a fun activity they can play together. Laura offers private coaching, group classes and board & train options, she is always happy to put together a seminar if requested.
Laura is a member of APDT, IADBC & NASAR.

I read somewhere and really liked the philosophy that when it comes to dog trainers.. “My dogs are my resume” 
BumbleBear CD, therapy dog, CGC, herding instinct tested, v-rated. BumbleBear Was my first rottweiler she was the best in terms of being an amazing dog. She put up with my struggle to work her in obedience even though she was not thrilled with the show ring. she also did a fine job participating in the conformation ring both AKC and the seiger shows. She and I dabbled with sheep herding then we really worked at it when I got a pet pig two goats and a flock of chickens that were happy doing their own thing. That dog was a real help when those critters were eating the neighbors garden as I was supposed to be leaving for work! BumbleBear was my backpacking, canoeing, camping & travel partner for years. When the beagle’s back surgery went south BumbleBear learned carting and pulled Hellion in the cart for many - many miles. They used to participate in walk-a-thons for Pets on Wheels, the Baltimore SPCA, Muscular Dystrophy Research etc. BumBleBear loved people - all people and was an outstanding therapy dog. She loved puppies and although never had any of her own was aunt to countless fosters and Xenas first litter of pups. She was the smart girl that would fetch a cold drink from the fridge. (The real challenge was that she did not eat the roast off the same shelf!) She would fetch a Kleenex if I sneezed, She gave paw and other paw, high five, and was happy to do it as often as the neighborhood kids wanted her to. THIS was a once in a lifetime dog, I always feel the accomplishments of her successors are because of her willingness to try and do anything asked of her. BumbleBear was everything a rottweiler is supposed to be and most importantly she was the perfect pet.

Hellionwas born blind but I rescued her anyway, how bad could it be. Her name went from Helen to Hellion in a matter of hours. this little beagle had her own mind and did not consider any physical shortcomings a handicap at all. She had an unsuccessful emergency back surgery resulting in loosing the use of her back legs. Hellion did not care she would still chase the chickens in her little wheelie cart until hernias put her out of business. Not down for long we taught BumBleBear to pull her cart and carried her in a bag to visit as a therapy dog at union Memorial Hospital. The nurse told me many of the patients were thrilled to visit with her since she suffered many of the same problems the patients did but still managed to lead as full a life as any dog. Hellion would spend hours “burring” her bones in the middle of the living room carpet. Then along would come another dog who said “look a bone in the middle of the room” pick it up and get in all kinds of trouble until the rest of the pack learned to ignore the bones buried in the middle of the floor. Hellion was the queen of the house while she lived mostly because she had big ole BumBleBear to back her up no matter what. It was an interesting view of pack dynamics that we had with the two of them ruling the house together.

Torrie Judith(Vonder Bhams High Hopes, SAR dog, PSD, CGC, Therapy dog.) Torrie was recognized with the Maryland governor’s award not once but twice once for finding a lost two-year-old boy and again when she responded to the pentagon after 9/11. Torrie taught me a great lesson in flexibility. She was supposed to be a foundation bitch for breeding she even came from a futurity nominated litter. Unfortunately she was the classic ugly duckling story. Since I had an extra dog in the house we decided to dabble in search and rescue. Torrie found her niche she participated in hundreds of searches made live finds, cadaver finds, assisted with water recoveries and of course helped with one of the worst disasters in our time. The most important thing about Torrie is that she really genuinly loved people when she retired I started visiting a local asisted living residence through our local pets on wheels program. She looked forward to that visit right up to the day she lost the battle to cancer.

Xenavon der Bahm, Distinguished expert trailing dog, article detection dog, v-rated conformation, pet detection dog. I was once told by a pretty prominent AKC judge that this was the kind of dog that was going to end up on the six o’clock news giving Rottweilers a bad name. He was partly right she did end up on the news many times and in numerous newspaper and magazine articles. Xena was one of the first pet detection dogs in the country or perhaps the world. When she retired from mantrailing I let her take some lost pet calls. There was so much need for her services that we ended up working harder after she retired than her entire career before. In fact Chewy got her start pet tracking because eventually Xena really did need to retire! Xena was a beautiful dog she placed almost everytime she was shown in the AKC and was rated V2 in a seiger show. Her puppies continued her legisy of service of the nine pups three did SAR work, one was a mobility assistance dog, two were therapy dogs and one worked in Schutzhund of her two pet pups one traveled to work everyday with her people and the other lived with a pack of children.

AronDer Magnanimous CGC, Cadaver dog. Aron is Xenas daughter she received the Governor’s Award for service when she responded to the ninth ward after hurricane Katrina. Aron, like BumbleBear loves to participate in canoe and camping trips happly searching the water for hours or even days. I always tell my obedience students “If you want incentive to teach a solid stay put your dog in a canoe and float down the river for the day.” She also taught me the value of foundation for teaching the recall. she was the puppy that the neighborhood children would tell me “all the puppies walked through the woods with them except Aron she went off by her self and would not come.” I would have to go find her we worked with a long line and a lot of proofing for years. But she did work off leash in N.O. with some unbelievable distractions and works off leash on cadaver searches here. Another message for students “there are no short cuts the dog determines the rate of progress you determine how far you are going to go.” Arons great loves are puppies and children. She was the best mom both of her pups are working as SAR dogs Baize in CA and Ursa here. 

Ursader Magnanimous - CGC Cadaver dog, Air Scent dog Ursa is Arons daughter, Xena’s granddaughter. Ursa died when she was a couple of days old. She siezed and stopped breathing the litter was sick and diagnosed with fading puppy syndrome. the vet and told us we would probably loose the entire litter within days. After giving her CPR and calling the emergency veterinarian to tell them we were on our way and inspite of the poor prognosis I expected them to do something to keep the baby alive. the Veterniarian did her job the puppy lived and Ursa has been the happiest easyest going rottweiler ever since. (I suspect dieing may have given her a much more optomistic outlook on life.) she is like her grandmother at six years she is going on six months old. Still attends doggie day care occasionally to keep the young whipper snappers in line.  Ursa makes sure everyone follows the rules but does it with diplomacy usually with just a look at the rambunctious youngster.   She is a good sport and humored me when I decided to learn canine freestyle. click to view the video  Ursa’s Happy Tail Dance.

Click to view Bucks Video. Buck the wonderdog- Man trailing dog CGC and pet detection dog. Probably the only beagle that does what he does.  Like most beagles Buck is loaded with big dog personality.  He is the demo king showing children and their parents how dogs do scent work.  He even has a card trick or two up his little doggie sleeve.  He has assisted with numerous recoveries when buck clears an area he leaves no stone unturned.  He and Chewy make a good team searching for lost pets together.  Surprisingly he assists in the obedience classes as the demo dog for healing.  We dabbled with freestyle briefly unfortunately as a dance partner I have two left feet even his four feet had trouble dodging my clumsy steps.  There are no fancy titles for what Buck truly excels at. Buck helps a lot with behavior modification programs desensitizing and counterconditioning reactive dogs.  He is the tester dog for dogs entering the day care and has been used to test dogs in two other area day cares also.  If he keeps me between him and the other dog I know something is up.  If he approaches the other dog and engages in play we are pretty much good to go.  If he lets the other dog approach him and has a very gentile response to it letting that dog drive the play I know that dog will need a soft approach with other dogs and may be a little overwhelmed tossing them into a rough and tumble pack of adolescent hoodlums.  A take home lesson from working with Buck with other dogs is to learn to read and listen to what your dog is telling you.  Particularly with the popularity of dog parks as the owner you want to pay attention to your dog and learn to prevent problems before they arrive.   Buck loves children and has adopted the kennel owners daughter Meg as his own person.  

Chewy,mantrailing dog, CGC and Pet detection dog
Chewy a foster German Shepherd pup is another of my dogs that has made a huge differences in many peoples lives. She replaced Xena as a pet detection dog and spends a huge part of her life helping people look for their lost pets. If you check the “In the Press” category chewy is featured in many articles and news items. She is very good at what she does. When clients tell me their dog is too dumb or too bad to learn I just laugh and tell them Chewy’s story. We fostered her litter and placed her sister in a good home but Chewy (Named for her very destructive childhood not for the cute Star-wars Character.) Was a little socially odd she did not look at anyone and got stressed and uncomfortable if anyone looked at her. She existed beside the other dogs and rarely interacted with them. Medically she was fine although plagued with ear infections and allergies and we could not keep weight on the crazy pup even though she ate her way through the house. Pretty much all she did was watch me when I was home. I started putting her in the car when we trained the trailing and cadaver dogs. At the end of the night I would let her out to potty nose to the ground she retraced every step we made. On every track and found every source that had been placed for the working dogs. At some point I did the “V8″ thing clunked myself on the head and put a harness on her let her run a track on dog. That dog had been running lost pet tracks ever since. She has a pretty good track record of walk up finds and my absolute confidence. She may not always find a track in fact there are times when we just scratch our heads and wonder that she can’t find what should be easy. However I believe she always gives it everything she can, if she can not find the track it does not mean scent is not there it means she could not find it. and I am confident that she is doing the best she can with the start article and environment and conditions. this dog has worked through pouring rain, thunderstorms, snow storms, in icy conditions, high humidity, oppressive heat, Dog attacks, Horse attacks, Skunk adventures, sick or well. Chewy will track anything as long as I have a good start article to show her what we want, Chewy will do her best to find it. She is certified to track humans and does that as well as a volunteer with Mid atlantic d.o.g.s.

Sammyis a little english pointer that came out of a West Virginia rescue. They tossed him and his brother on to a transport when I had them send a nice hound dog to me. The brother turned out to be a nice little girl beagle - go figure. Sammy turned out to be a nightmare. He went through a series of foster homes and about 9 names before he bounced back into my house. A Smart boy it was obvious that Sammy needed a job. On a lark I sent his name to a group doing a study using dogs to detect the endangered Mohave Desert Tortoise. We spent a month in Nevada learning to detect the scent of tortoises and indicating them w/o touching or harassing them. I was pleased with his performance even finding a little newly hatched baby while taking the test. I used him to experiment with the protocol I developed to train hypoglycemic detection dogs, and am using him to experiment with some other scent work projects. My hope is to find this dog a full time job that we can do using his nose and brain. He has figured out how the open the baby latch on the cupboard, he considers fences a suggestion, and is constantly in trouble for getting into and eating things that he has no business getting to. A good argument for using crates and management to keep dogs safe if he survives to adult hood this is going to be an awesome working dog.

Bluestone, Check in on Bluestone he is a work in progress.  Our newest addition I like to call him my Bluetick Bloodhound.  Hopefully we can put his nose to work as well.