BRIDGEPORT — A chance encounter was key to Dena Greenhut’s decision to leap into a fetching new venture.
Parked in a public lot with her car door open, Greenhut was talking via cell phone with a recruiter for Bark Busters, a pet obedience-training business, who was trying to convince her to open a franchise.
“I had just gotten off the phone and a stray dog jumped in my car,” Greenhut said. “So it was an omen. I’ve been in love with [the dog] ever since.”
Greenhut, of Stamford, became a franchisee this year and offers the Bark Busters method to Bridgeport area residents, coaching unruly pets to become dutiful and obedient.
“We do a lot of last-chance cases, such as aggressive dogs and sibling rivalry,” said Greenhut, who owns two shepherd-mix dogs.
“We teach people to interact with dogs by teaching people to understand canine language,” she said. “It’s really an amazing thing we do.”
Founded in Australia in 1989, Bark Busters has 280 franchises worldwide. Its U.S. headquarters was established in 2000 in Lakewood, Colo. There, new franchisees receive six weeks of canine behavioral-therapist training and ongoing refresher sessions, Greenhut said.
She is one of eight Bark Busters trainers operating in Connecticut — including her mother, Terri, who shares the Fairfield County territory.
No comments yet.