By Ty Walker
The Mountain Times
Laura Strudwick has made education her business, whether she’s tutoring students how to write, training dogs how to behave or teaching herself how to paint. This Rhododendron resident has made a career out of helping people and their pets learn to live in harmony.
Originally from Texas, Strudwick started working as an apprentice dog trainer in Austin in 1994. She later moved to the Portland area, where she began teaching her own classes and private lessons through the 1990s.
Then she thought she’d try teaching people for a change. So she went back to school and earned a master’s in education to teach middle school and high school. She spent most of the first decade of the new millennium teaching at Reynolds Learning Academy, an alternative high school in Fairview, and Oregon Episcopal School, a private prep school in Portland, until 2009.
At Oregon Episcopal, Strudwick created a dog training class in which students learned about animal psychology and behavior. Students would visit the Portland Humane Society to work and earn service credit.
Strudwick found time to continue her post-graduate work and went on to get a PhD in mythological studies.
In 2020, the Covid pandemic came and inspired Strudwick to offer her dog training classes online. She developed a whole curriculum, created videos and met with clients worldwide on zoom
“I realized all these people were getting Covid puppies and weren’t able to have dog training in person because of the pandemic,” Strudwick said. “So I reopened my dog training business online.”
Soon dog owners sought her services from all over the United States and the rest of the world, some as far away as Korea and Singapore. Since Covid ended, her dog training course has become available again in-person as well as online.
In-person dog training is by appointment only through her website laurastrudwick.com. She makes house calls mainly in the Mount Hood area, from Government Camp to Sandy. She does keep a stray customer in Boring, however.
“It’s been fun to open that work up again,” Strudwick said of her in-person business.
A nationally certified dog trainer, Strudwick said she uses positive reinforcement training, which has scientifically shown to be the most effective training. It uses rewards, like treats, toys or praise for desirable behavior. Training includes basic obedience, good manners and safety commands like recall. Living in Mt. Hood Forest, there are a lot of distractions for dogs. They like to roam around, so you want to have a safety call to bring them back.
Strudwick said she and her husband love living on the mountain where they share a home with two lovable leonberger dogs. Leonbergers are a large breed similar in size to St. Bernards.
“Puppies are the easiest to train,” Strudwick said. “Even though they bite you, they’re the easiest to shape and train. If you start early; you’re going to have the best success. The hardest ones are going to be teenage dogs that have already developed bad habits, and that’s most of my clients.”
Covid also gave Strudwick time to pursue another passion of hers – painting. She paints mainly landscapes of Mt. Hood and native plants, in acrylics and watercolor. Greeting cards and prints of her work are for sale at Welches Building Supply, Sandy Historical Museum and Welches Farmers Market.