Photograph by George Sakkestad
Sunnyvale resident Doug Hostetter, formerly a mechanical designer for Sandia Labs, switched to dog training after taking Skooter to an obedience class.
By LAIN EHMANN
It's a typical Silicon Valley success story, but with a twist: Man gets secure, good-paying job with nuclear weapons company, then gives it all up to train dogs.
Sunnyvale resident Doug Hostetter now spends his days with canines instead of engineers, and he's having a blast.
Hostetter, a full-time dog trainer since 1992, teaches classes for Sirius Puppy Training in Sunnyvale and Fremont and offers private sessions through his company, Some Hound Advice. He estimates that more than 3,700 puppies--and people--have come through his classes.
"I don't train the dogs; I train the humans," he says.
His students appreciate his energetic teaching style. "Doug's slightly nuts, really flamboyant," says former student Linda Richards. "Coming out of class, I felt like I'd been to a stand-up comedy show."
So why the transition from professional to puppy trainer? "I hated it," says Hostetter of his 12 years as a mechanical designer for Sandia Labs in Livermore. Yet he didn't consider dog training until he was introduced to Sirius Puppy Training when he got his border terrier, Skooter, in 1988.
Hostetter took Skooter to Sirius classes and was so impressed that he began reading more about dog training. After a brief apprenticeship with Sirius' founder, Dr. Ian Dunbar, he started his own class in 1990 while still working full-time for Sandia. "There was one point when I was puppy training four nights a week while I was working," he says.
Eventually, Hostetter had to make a choice. "The only way to promote a business like that is if you're doing it full-time," he explains.
Though the transition to full-time trainer was sometimes rocky, the decision itself was easy. "I just said, 'I'm going to do it,' and I wrote a letter of resignation," he says.
Hostetter received mixed reactions to his decision to become a full-time trainer.
"My parents thought I was crazy," he says. "My dad looked at the Sandia job as the greatest job a person could ever have. But they went through major budget cuts about three years ago, so I think I called that one right."
Hostetter received an unexpected benefit from dog training. He met his wife in one of his classes in 1994. The first night of class, he performed a "settle" command on a dog who became agitated, screamed, and urinated and defecated on him. Because the key to the command is not letting go of the dog, Hostetter gritted his teeth and held on. "That was her first sight of me," he laughs.
"I thought, 'This is a patient man,'" recalls Gretchen Hostetter, a branch manager for Charles Schwab. It must have made quite an impression. The couple married six months later.
When not teaching classes, Hostetter enjoys hiking and backpacking. Skooter comes, too, sporting a set of hiking boots Hostetter designed. They also can be seen cruising in their white Miata, license plates reading "PUP MAN."
Some of Hostetter's coworkers were pessimistic about his chances for success. "They said, 'You're going to starve to death. You're not going to be able to make any money in dog training,'" remembers Hostetter. "I had something to prove. And I'm happier than they are."
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, December 4, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.