Macomb Daily Business Editor
Written By: Dan Heaton
March 16, 2005
As in most businesses, John Moyses says the success of his business relies in large part on good communication.
The only difference in Moyses’ case is that he’s trying to communicate his messages to man’s best friend.
Moyses and his wife, Sharron, recently opened Macomb County’s first Bark Busters franchise. The company features a new approach to dog training.
- “It is based on canine communication,” Moyses said, sitting at the kitchen table with his family’s two friendly golden retrievers. “We know dogs have a certain level of intelligence and we try to teach the dogs’ owners to communicate at that level.”
Moyses said communication is the key — Bark Busters doesn’t use any physical action with the dogs, such as swatting with a newspaper, or the offering of treats for good reward. Instead, they teach the dog certain rules and then teach the owners how to use those rules and techniques to get their message across to the dogs.
Bark Busters offers obedience training for a family’s dogs in the home where the dog lives.
- “It is important that if a dog has an obedience issue in the home, that’s where that issue is addressed,” he said. “We feel that any dog, of any age, can be trained to deal with any issue.”
Part of the training, Moyses said, is teaching the dog owners how to interact with the dogs to get the desired outcome, be it to get a dog to stop barking in certain situations, to stop chewing on furniture or to be more friendly toward house guests.
Generally, Moyses said, he and Sharron work with a dog, or group of dogs, in a home for several hours and then make follow-up visits, as needed. Bark Busters offers a guarantee for the training for the life of the dog.
Sharron Moyses said in the two months since Bark Busters started operating, they have had many success stories.
- “It is very gratifying to work with a family where the dog is barking constantly and helping to make that dog a better part of the family,” she said.
John Moyses first began working around dogs as a teenager in the 1960s, helping his dad to train hunting dogs. While he went into business and owned a machine shop in Fraser for a number of years, dogs were always part of the Moyses family. After deciding to get out of the manufacturing business, Moyses said he studied Bark Busters for about two years before deciding he should join the company. He and Sharron spent a month in Colorado at a Bark Busters training site learning the company’s techniques and getting their own dogs certified as therapy dogs. As the end of that training, Mrs. Moyses said, the couple were provided with two dogs from a local animal shelter and had to train those dogs, having never met them before.
- “That proved that the system works,” she said.
Bark Busters originated in Australia and now has about 100 franchise locations in the U.S. Because they do most of their work in the homes of their clients, the Moyses operate the business out of their Richmond area home.
- “Our first month, we either tied or exceeded the start levels of the first 85 franchises,” John Moyses said.
Information on the program, which cost about [contact your local trainer for pricing] for the first dog in a family and [contact your local trainer for pricing] for additional dogs, is available at www.barkbusters.com
Reprinted with permission by the Macomb Daily 04-25-05
Macomb Daily photo by David Dalton John and Sharron Moyses, with their golden retrievers, have started Bark Busters, an obedience training company in the Richmond area.
