Meet Certified Trainer And Groomer Pilar Garrido!
Meet The Trainer Mar 9 2020
By Belinda Cai, at www.dogwhispererhq.com
Maria del Pilar Garrido Morales (“Pilar Garrido” for short) was born and raised in Barcelona, Spain. Her family is from southern Spain, where living on a farm was a way of life. By profession, she is a dog and cat trainer and groomer, and she also fosters dogs. Pilar likes the challenge of difficult cases — ones that others shy away from — such as working with blind, scared, or aggressive dogs or cats.
“During my childhood, I grew up surrounded by dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, hamsters and with all kinds of domestic animals,” Pilar says. “When I was young, my grandmother from Seville, Spain, used to own a big farm where I spent all my winter and summer vacations helping out by feeding and training animals. Since I was a child, I was always passionate about reading books on training and learning the different types of dog and cat breeds.”
Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente of Spain was her idol growing up. He graduated with a degree in medicine, taught himself biology and became famous for a TV series calledEl Hombre y la Tierra (1974–1981). While people were trying to kill wolves, he was trying to save and relocate them. Like Felix, Pilar has helped educate people on how to handle dogs at home and with socialization.
“The key is learning to catch your pets’ mistakes at the right time and right place,” she says. “Even though I had never had any proper training nor schooling at that time, my training and action was based on natural animal exposure and instinct that I had acquired while spending lots of time on the farm during my childhood.”
In 2003, Pilar was working with Maltese show dogs as a handler — that was where she got her start in professionally grooming dogs. In 2009, she moved to Los Angeles with my husband who, at the time, was in the U.S. Navy. While living Los Angeles, she got certified in dog and cat grooming and training.
“Also, while living in Reseda, I was working at Studly Pooch Grooming Salon in Hermosa Beach,” Pilar explains. “One day, I saw a picture of Cesar Milan together with the owner of the salon. The owner mentioned to me how he ended up on one of the episodes of Dog Whisperer.”
When Cesar went to Madrid in 2010, Pilar became part of his ambassador volunteer team. Since she was in Barcelona that year, she ended up working on the show.
“It was a wonderful experience to finally see so many people interested in learning how to train their dogs,” she says. “Back in Los Angeles, I started working as a volunteer with Best Friends of Los Angeles in San Fernando Valley. I always believed that with new learning comes new experiences.”
“‘It was a wonderful experience to finally see so many people interested in learning how to train their dogs,” she says. “Back in Los Angeles, I started working as a volunteer with Best Friends of Los Angeles in San Fernando Valley. I always believed that with new learning comes new experiences.’”
Pilar does our Ask Pilar series and has written many articles for Dog Whisperer HQ.
Find out more about other Pilar articles by checking out at www.dogwhispererhq.com