My Big Fat Pet Makeover
Jon Patch welcomes Travis Brorsen, host of the new Animal Planet series, My Big Fat Pet Makeover. Animal Planet chose Travis Brorsen as their Pet Expert and Trainer to host the new series My Big Fat Pet Makeover. Travis is on a mission to address the huge issue of overweight pets in the U.S. as an estimated 59% of cats and 54% of dogs are overweight/obese (from the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention). In the series, Travis begins a four-month long weight-loss and behavior modification journey with pet owners and their overweight animals with the goal that the pets (and humans) get to live a longer, healthier, and happier life together! Each story in this series provides a final weigh-in to see how far the pets and their owners have come with Travis’ help.
BIO:
Travis Brorsen is the all-american dog trainer that's been focused on helping owners and their pups for the past 8 years going from Oklahoma to LA and currently resides in NYC.
As founder of Greatest American Dog Trainers, Travis not only provides hands-on training and dog walking to his canine clients and their humans, but his company is also a veritable training center for the next generation of top dog trainers.
Growing up on a ranch in Oklahoma, Travis has always been very active in working with animals both large and small. This task of working with animals was crucial to his family’s livelihood; keeping the pigs, cattle, sheep, horses and of course dogs healthy was a daily responsibility. In college Travis studied agriculture, including animal science, and learned that healthy animals live longer, happier lives.
After college, however, Travis decided to pursue a career in entertainment rather than agriculture and moved to Los Angeles. He became a successful actor. In 2008, Travis and his then 14-month old, highly energetic and totally untrained boxer, Presley, were selected as contestants for CBS’ national dog training competition, Greatest American Dog. While producers (and Las Vegas) gave the duo very little chance of advancing past the first week, Travis and Presley surprised everyone. After 12 weeks of grueling competition, they beat the odds and won the entire competition. The prize of $250,000 is the single biggest prize ever won by a dog and owner to-date!
After his experience on the show, Travis realized that he NEEDED to share what he had learned about creating a positive learning environment for dogs and building relationships with them based on friendship, kindness, caring, compassion, respect, trust and loyalty. He became a professional dog trainer in Los Angeles and spent the next five years working with pet owners using positive reinforcement doing everything from puppy training to basic obedience, advanced obedience and management of behavioral issues.
In 2012, Travis moved to New York City and formed his current company, Greatest American Dog Trainers, one of the most popular dog training companies in the Tri-State area working largely with celebrity-owned dogs. Today he and his team offer training in both a classroom style and in-home private lessons using effective positive training methods, dog walking, and more.
Travis is a major advocate of promoting positive, calm behaviors and promoting overall health and wellness. He suggests owners include their pets in their own daily exercise routines where possible and believes good nutrition for dogs is of great importance.
In addition to his passion for dogs, Travis also loves working with children. When he isn't training, he works at the League Education and Treatment Center, a special needs elementary school, in Brooklyn, NY. Travis and his certified service dogs work with autistic, ADD, and ADHD diagnosed children in their social skills classroom.
In 2010, Travis authored eight children’s books that led to the creation of a bully prevention and character education program for pre-kindergarten through first grade children entitled “The Adventures with Travis & Presley”. It is an innovative, research-based program that uses the adventures of Travis and his pet, Presley, to teach good manners and character education. The program was licensed by Frog Street Press and is now being used in elementary school curriculums across the United States. To learn more about this curriculum please visit www.frogstreet.com.