Lauren Sogard

Owner & Head Trainer at All Dogs Balanced Training

Hi! I’m Lauren Sogard, proud owner of All Dogs Balanced Training in Indianapolis, Indiana. My husband John and I have five wonderful dogs- Frank, Woody, Hunter, Kilo, Boogie- and one horse, Fleur Z. We also have a cat, Hazel. Never to be forgotten, my recently passed junior hunter, Concerto, brought me so much joy and success over the years.

My love of animals was apparent from the beginning. When I was 5 years old I asked my parents for a dog. My dad suggested to my mom that she sign me up for horseback riding lessons at a hunter jumper barn close to our house. He was hoping that I would get my animal fix in a one hour riding lesson once a week. Unfortunately for my parents, it soon became apparent to my trainer that I was a very talented rider. By the time I was in 3rd grade I had my first pony and we were heading to ‘AA’ rated horse shows. Did I mention that by this point my sister and I had also talked my parents into a dog! My love of horses, show jumping, and animals in general only grew from this point on.

To make a long story short I’ve spent 28 years riding and showing top show horses. 10 of those years were spent riding, teaching and showing professionally across the midwest and east coast. My top horse Concerto and I had countless top placings in the Equitation, Junior Hunters, International Hunter Derby’s and National Hunter Derby’s over the last 13 years.

After graduating from Butler University in 2017, I began looking into different career paths that wouldn’t involve as much traveling as horse showing did. My best friend and I had always helped families train and walk their dogs over the years. We loved trying new tools and training techniques on our own dogs. We gathered invaluable training skills from evolving our training methods on our own dogs who had significant issues with fear aggression and insecurity. My rescue dog Frank was especially fear aggressive, very high drive and high energy. Having considerably more training experience with animals than the average dog owner, I struggled to find a dog trainer who I thought could actually help Frank. I made it my mission to learn everything I could from as many top dog trainers as possible, mold all their techniques into my own training method, and fix him myself. So, that’s exactly what I did!

John and I purchased our first home in 2018 and acquired our 3rd rescue dog, Hunter, the WILD chocolate lab. I knew I needed, to once again, upgrade my dog training skills with the addition of a 3rd dog and a new house! Additionally, a few friends were also looking to adopt dogs and came to me for help to find appropriate dogs for their lifestyles. That is when my real passion for doing more with my dog training arose. I knew I wanted to train dogs and empower you, the owners, to live your best lives with your dogs. This ignited the idea of opening my own balanced training business!

Qualifications

Attended Train the Trainers (T3) with top trainers Jeff Gellman, Sean O’Shea and Tory Smith, a 7 day 80 hour intensive private dog training, business and personal development seminar.

Attended Julie’s K9 Academy, a one week intensive shadow program in Frederick, MD.

28 years riding top hunter jumpers on the ‘AA’ show circuit.

10 years riding professionally, tweaking and perfecting my ability to read horses and dogs. Communicating this information back to the riders and owners in the best, most effective way possible, and getting creative when needed.