By: The ABC Employees
For Kyle Parrillo, canine have all the time been greater than companions; they’ve been academics, healers, and a private calling. As an ABC Licensed Canine Coach and the founding father of Feels Like Dwelling: Canine Care, Kyle’s journey into skilled canine coaching is rooted in service, resilience, and an unwavering dedication to canine who want somebody to consider in them.
Earlier than enrolling at Animal Habits Faculty, Kyle’s profession regarded very totally different. He labored as a Ballistic Missile Protection Teacher, coaching U.S. Navy guided missile destroyers the way to intercept ballistic missiles as a part of Afloat Coaching Group Pacific in San Diego. Alongside that high-stakes function, he was additionally a wrestling coach and, most significantly, a foster for rescue canine. Collectively along with his spouse, Kyle fostered greater than 40 canine by Undertake Baja, a rescue centered on canine pulled from the streets of Ensenada, Mexico. Quite than selecting the “straightforward” fosters, Kyle deliberately requested for the canine that others couldn’t or wouldn’t take.
“Anybody can (and will) foster puppies,” Kyle shared. “I needed those individuals couldn’t or wouldn’t foster.” That dedication led him to a Belgian Malinois pet named Poppy and to a pivotal turning level. When Poppy’s coaching wants exceeded Kyle’s expertise, he sought skilled assist solely to be quoted between $4,000 and $7,000 for coaching a foster canine.
“I bear in mind saying to my spouse, ‘I can actually change into a canine coach myself for like $2,000,’” Kyle stated. “That’s once I referred to as Animal Habits Faculty and the remaining is historical past.”
Kyle enrolled within the ABC Licensed Canine Coach (ABCDT) program and later accomplished the Doggie Daycare quick time period program, graduating in February 2025. Whereas Poppy in the end discovered her method to a Malinois-specific rescue and was efficiently adopted, the expertise essentially modified Kyle’s path.
Studying to See Canines In a different way
Kyle accomplished his externship at Paws of Coronado Animal Shelter below mentor coach Chancel, whose coaching philosophy challenged lots of his current instincts. “She taught me to drop all the pieces I believed I knew about canine conduct and dominance and see issues by the lens of optimistic reinforcement and motivation,” Kyle stated.
That distinction, he defined, was precisely what he wanted. “The one method to develop as a coach was to do issues I wouldn’t usually do.” The expertise bolstered certainly one of Kyle’s core beliefs: that nice trainers keep curious, adaptable, and open-minded.
Turning Grief Into Objective
Kyle’s second and maybe most profound lightbulb second got here after the lack of his Siberian Husky, Phillip, to terminal bone most cancers. Phillip had helped Kyle navigate the tough transition from army life to civilian life, and shedding him compelled Kyle to reexamine his sense of function. “Feels Like Dwelling: Canine Care was the product of my grieving course of,” Kyle shared. What started as a deeply private response to loss quickly grew to become one thing a lot greater.
Right this moment, Feels Like Dwelling: Canine Care is a home-style, cage-free daycare, boarding, and coaching facility designed particularly for canine who wrestle with isolation. With no kennels or cages, canine spend their days enjoying in expansive, totally fenced, turfed yards and their nights sleeping inside with individuals, similar to household. Kyle’s enterprise mannequin is deliberately selective. Each canine undergoes a conduct analysis, making certain a protected, low-stress atmosphere for each canine and employees. Regardless of early doubts from almost everybody round him, Kyle guess on himself.
“Not one individual in my life thought quitting my comfortable authorities job to begin this enterprise was a good suggestion,” he stated.
Inside 60 days of launching the enterprise throughout a interval of paid go away from his day job, Feels Like Dwelling generated over $16,000 and it hasn’t slowed down since. The corporate is now on monitor to quadruple Kyle’s unique first-year income objective.
Kyle’s coaching philosophy facilities on one tenet: practice the canine in entrance of you. “Coaching canine isn’t about me; it’s about canine,” he defined. “When you skip setting boundaries and begin reinforcing undesirable conduct, you create resentment and generally relinquishment.”
His coronary heart stays firmly with rescue canine, particularly those that want time, persistence, and somebody who received’t surrender when issues get tough. “A handful of my fosters wanted me particularly to flee the system,” Kyle stated. “It breaks my coronary heart when canine are returned on the first inconvenience.”
The ABC Benefit
Whereas Kyle admits he didn’t instantly really feel like a coach upon graduating, confidence got here shortly as soon as he started working with actual shoppers. “After my first few five-star critiques, I knew I used to be on the suitable path,” he stated. He credit ABC’s Doggie Daycare program as instrumental to his enterprise success. “All my HR varieties, waivers, service agreements, and insurance policies got here from that course materials. I’d have been misplaced with out it and I nonetheless use it at present.”
Kyle’s recommendation for college kids midway by their ABC program is refreshingly sincere: “This program is what you make of it. When you put within the work, the sky is the restrict.” He encourages future trainers to remain open-minded, resist inflexible dogma, and method each canine and shopper as a person.
Whereas Kyle has not too long ago returned to work part-time as a Ballistic Missile Protection Teacher, Feels Like Dwelling: Canine Care continues to develop below the management of his spouse, Victoria, who now serves as Common Supervisor. With a devoted group, growth milestones already achieved, and a neighborhood of devoted shoppers, Kyle’s imaginative and prescient is obvious: create a spot the place canine really really feel at residence.
From army service to saving canine others neglected, Kyle Parrillo’s story is a strong reminder that function usually finds us after we’re keen to reply the decision.
