By: The ABC Employees
For Kyle Parrillo, canines have at all times 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 Home: Dog Care, Kyle’s journey into skilled canine coaching is rooted in service, resilience, and an unwavering dedication to canines who want somebody to consider in them.
Earlier than enrolling at Animal Conduct School, Kyle’s profession seemed 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 position, he was additionally a wrestling coach and, most significantly, a foster for rescue canines. Collectively along with his spouse, Kyle fostered greater than 40 canines via Undertake Baja, a rescue centered on canines pulled from the streets of Ensenada, Mexico. Slightly than selecting the “straightforward” fosters, Kyle deliberately requested for the canines that others couldn’t or wouldn’t take.
“Anybody can (and will) foster puppies,” Kyle shared. “I wished those folks 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 keep in mind saying to my spouse, ‘I can actually develop into a canine coach myself for like $2,000,’” Kyle stated. “That’s after I referred to as Animal Conduct School 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 finally discovered her option to a Malinois-specific rescue and was efficiently adopted, the expertise basically modified Kyle’s path.
Studying to See Canine In another way
Kyle accomplished his externship at Paws of Coronado Animal Shelter below mentor coach Chancel, whose coaching philosophy challenged a lot of his current instincts. “She taught me to drop every little thing I believed I knew about canine conduct and dominance and see issues via the lens of optimistic reinforcement and motivation,” Kyle stated.
That distinction, he defined, was precisely what he wanted. “The one option 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 Function
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 troublesome transition from army life to civilian life, and dropping him pressured Kyle to reexamine his sense of function. “Feels Like Residence: 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 larger.
At this time, Feels Like Home: Dog Care is a home-style, cage-free daycare, boarding, and coaching facility designed particularly for canines who battle with isolation. With no kennels or cages, canines spend their days enjoying in expansive, totally fenced, turfed yards and their nights sleeping inside with folks, similar to household. Kyle’s enterprise mannequin is deliberately selective. Each canine undergoes a conduct analysis, guaranteeing a protected, low-stress atmosphere for each canines and workers. Regardless of early doubts from almost everybody round him, Kyle guess on himself.
“Not one particular person 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 depart from his day job, Feels Like Residence generated over $16,000 and it hasn’t slowed down since. The corporate is now on monitor to quadruple Kyle’s authentic first-year income purpose.
Kyle’s coaching philosophy facilities on one tenet: practice the canine in entrance of you. “Coaching canines isn’t about me; it’s about canines,” 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 canines, particularly those that want time, persistence, and somebody who received’t hand over when issues get troublesome. “A handful of my fosters wanted me particularly to flee the system,” Kyle stated. “It breaks my coronary heart when canines 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 rapidly as soon as he started working with actual shoppers. “After my first few five-star critiques, I knew I used to be on the fitting path,” he stated. He credit ABC’s Doggie Daycare program as instrumental to his enterprise success. “All my HR types, waivers, service agreements, and insurance policies got here from that course materials. I might have been misplaced with out it and I nonetheless use it at this time.”
Kyle’s recommendation for college students midway via 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 strategy each canine and shopper as a person.
Whereas Kyle has lately returned to work part-time as a Ballistic Missile Protection Teacher, Feels Like Residence: Canine Care continues to develop below the management of his spouse, Victoria, who now serves as Normal Supervisor. With a devoted group, growth milestones already achieved, and a group of devoted shoppers, Kyle’s imaginative and prescient is evident: create a spot the place canines actually really feel at dwelling.
From army service to saving canines others ignored, Kyle Parrillo’s story is a robust reminder that function usually finds us once we’re prepared to reply the decision.
