CANTON, Ohio — Any new dog or puppy owner will tell you that training your pet can feel like a full-time job. 

One former Canton police officer has traded in his badge to make a career out of teaching pups how to behave. 

Eric Stanbro dedicated a majority of his life to serving his community.

“I was a police officer for 27 years. I did 23 years at the Canton Police Department,” Stanbro explained. 

While at the Canton Police Department, Stanbro was a police K9 handler and trainer. 

“I went to the Canton Police Department because I knew they had a really good K9 program in hopes to someday get into it," Stanbro said.

Stanbro fell in love with training dogs while he was an officer.

“I just found my niche with it," Stanbro explained. "I don’t know that I would be good at working with horses or other animals but for whatever reason working with dogs I got it.” 

In October 2013 Stanbro took a four month leave of absence from the Canton Police Department. 

"I went out to California to train Navy Seal dogs for a little while," Stanbro explained. "I came back and was training dogs and started the business on the side and I was training the dogs part time, and then it started to get to a point where it was getting to be a lot, so I had to make a decision so I decided to check out.” 

He made the decision to retire from the police force and now uses his skills to train dogs full time at his dog training and boarding company, Ridgeside K9 - Ohio.

“Pet dogs have made me a better police dog trainer," Stanbro explained. "With police dogs we get them and they are super highly motivated for toys or food, and it's not easy but the motivation is easier than a pet dog who is afraid of everything and they are not highly toy driven or at all toy driven and they aren’t highly food motivated.” 

Stanbro is opening a new location for his dog training business, Ridgeside K9, in Canton in early May.