JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Ronald White is the proud owner of Northern Professional Dog Trainers and has trained dogs for decades.
White has taught pets in different languages, hand motions, and even numbers but it wasn't until his daughter, Alaya Davis, brought home her puppy, Siku, that he would take on a new challenge.
“I’m always just kind of creative and my dad had trained dogs with numbers. He’s actually the dog trainer so, in turn, I was like daddy I want something different for my dog I like to paint can we make my dogs command colors," Davis said.
“I said what do you mean by colors and she explained to me blue, and green, I said you pick the colors out and we’ll make the dog do it," White said.
The commands started with the stop light system, green is walk, yellow is slow down and red is stop. The rest, are based on Davis' favorite colors.
“Sit is royal, sit on your royal throne. Down is blue. My favorite color is royal blue so those go back to back so sit down and then pink is stay so it's close to the red stop," Davis said.
White said he wasn't sure how it was going to turn out.
“I didn’t really think that that could be done and how’s she going to remember it? If you do it you’ve got to make a laminated list down," White said.
“I had to consistently keep doing the training even when I’m at home or when he’s not there. So it’s still oftentimes a work in progress because he’s playful you know puppies they like to play they like to do their own thing," Davis said.
Davis is also the owner of Our Heart To Yours, senior home care. Siku is also trained as a service dog to visit patients with her.