Meet Your Trainer

Hello! My name is Nicole Thraen, owner of Top Dog Training LLC. I taught 4th grade for five years from 2016-2021. In 2019, my husband and I decided to take the journey into puppy life where we got our boxer, Toby. I quickly learned he was a true, high energy boxer and became interested in learning how to channel his energy in a positive and more structured way. I took him to training and fell in love with the process! Our relationship and bond grew with every training session.

I soon realized that I wanted to learn how to teach other dog owners how to grow their relationship and bond with their own dogs like I did with Toby. I began volunteering at Sit Means Sit where I took Toby to explore and learn how training worked. The experience I gained there was incredible, and I decided to leave the elementary education profession in 2021 to follow this new path.

My journey led me to Ruff Lyfe Dog training in Coatesville, Indiana. Here I studied how dogs learn, and became experienced in using that knowledge to train dogs of different breeds, sizes, ages, and temperaments. I trained dogs from start to finish, and then used my teaching experience to teach my clients how to continue their dog’s training at home. I also worked on the kennel tech side to learn how to properly care for the dogs I was training.

I knew I could take this experience and bring it back home to Terre Haute, where I opened Top Dog. Now my husband, Andrew, Toby, and I live on our 8 acre property and facility which makes it a perfect space for your dogs to learn and grow with us! We opened October of 2021, and since then we’ve welcomed over a hundred board and train dogs to stay and learn with us.