AAA Pet Resort owner uses circus experience to train dogs

Natalya Demina guided Charlotte, a 6-month-old corgi, through an agility obstacle simply by having a treat in her hand and telling Charlotte, “Let’s go.”

Charlotte ran through the course in seconds, weaving her small body through the poles about a foot apart. 

The yellow corgi launched herself at Demina to get the treat as she received praise for successfully going through the obstacle. 

Demina said training every dog is different as each one has its strengths and weaknesses and sometimes, special talents.

Demina, a circus artist and co-owner of East County's AAA Pet Resort, has a knack for seeing those special talents. 

She has been a part of the circus industry since she was 15 years old, starting with an aerial cradle act, before joining an acrobatic circus troupe. She went on to meet her husband, Jorge Pompeyo, a fourth-generation circus performer as a flying trapeze artist, a high-wire walker, globe of death performer and an animal trainer. 

But she said the circus life and stunts were becoming too dangerous, as there was an incident while doing an aerial stunt that left her holding onto her apparatus by a finger with no safety net below her. Her husband also had an accident in the Globe of Death that made them reconsider their future.

Demina said she thought of her daughter Katerina and what would happen to her if an act went terribly wrong. 

In 2009, the couple decided to switch gears, focusing on the dogs they had instead. The couple started the Pompeyo Family and their Amazing Rescue Dogs, traveling the country. They would save dogs from shelters, discovering their special talents through play, and then training them to be a part of the act. The family has adopted 21 dogs since 2009.

“We rescue them, but then at the end of the day, they’ve been rescuing us. They helped us to get better with training, performances and being able to travel together. We've been able to involve the kids in all the journeys we have,” Demina said. 

The act went on to become a semifinalist on “America’s Got Talent” in 2017. They've performed locally at the Circus Sarasota.

But they have other responsibilities as well with AAA Pet Resort, which they started seven years ago in East County. They wanted to do more to help dogs. 

While Pompeyo was on the road with the act Aug. 28, Demina was at AAA Pet Resort training and caring for their four-legged clients. 

Photo by Liz Ramos

Now Demina spends her time working to train people’s dogs from basic commands such as “sit” and “down” to sometimes circus tricks if the owner asks or if the dog seems capable. Circus tricks could involve the dogs jumping through hoops or walking solely on their hind legs or solely on their front legs. 

“We have a lot of talented dogs we wish we could adopt and put them in the show,” Demina said. “It’s just amazing to see what a dog can do. We’ll go and play and jump through hoops to see what kinds of tricks they can do. They love it. It’s like a new game for them.”

This summer, AAA Pet Resort started offering short interval training, which is 15-minute one-on-one training sessions with the dogs. 

She applies the knowledge she’s learned training her dogs for the circus to the dogs at the resort.

“It taught us about watching their behavior, watching their body language and not only concentrating on basic commands but opening up that range and seeing what they can do,” she said. 

Photo by Liz Ramos

During the training sessions, Demina is able to determine what parts of the dog’s body needs to be strengthened. Besides physical fitness, Demina also focuses on the mental fitness of the dog.

Demina said staff will come up with different ways to train a dog if the standard training isn’t working. For example, to teach a dog to lay down, which she said is one of the hardest commands for a dog to learn, she typically has the dog sit, puts a treat on the ground and tells the dog “down.” If that’s not working, she teaches the dog to crawl underneath her legs and slowly works to get them to understand what “down” means. It becomes a game to the dog. 

Demina said seeing the training pay off is gratifying. 

She had been working with a 15-year-old dog when its owner came to her with thrilling news. For the first time in awhile, the dog jumped from the ground onto the owner’s bed. Demina had been working with the dog to build strength and motivation to be more mobile. 

“The owner said their dog is acting like its 10 years old, not 15,” Demina said. “We want dogs to live longer and be happy.”