Roman Dizon, canine behaviorist and dog trainer, has been breeding and training dogs for security, personal protection and companionship since 1982. As a state-licensed protection dog operator, Roman has trained many family and personal protection dogs, police dogs and security guard dogs. Roman has also given lectures and presentations about vicious dogs, bite prevention and dog behavior for PG&E, the U.S. Postal Service and a number of schools. Many of Roman's students earned CD, CDX and UD obedience titles from the AKC.

Roman's Family Background

Roman comes from a big, highly cultured, and religious family with four brothers and nine sisters. There are poets and writers in the family. In their family reunions it is possible to pick anybody at random and make a request to play classical music for you on the piano, and your request will be granted. His father and mother sung classic native love songs. Roman’s father was a businessman while his mother stayed home and took care of the kids. There are many professionals among his siblings: one doctor, one engineer, two accountants, three musicians, several teachers and businesspeople. His grandfather was a retired police officer who became a non-ordained preacher. Roman’s mother and two of his sisters are deaconesses, his oldest brother and two brothers in law are deacons, two of his nephews are ministers and several nieces and nephews are in the choir. Roman always wanted to be a veterinarian, but after only one year in the University of the East, he enrolled in an evangelical college. When his parents moved to the US, Roman followed suit. He found work in Las Vegas, Nevada, but after working only for a year, he responded to a new calling: rescuing and finding homes for homeless dogs, and training them for companionship.

To rescue a breed...

In the 1980’s, he noticed the plight of the Pit Bull/Staffordshire Terrier breed and how they were being banned in some counties of the US because of their alleged viciousness. The media portrayed them as nothing but brainless killing machines, therefore not suited to live in the community as pets. Upon his own investigation of the breed, it led him to believe that it was more of a people problem that resulted out of ignorance and just plain irresponsibility. He joined the American Pit Bull Club of Southern Nevada and became its training director. He advocated responsible dog ownership by means of good management and training. He used his own dog, a dual registered dog, named “Sashi” as an example of the result of good management and training. Sashi, who’s registered name was Bue Cin’s Senmon Musashi, was registered in the American Kennel Club (AKC) as American Staffordshire Terrier and in the United Kennel Club (UKC) as American Pit Bull Terrier.

First-hand Experiences

Roman still remembers the time when some dog owners at the Las Vegas Dog Fanciers Park in Nevada showed rudeness to him because of Sashi, the Pit Bull. He was sure Sashi was the reason why they were giving him the “attitude” because he seldom experienced this kind of treatment when he had his Dobermans or Standard Poodle or the German Shepherd with him instead of the Pit Bull. There was a time when Roman was a member of the largest Schutzhund club in Las Vegas, and one day brought Sashi in the training instead of the Dobermans. As a result, the director of the club literally threw him out of the park. Roman never returned to that club again. Instead, he eventually formed his own club. Roman did not waiver or become discouraged because of all of these persecutions; instead, he continued to campaign and promote the good nature and trainability of the breed through dog tricks and obedience demonstrations with Sashi. In the course of this endeavor, Sashi acquired obedience tittles from the AKC without any difficulty. In 1989, the American Staffordshire Terrier Club of the United States, under the auspices of the American Kennel Club (AKC), recognized Bue Cin’s Senmon Musashi as the highest scoring UD (utility degree, the highest obedience tittle in AKC) American Staffordshire Terrier in the US.

Roman continued to promote the good qualities of the Staffordshire/Pit Bull breed and fought any anti-dog legislation that would ban the breed in Las Vegas, Nevada. He also formed the All American Schutzhund Club of Southern Nevada, a non-profit organization. Through this club, Roman was able to title his two Dobermans, Belle and Kato. Most of the people who joined the club did not join to compete in the Schutzhund sport: they just wanted to have obedient and well-behaved dogs--in other words, good companion dogs. This is when Roman realized the demand for training dogs for companionship. Roman quit the club and embarked in more serious business of dog training and breeding. He opened his dog training business called Canine Education, which welcomed all breeds. He offered protection training for police and private citizens, and, of course, just plain obedience for companionship. He also successfully placed many dogs in good homes after training them—dogs that, otherwise, could have been destroyed.

In 1990, Roman moved the business to San Jose, California. He officially registered his business in California as Calero Canine Education. He named it after his beloved stud dog, Calero Sonny Von Dizen, who was then a puppy. Before Sonny (“Calero”) was born, Roman was assisted by his three well-trained dogs (demo dogs): Sashi the UD dog and Kato and Belle Vom Priescal, the sire and dame of Sonny. Both Kato and Belle attained Schutzhund 1 titles. They were known as the first Schutzhund titled Dobermans in the state of Nevada. Roman did not continue to pursue this field of training simply because the time demanded by his business and his other job left him no time for this activity.

Roman as a Humane & Animal Control Officer

While building his business of dog training in California, Roman looked for another job that is somewhat related to what he does best. He became an Animal Control Officer for Santa Clara County for a short while (the county dropped the contract with the cities because of budget cut). The Humane Society Of Santa Clara Valley took over the contract and hired Roman as one of the pioneers of the now defunct South Bay Animal Control Services, as Humane and Animal control officer. As an officer, Roman gave lectures to his fellow officers regarding safe animal handling and dog bite prevention lectures for private companies like PG&E, the local Water District and others. He also helped the City of Sunnyvale in starting its own Animal Control department by training its very first Animal Control Officers safe animal handling, or what he now calls defensive animal handling. He wrote their first simple procedures and guidelines in picking up confined strays and catching and impounding friendly and vicious strays.

CALERO CANINE EDUCATION boomed in the Bay Area. One of Roman’s clients said, “ If you were a serious dog owner you must know Roman”. Many veterinary clinics recommend Calero Canine Education for their patients training, especially for problem dogs. Many of Roman’s clients learned of Roman through word-of-mouth, and there were many people that recommended Roman, people that Roman never even met. What is his motto? He said, “be honest and do the best you can with what you do and love best, don’t worry about the money; the money will follow next.” What he meant was when he trains a dog for a client, he concentrates on how he could make the dog obedient and a joy to his/her owner, not on how much money he can make in this transaction. He does not mind if he has to spend more time or put forth extra effort for some individuals; his concentration is on the end result or meeting of the goal rather than the money he will charge. He said, "You will always be compensated for that extra effort--if not right away maybe a little later."
At present, Roman is working for the city of San Jose Animal Care and Services and continues training dogs to build his business. In his spare time, he is at his ranch building fences or riding one of his horses with his friends in the wilderness of El Dorado County. How does he do all these? Well… ask him.