"He’s a Little Doogie Howser" – An Interview with Greatest American Dog's Winners,Travis Brorsen and Presley

Travis and Presley came into the competition as fresh faced farm boys. They were the underdogs from the beginning in a house full of experienced trainers. But as the game progressed, Travis realized he was learning something new every day and was excited to make it to the end. He was just as sweet on during our phone interview as he was shown on the show. He really is probably one of the nicest people I’ve met.

RealityNewsOnline: Thanks for taking a few minutes to chat for the RNO readers, Travis. Congratulations on your win! Has it been hard to keep it a secret for all these months?

Travis: Oh my gosh yes! The first couple weeks were the hardest. Eventually, you get used to the questions and get used to telling people that I can't say anything. It gets easier, but yes it was hard keeping the secret from everyone.

RNO: So were you surprised that Presley beat out both Galaxy and Andrew?

Travis: He surprised me for the first two-thirds of the competition. I started realizing that maybe we were supposed to be there. It was a shocker we were there in the first place.

I was so stressed most of the time. But it eventually hit me that Presley didn't know that there were cameras and didn’t know about the competition. I figured out that if I'm asking him to do something out of love, why wouldn't he? I was surprised we won, but we’re more confident now, and it gave me time with Presley.

RNO: Did you ever feel as if you and Presley were the underdogs in this game?

Travis: Well I would say so, yeah. Even when we were down to the last five, I was the only owner that didn’t know about training up to the competition. This is my first experience. All I was doing was soaking it all in, watching it all, and we were learning something new every day.

RNO: That leads perfectly into the next questions. One of the things about you that set you apart from the other owners, especially in the end, is that you were a sponge, soaking up any techniques you could get from the other owners. Are you still teaching Presley more and using these techniques?

Travis: Absolutely. I did meet with a trainer out here in Los Angeles. We worked with Presley but [the trainer] also said that I’ve got to give the little guy a break for a while. He's so incredibly smart and he’s a little Doogie Howser! The trainer reminded me that he’s still a puppy and make sure I keep making the training fun and games so he doesn't get bored or frustrated or burned out. So now it’s lots of playtime and that’s what it's all about.

RNO: When you guys were down to the final three interviews with the judges, was there more going on then than what we saw on the show?

Travis: There was a lot more that they asked us and a lot of it was good stuff. But with only 40 minutes to show, they only showed a bit of what we did [with the judges]. [The judges]reviewed things we did while on the show. They wanted us to show something we learned at Canine Academy.

In a way, it was sort of hard for Laurie and Andrew because they knew so much [before coming into the house]. I had a long list because he didn't know anything at the start. He didn’t have any formal training other than about a week before the show; I had a trainer work mostly with me so I could learn. [At the finale,] I got to send Presley around the podium, showed the judges him crawling and doing other tricks. That's what made it all about, was all the bonding time I had with my dog.

RNO: So let's talk a little about the show. How did you get on it? Did you apply or were you seen by a casting agent while at a dog park or something?

Travis: Actually, I was running in a local canyon with Presley [here in L.A.]. We'd heard about it and someone asked about it while we were running. At first I said that we wouldn’t want to do a reality show, but then the person told me that it was more of a family show. I said that I’d think about it. Because it was a family show I decided to go for it. We went through the interview process along with everyone else and we got in the mix of the 12 owners.