I am an Animal Behavior College Certified dog trainer since 2014. Since my certification, I have volunteered at local rescues and I was an approved trainer at Pets 4 Vets Chicagoland, where I gained much experience through their trainers workshops. I was the lead dog trainer and Kennel Manager for a working dog company called Wild Goose Chase in the Chicagoland area where we used highly trained Border Collies to humanely manage wildlife such as Canada Geese and Gulls in private and public properties. We used our border collies on the beaches of Lake Michigan to chase gulls, lowering the EColi levels in the water by upwards of 80 , making the water safer to swim in. During the off seasons we kept our dogs agile and ready to work by doing herding lessons, and Penn Vet Working Dog Center came to our facility and trained us in canine stretching/fitness over a week-long workshop. I ran dog fitness and taught it to our handlers daily to keep our dogs fit and safe from injury. I also assisted in training and caring for the dogs in our sister kennel at Canine Detection and Inspection Services, where we used dogs to detect bed bugs in many different properties.
After WGC, I worked with a CPDT-KA certified dog trainer who specialized in fear and anxiety cases. There I became an AKC Evaluator and taught classes for AKC Tricks, AKC Rally, AKC Canine Good Citizen, agility (though I have the least experience in this), as well as in-home lessons and Reactive Dog classes. The special thing about our reactive dog classes were that you had to do in-home lessons until your dog could be within 20 feet of its triggers before ever entering the classes. There was NEVER a reaction in the classes because we NEVER wanted the dogs to practice the addicting behavior that is reactivity. We saw much success with many different types of dogs, from obedience, to aggression.
During the Pandemic, I ran virtual classes online through zoom that showed the same results as what we saw in our in-person classes. The benefit to these was that we got to see how your dog acts in their own environment and really hone in on training plans for their specific needs- we saw a bit of the benefit of private, in-home lessons, in a class setting.
I moved to California in August of 2021 where I currently do private, in-home lessons until I have my own property to run classes. It is my favorite thing in the world to see a dog do what they’re bred to do, but its also wonderful to help people who feel hopeless about their dog find solution and peace in their lives again. Call now for an in-home consultation.
