I have always loved animals, especially dogs. Growing up my father took in “second hand” dogs, he still does. When I was fifteen, my parents divorced. My mother and I moved from Massachusetts to Maine. I adopted a beautiful black lab puppy from the local animal shelter. I had no idea how to train this puppy, I just knew I wanted him. The year was 1991, no internet. I spent my Summer Vacation thumbing through a mixed set of grocery store encyclopedias. I learned about Conditioned Response, potty training, and ways to keep him happy and healthy. We became the best of friends. It was then I fell in love with training. It became a passion and a joy to help friends train their dogs. My last dog was a Lab Chow. She didn’t like treats, or toys and was very leash reactive. This presented a new set of challenges to overcome. Going back to my roots, I researched again. I taught her with hand signals and a calm, positive tone of voice. She even learned leash manners. Patience was defiantly a virtue with her. Over the past thirty years I have trained many dogs.

I live in a rural community with very few trainers. Since becoming a Certified Positive Trainer in 2021 I have logged over 3,000 training hours. Some of my pet parents have driven over an hour each way to train with me. My personality, love of dogs, and passion for training has had a positive impact on our community. I’ve had the privilege of training one of our local police department’s comfort dogs. He completed basic obedience and passed his Canine Good Citizen with me.