I’ll tell you a story about when I was 3 years old. It was a sunny day and I was playing in the sand at a park, when a golden retriever ran away from a home nearby. I heard the owner screaming for her dog to come to her over and over again. I quickly got up, walked over towards the dog and yelled “bad doggy, come here!”. The dog instantly stopped what he was doing and came to me. I took him by the collar and walked him back to his shocked owner. I think it’s safe to say that this career was meant to be.

Ever since I was in diapers I had a passion and curiosity for animals especially dogs. I would run up to any dog, big or small, and pet them without asking (which I always got into trouble for my by parents). As a veterinary assistant I see firsthand how treats cause health issues such as diarrhea and obesity, so I knew that this method of training wasn’t for me.

While taking the CTE course I trained my mother’s manipulative golden, Moxy. The bond I grew with her was very strong and I’ll admit it brings happy tears to my eyes when I think about it.  I have a 10 year old shi-poo, Phoebe and a 7 year old shi-poo/bulldog, Buster.  I love my pack and the continuous training and learning we will go through together. I want you to have the same bond with your pooch, so join me and take control of your pack. I don’t want to see another dog get hit by a car because he/she ran away from home or while on a walk. In my street safety classes I will teach you to train your dog while creating a bond. Finally training that works! I help animals feel better by day as a vet assistant and train people and dogs by night and weekend. What is better than that? Hope to see you and your furry buddy soon!

 

I have always had a love for animals, big or small.  Dogs seemed to always be a breed of their own, more personable, more complex, wanting to have human contact and interaction, unlike cats or birds, which is what I had growing up.

In early 2007, my husband and I came across a show called, “At the End of My Leash”, I was instantly a fan!  I’d even find myself screaming at the TV wanting the owners to just listen to Brad!  As I continued to watch Brad, I would try out his methods with the dogs that I knew.  What would normally be a 5 minute stroll around the block, with many interruptions or plain and simply not wanting to go in the direction that I wanted to go in, it transitioned into a couple of hours of investigating and having a ton of fun outdoors!

In June 2009, we brought home our then 8 week old Golden Retriever, Cooper, and started our first Street Safety class two weeks later in Toronto. Being outdoors, socializing with different aged dogs and breeds (and humans!), learning about what healthy dog play is all about, getting the dogs to jump on rocks (smaller ones, since Cooper was still developing ... great direction from our CTE), benches, doing sit stays on the ground and on rocks, riding the TTC Subway ... TONS OF FUN!  Cooper was a pooped pooch after every single class.  We found this great rock close to our house to practice with, and it has become the staple in our training.  Cooper has progressed from hesitating at going up and down, to now jumping on and off on both sides and the faster he does it, the more fun he has; it’s brilliant how you can get into a dog’s psyche!

I used to have the perception that all puppies were hyper, chewed on everything in sight, and without a treat, they wouldn’t pay very much attention to you.  Not so!  Cooper knows what belongs to him and what belongs to us and respects that always.  Consistency and patience are the tools you need to succeed, which I have learned and will teach you.  I’ve gotten so many compliments from people on how polite my dog is, he has a perma-smile on his face, and regardless of the weather, the time of the day or the day of the week, he’s ready to check out a new place and have fun!

I knew I wanted to take this training to the next level, which for me, was to become a CTE! So here I am, a graduate of the Hustle Up School for Dog Training; it’s the beginning of a whole new world of experiences, and I hope you will join me and see how much FUN you really can have with your pooch!

 

Growing up I had always loved dogs.  After much pleading, my parents finally gave in and I was the proud owner of an American Cocker Spaniel.  We used everything from treats, choke chains, and even a Halti with no success.  We had an obese, unsocialized and possessive dog.  In my adulthood, I vowed never to go through that experience again.

When I decided to get a dog of my own, I did extensive research on the different types of breeds that would suit my lifestyle, my activity level and my living space.  I settled on a fluffy white Coton de Tulear that I named Fynn.  Everything was going great!  He was getting plenty of exercise and treat training was going fabulous.  He followed me around everywhere!  Then at around a year of age, Fynn decided that treats weren’t at all important to him.  It was much more fun to play a game of ‘catch me if you can’ near busy streets. 

After learning that Brad Pattison, the host of At the End of My Leash was going to be holding a Street Safety class in Toronto, I went to check it out and had THE best time ever!  Only after a few days of working with the tips I got from that one class, I was able to get Fynn to stop pulling on the leash and he was watching me much more closely.  I later signed up for some Street Safety Training with a local CTE and had the most fun learning different things I could do with my dog and really built a brand new relationship with my dog based on respect without the use of treats.  It was incredible.  It was almost immediate that I knew that I wanted to help other people have the same success that I did with my dog.  What better way than to go through the intense and very informative CTE training.  I have learned so much more about people, myself and most importantly about my dog.