I have spent almost 30 years developing creative and intuitive abilities with dogs and teaching others to find their own ways to communicate with their pets. Along the way, I’ve received recognition for my work from fellow behavior experts, the national media and my clients, many of whom are some of Hollywood’s most prominent personalities.
My love of dogs really goes back to my childhood. As a native of Sacramento, I would often travel to Los Angeles to visit my grandparents who where professional breeders. I learned at young age to care bout dogs. Even then, I had an appreciation for a dog’s struggle to learn as myself experienced difficulties.
As an anxious and easily distracted child, I had trouble focusing on school work and individual tasks in general and yet, I always had a special ability to read people and animals, to sense what they were thinking and feeling. That ability (and my family dogs) often gave me comfort during those troublesome childhood years.
Even with my struggles, I attended college trying to fight my learning disability, confused why I couldn’t keep up with other students. It wasn’t until the age of 38 that I was diagnosed with dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and scotopic syndrome. Given special learning instructions, I was able to go back to school and complete psychology classes at UCLA, all the while working toward a career in canine behavior.
My learning strategies focused on the need to use my hands and verbally talk through tasks. In my work, which included training with famed British behaviorist John Fisher, I discovered that pet dogs have a unique way of interacting and socializing. I then developed a deeper understanding of how a dog’s surroundings directly influence their behavior. I also learned that using intimidation or punishment with dogs is never an option since those approaches can cause dogs to develop major fears or phobias. That’s when I realized that using conventional methods of dog training (treats, clickers) would be a difficult task not only for me, but also for millions of people that suffer from learning disabilities and coordination problems. And so, I decided to create a simple-to-use method to train dogs by using hand signals and voice commands.
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