Through Family Tails, I am bringing together my knowledge and experience in dog training with my knowledge and experience in family education

Our organization is all about building better relationships between families and their dogs, and toward that end, I offer training sessions and games. My goal is to teach my clients (both young and old) how to pick up on their dogs’ cues and communicate with them more effectively. Just as communication is core to human relationships, it is core to human-dog relationships as well.

I was always around dogs when I was growing up. Living in a beautiful part of California, I started training dogs when I was still a kid. My mother mentored me in that way, and when I was 9, she let me raise my own guide dog puppies, a big step for me. She had been training guide dog puppies herself from the time that she was a teenager, so it had turned into something of a family tradition for us. From age 9 to my 20s, I raised ten puppies in total, all the while my passion for dog training growing.

After graduating high school, I enrolled at Chico State University, where I earned my BA in Agriculture and Animal Science. I knew even then (long before then) that I was going to make a career out of dog training, and at Chico State, I got to learn about professional training and stock dogs and did one summer internship at Guide Dogs and another with a dog sledding kennel here in the Yukon. During the Yukon internship, I met my husband, we fell in love, and I adopted an Alaskan husky puppy.

The Yukon was my home for 14 years where my two precious children (ages 8 and 10) were born, we welcomed a new black lab puppy and then sadly had to say goodbye to our husky.  My family has since made a big move and now make our home in Cochrane, Alberta. Since moving in we have adopted a bearded dragon and a new kitten, it's definitely a full house!

I have completed a certification course through Animal Behaviour College, and I am also a Licensed Family Paws Parent Educator. I am also in the process achieving another certification through the Karen Pryor Academy which I will complete in the Spring of 2023.