Paws & Reward

Small group classes in Blackwood and Flagstaff Hill, plus personalised in-home consults for dogs and cats, supporting real-life skills and lasting results. No one will be yelled at for not knowing what to do or making mistakes. My focus is on helping you understand what your dog or cat wants and needs, while also equipping your pet with the skills he or she needs to be comfortable and happy in your family. The goal is for you and your pet to enjoy fulfilled and enriched lives together. My training focuses on three areas to achieve behavioural change: management, relationships and training:

- Management: I will set your pet up for success. This involves short and long term strategies, such as crates, gates, exercise, vet visits etc. This helps prevent problems from developing.

- Relationship: refers to the pet-owner relationship being a partnership rather than being viewed as one party dominating another. Think of it as you and your pet being in a dance. As the owners, it is your job to give clear instructions to your dog or cat. This will avoid confusion, which often leads to stress.

- Training: I use positive reinforcement training because research has consistently shown it to be the most effective way to teach an animal the desired behaviours and learn new tasks. Positive reinforcement involves reinforcing desirable behaviours and ignoring, redirecting or preventing undesirable behaviour. This training strategy makes any situation better because it fills in the gaps for your pet on what you want her or him to do instead of what you don't want her or him to do. To do this, we’ll use anything your individual pet would welcome more of (food, toys, attention, petting, etc.). Behaviour you like is matched with things your dog likes. I don’t have a use for choke chains, electric collars or any other equipment that needs the dog to fail in order to serve its purpose of “correcting.”