For the Love of Dog Training

For the Love of Dog Training Real-life dog training in Northern California, tailored to your family’s needs and goals. Specializing in Best Friends!

From puppy foundations to behavior modification, we help dogs and their humans build calm, confident, lasting partnerships.Real-life training for real families Board and Train Retreats
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I went down to the training space for about an hour this evening to knock out a few more things, and every time I’m ther...
09/09/2026

I went down to the training space for about an hour this evening to knock out a few more things, and every time I’m there, it feels a little more like the place I’ve had pictured in my head. There’s still plenty to do, but slowly but surely, it’s coming together, and I’m getting really excited to actually have people and their dogs in here.

If you have a Board & Train go-home session with me this week, you’ll also get to see all the things strategically left out of the photos 😂 The stuff that still needs to be cleaned up, the mats that need to be put back down, and the bathrooms that are currently in complete disarray because the vanity we bought was cracked and we’re waiting for the replacement to arrive.

But that’s okay. It’s a work in progress, and it’s coming together beautifully.

From the beginning, I knew I didn’t want this space to feel like every other dog training facility I’ve ever stepped foot into. I wanted it to feel warm and welcoming, like somewhere you actually want to hang out with your dog. A place where people can learn, ask questions, work through the hard stuff, celebrate the wins, and actually enjoy being part of a dog training community.

Eventually, I’d love to have movie nights down here with everyone’s dogs hanging out on place, community events, workshops, classes, and plenty of opportunities for people to learn and enjoy their dogs together. I want this to be more than just a place where you come for dog training. I want it to feel like a community.

And if you’ve done a Board & Train go-home lesson with me before or trained with me in the past, I’d really love to hear what you think. What do you think of all these changes and finally having a dedicated space like this for training?

Group classes officially start Saturday, and I seriously can’t wait to start welcoming everyone in. ❤️

Have you ever been walking along thinking, “Look at us! We are vibing today! I probably don't even need treats next time...
09/08/2026

Have you ever been walking along thinking, “Look at us! We are vibing today! I probably don't even need treats next time,” and then BAM! Your dog spots another dog across the street and suddenly you’re hanging onto the leash wondering what in the hell just happened?

It can feel like they went from zero to losing their ever loving mind for absolutely no reason.

I promise it didn’t come out of nowhere, but I also don’t blame you for thinking it did, because the signs leading up to a reaction can be really small, and most dog owners have never been taught what to look for.

Maybe your dog’s mouth suddenly closes. Their body gets a little stiff. They slow down, speed up, begin staring, stop responding to their name, or start sniffing like that patch of dirt contains the winning lottery numbers.

Those are the moments I’m watching for when your dog is in my program whether it is in virtual coaching, in person coaching, group class, or board and train.

By the time your dog is barking, growling, or lunging, they’re overwhelmed and having a hard time processing anything else. They aren’t blowing you off, or plotting to publicly embarrass you, although I realize it may feel very personal while you’re trying to untangle yourself from the leash.

This is why carefully planned exposure is one of my favorite ways to work through dog reactivity. It’s based on behavioral science, and it works when it’s done correctly and often enough.

When I say exposure, I don’t mean marching your dog straight toward the thing that scares or excites them and hoping for the best. We’ve all tried the “maybe it’ll be fine” method at some point, it's rarely fine.

Good exposure means giving your dog enough distance that they can notice the trigger without completely unraveling. From there, we help them have a different experience. Then we practice it again and again until seeing that trigger no longer feels like such an emergency.

Those repetitions are one of the things I love about working with reactive dogs during my Northern California board and train retreats. I can create thoughtful practice opportunities throughout the dog’s stay instead of trying to squeeze everything into one lesson and sending the owner home to recreate it alone.

Small group dog training classes in Oroville California can also be incredibly helpful. They give dogs and their owners a safe place to practice around real distractions, with guidance and enough space to be successful.

If walks with your reactive dog have left you frustrated, embarrassed, or wondering why everyone else seems to have the normal dog, you aren’t alone, and you haven’t failed your dog.

Sometimes you just need someone to help you see the quieter signs, understand what your dog is trying to tell you, and know what to do before the barking and lunging begin.

That’s where things can finally start to change.

The mural is done, and somehow seeing it on the wall makes this whole thing feel a little more real. 🧡When I envisioned ...
09/07/2026

The mural is done, and somehow seeing it on the wall makes this whole thing feel a little more real. 🧡

When I envisioned this space, I knew I wanted it to be more than just a place where we hold dog training classes.

I wanted to create a place where people can come learn, ask questions, build confidence, and genuinely enjoy their dogs. A place where training doesn’t feel like another thing you have to get right, but something that helps you understand your dog better and makes life together a little easier and a lot more fun.

Classes start next week, which is incredibly exciting, but my hope for this building goes so much further than classes. I want workshops, events, community, conversations, friendships, and a whole lot of memories made here with the dogs we love.

We’re still putting the pieces together, but this is exactly what I hoped it would start to feel like.

A place for dogs, absolutely. But just as much, a place for their people. 🐾

We can't wait to welcome you inside

Huge thank you to Joser Rosales for making this happen

🐾 Group classes start in ONE WEEK!It feels a little surreal to finally say that. We’ve been spending a whole lot of time...
09/06/2026

🐾 Group classes start in ONE WEEK!

It feels a little surreal to finally say that. We’ve been spending a whole lot of time down at the warehouse getting everything ready and creating a training space that feels welcoming, comfortable, and functional for both you and your dog. And now we’re almost there!

If you’ve been thinking about joining us, here’s what we still have coming up:

🐾 Real Life Foundations: September
We have ONE spot left in our Saturday morning class! And if this cooler weather sticks around, we may even be able to bump class to a slightly later morning start time.

This 4-week class is all about taking training into real life. We’ll work on engagement, communication, loose leash walking, neutrality around dogs and people, confidence around distractions, and helping your dog learn that they don’t need to be involved in everything happening around them. We’ll even finish by taking those skills out into the real world.

🐶 Puppy Foundations
We have ONE puppy spot remaining!

This class is for puppies who are just beginning to figure out this big, weird world. We’ll work on engagement, communication, leash skills, handling and cooperative care, confidence, proper socialization, everyday puppy manners, and learning how to calmly exist around other dogs and people. The AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy Evaluation is included too!

🍂 Real Life Foundations: Holiday Edition
Couldn’t make the September class? We have another 4-week Foundations class beginning October 27!

We’ll cover many of the same foundational skills—engagement, leash handling, communication, neutrality, confidence, and working around distractions—but with a little holiday twist. We’ll also work on things like polite greetings, settling, guests coming into the home, managing excitement, and preparing your dog for the extra activity that tends to come with the holidays.

🏅 Good Dog, Good Citizen
Ready to take those skills a little further? Our 5-week AKC Canine Good Citizen prep class will work through all 10 skills needed for the Canine Good Citizen test, including polite greetings, loose leash walking, handling, recalls, neutrality around other dogs, distractions, and supervised separation.

And yes—the official AKC Canine Good Citizen test is included in the final week!

Real Life Foundations is a great prerequisite for this class, so if earning your dog’s Canine Good Citizen title is something you’d like to work toward, Foundations is the perfect place to start.

One of the things I’m most excited about is simply being able to bring more of this type of small-group, real-life dog training to Oroville. Classes are intentionally kept SMALL so I can actually coach the individual dog and human standing in front of me rather than having you disappear into a giant group.

📍 Oroville, California
🐾 Small classes
🐾 Individualized coaching
🐾 Real-life skills
🐾 Homework and support between classes

We’re spending today back at the warehouse getting everything ready for you guys. One more week!! 🐾

Enrollment links and full class details are in the comments.

09/03/2026

During my Board & Train interview process, one of the things I ask about is cooperative care. How does your dog do with their feet, ears, brushing, grooming, vet handling, all the fun stuff we eventually have to do whether they signed up for it or not? 😂

I pay especially close attention to this with doodles because most of them are going to need professional grooming regularly throughout their lives.

Murphy’s owner told me he was absolutely terrible about his feet, so nail care was definitely on my list, but it wasn’t something I was in a hurry to tackle.

I usually save cooperative care and nail work until later in the program because I want a relationship with the dog first. If a dog already has a history of hating something, I don’t really want to introduce myself and immediately become the lady doing the thing he hates. We have plenty of other training we can work on while he gets to know me, learns how I communicate, and figures out that working together can actually be pretty fun.

There’s another little detail in this video I think is important. I’m purposely NOT using Murphy’s place cot for his nails. We’ve spent time teaching him that the cot is a predictable place where he can settle, and I don’t want to muddy that picture by suddenly turning it into the place where uncomfortable body handling happens. Dogs are incredibly good at making associations, including the ones we never intended to teach.

What I am using is food locking, something I learned from Tactical Pause LTD in the UK, and it’s become one of my favorite things to incorporate into cooperative care. At its simplest, I place food on the ground, Murphy knows it’s there but waits for access, I do the piece of care I’m working on, and then he gets released to the food.

We’re creating a predictable pattern instead of turning nail care into a wrestling match.

The goal isn’t just to “get the nails done.” Of course I need the nails done, I’m not running a tiny dog spa where everyone gets to veto basic hygiene forever. 😂 But I can care about getting the job done AND care about how we get there.

Murphy doesn’t need to love having his nails trimmed. I’d just like him to understand the process, know what I’m asking, and learn that having his feet handled doesn’t have to turn into conflict.

I get questions all the time that basically boil down to, “MAKE THIS STOP.” 😂 My dog jumps on the counter, my dog barks ...
09/02/2026

I get questions all the time that basically boil down to, “MAKE THIS STOP.” 😂 My dog jumps on the counter, my dog barks out the window, my dog steals things, my dog gets into the trash, how do I correct it, how do I make sure they never do it again?

And my first thought usually isn’t, “Okay, how do we punish this out of existence?”, it’s, “Does this actually need to be gone?”

There’s a difference between managing a behavior and suppressing one, and I think we’ve gotten into this weird place in dog training where people feel like choosing management somehow means you failed to train the dog, meanwhile I’m over here happily managing plenty of things because I don’t need every mildly irritating behavior to become a full-blown training project.

Take counter surfing, if your dog has learned that occasionally a sandwich, steak, or half a Costco chicken magically appears on the counter, of course they’re going to check, we can absolutely work on the behavior, but we can also stop leaving food sitting at nose level and acting personally wounded when the Labrador conducts an unauthorized quality-control inspection.

There are also times when I absolutely do want to suppress behavior, if something is dangerous, seriously disruptive, or incompatible with the life that dog needs to live, I’m comfortable saying, “Nope, we’re not doing this,” but I want there to be a reason behind that decision beyond the fact that the dog did something and a human found it annoying.

I also have to think about this a lot with Board and Train dogs, because what I can accomplish in my environment isn’t automatically going to transfer perfectly into yours, dogs don’t generalize particularly well, so your dog may learn very quickly that Tiffany’s kitchen has one set of rules, then go home and discover that apparently your kitchen is operating under an entirely different employee handbook.

Then we have context, which makes this even more interesting, one person may hire me because they desperately want their dog to stop putting paws on the counter, while I could be teaching a service dog that putting their paws on a counter is exactly what I want because they need to retrieve an item, same physical behavior, completely different purpose.

So when someone asks me, “How do I make this stop?”, sometimes my answer is going to be training, sometimes it’s going to be suppression, sometimes it’s going to be reinforcement and teaching an incompatible behavior, and sometimes it’s going to be management, because good training isn’t about proving we can make a dog stop doing every single thing we don’t like.

Sometimes the smartest training decision is realizing this really isn’t that deep, manage it, stop the rehearsal, give the dog something better to do, and move on with your life.

And for the love of dogs, put the damn chicken away. 😂

09/02/2026

The behavior might be why you called me.

But the dog underneath the behavior is what I’m actually interested in.

09/01/2026

When you have a dog who’s afraid of people, “just let him see that you’re nice” can be some incredibly unhelpful advice. You know you’re nice, but your dog would like additional documentation. 😂

Otto is a young Dachshund who’s already on his third home, and he came into training with a fear of men and a bite history. Watching him play with Dwayne means a lot when you understand how uncomfortable having someone in his space could be for him.

Even warming up to me took time. Being approached or handled in a tight space could be especially difficult for Otto, so we had to consider where an interaction was happening, how much room he had, and whether he felt comfortable with what we were asking. He’s been more comfortable outside, which gave us a place to start building a relationship without adding the pressure he could feel in smaller spaces.

Dwayne didn’t need to pet him, reach for him, or convince him they were going to be friends. He could simply be there and let Otto get familiar with him. Otto could watch, investigate, and come closer without that automatically becoming an invitation for someone to touch him. Sometimes a dog is coming over to gather information, and we’re already planning the wedding. Let them finish sniffing first. 😂

We’ve also worked on helping Otto feel comfortable while people move around him. Predictable routines, a familiar place to settle, and treats dropped without an expectation of contact give him opportunities to experience people without every interaction requiring something from him. Food can be part of that process without being used to lure him closer than he’s comfortable going.

This is something I’ve talked about with his owners throughout his virtual coaching, because understanding what he’s feeling helps us make better decisions about how we interact with him. We’re looking at his body language, how readily he engages, and whether he can settle afterward. Being still or allowing something to happen doesn’t always tell us that a dog feels comfortable with it.

Having Otto here for board and train gives us the consistency to build those experiences into everyday life. A short interaction, some downtime, another opportunity later. We can adjust to the dog we have in front of us that day, and those manageable reps give him a history of experiences he can feel better about.

For anyone living with a fearful dog, I know how much you want them to understand that they’re safe and loved. Giving them space can feel a little backwards when everything in you wants to reassure them through affection. But letting them develop trust without imposing that contact can be one of the kindest things we do.

That’s why this little play session means so much to me. Otto gets to discover that being around Dwayne can be enjoyable, and we get to see this funny, playful side of him come out. These are the moments my five-year plan is made of. ❤️.

08/31/2026

MEET TUCKER 🐾

It was my Monday at Northwest SPCA in Oroville, CA, and listen… you put a Lab looking puppy with a slightly mysterious curly coat in front of me and obviously I’m going to investigate. 😂

Tucker is approximately 6 months old, and he’s going to be a BIG boy. We know there’s some Labrador Retriever in there, but those curls definitely have me wondering what else is contributing to the recipe.

Like most six month old puppies, Tucker came out ready to PARTY. But once that initial energy was met and he had a chance to settle into the environment, I really liked what I saw.

He’s smart, he’s willing to work, he’s food motivated, and he picked things up quickly.

We played around with leash work, recalls, place, sit, and just generally asking his little puppy brain to slow down and think. He was also willing to investigate new things, climb onto the place cot, and engage with me really nicely.

Is he a finished dog? Absolutely not. He’s 6 months old. 😂 But there’s a lot to work with here, and I think he could be a really fun dog for someone who wants to put the time into raising and training a big, active puppy.

AND… I’m adding a little adoption bonus.

If Tucker is adopted locally, his new family is welcome to join my Puppy Foundations class starting in October completely FREE. I’d love to help give Tucker and his new people a solid start together.

Tucker is available through Northwest SPCA in Oroville, California. Please contact the shelter directly for adoption information, requirements, and current availability.

Share Tucker far and wide. His person might just be scrolling right now. ❤️

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