About The Trainers

Rebecca

Rebecca with Valentine, one of her favorite senior citizens

Rebecca (the self-proclaimed Housebreaking Queen!) loves a housebreaking challenge. She has been training dogs professionally for 19 years. Starting with a job at the ASPCA, moving on to a school for professional dog trainers and subsequently running her own business, Rebecca has trained every kind of dog imaginable. She works full-time with private dog training clients, resolving obedience, housebreaking and behavior problems. She focuses on creating well-behaved pets that fit into their human families and are a pleasure to live with and take into the world. She always emphasizes the importance of a diligent housebreaking program from day one, knowing from her experience at the ASPCA that housebreaking problems are the number one reason owners relinquish dogs to shelters. Over the last 19 years, she has helped owners to housebreak dogs deemed incurable by their owners and even other trainers. She believes in a flexible approach that utilizes the program most likely to succeed for each dog, taking into consideration his family, home environment and individual preferences and idiosyncrasies.

Rebecca lives in California with her husband, her stepdaughter, two perfectly housebroken rescue dogs and an incontinent, 19-year-old, toothless Chihuahua (hey, you can't win them all!).

Dana

Dana and Marco placing third at the 2003 American Working Malinois National Championships

Dana has been training dogs for the last 18 years, starting with 4-H trials as a teenager, and moving on to more challenging competitive dog sports as an adult. She attended a school for professional dog trainers and subsequently founded a successful dog training business offering affordable, effective group classes and individualized private lessons. As a full-time companion dog trainer, Dana worked with all kinds of puppies and dogs, including many dogs that were rescued as adults. She loves helping people to resolve their new dog's established behavior problems, including, of course, housebreaking issues.

Dana trains all kinds of dogs, including aggressive dogs and dogs with other serious behavior problems. Her focus in training is creating a strong, positive relationship between dog and owner and finding a training style and lifestyle that suits both the owner and the dog. In the past 12 years her dog sport competitions have led her all over the world. She has trained 2 highly competitive dogs for the sport of Schutzhund, qualifying to participate in 4 world championships while winning or placing in many trials at the local and national level.

Dana lives in Arizona with three big, energetic dogs sleeping (and bouncing) in her bed. She woke up this morning (to the pitter patter of twelve little feet) wondering if she'll ever be able to fit a husband in there with all those dogs.