Funny that what was wrong with both dog's heeling was my level of confidence, ha! And my tone of voice, go figure: high-pitched sing-song voice does not sound like praise as much as normal tone of voice.
Began working with dogs as an animal care technician at my hometown's shelter, then with a high volume rescue group that took the adoptable dogs scheduled for euthanasia from the shelter. Really getting to know dogs that I saw every day for months that weren't getting adopted for simple, inconsequential behavior problems was what motivated me to become a dog trainer. But even more than that was seeing their frustration and not knowing how to help them. All the positive reinforcement-only methods that local trainers offered weren't helping the dogs I loved. Vicki Hearne's books led me to Koehler training, and it healed my heart to see that there WERE answers that really worked to solve the problems that plagued the dogs I knew. I'm doing one board and train after another, aiming to train a dog through Novice from each AKC group. So far I've trained a Border Collie mix (Catfish) who also had a leash length retrieve when we was returned to his owners, a small terrier mix (Chewy) with mild resource guarding and alert barking, and a neglect case pit bull mix (Kiko) who wants to kill cats.
