The call came while I was in Egypt. My sister Theresa was sitting my 12-year-old golden mix Houdini when he suddenly passed away. I don’t know how she got through but are tour guide handed me his cell phone and before my sister said a word, I told her I knew Houdini had passed. How? It turned out, at the exact time Houdini passed over, I was in bed and experienced a terrible nightmare. I knew something bad had happened to my dog!
When I got back to the states, my firm employees were heartbroken. Houdini was our law firm mascot, always greeting clients and employees with a big smile and sloppy tongue. He helped take the edge off what many times was a very stressful situation for my clients. Everyone clamored for me to get another mascot. So later that week I drove to our local Humane Society where I met Ramses, a 35-pound Shepherd/Keeshond mix. I named him after the great Egyptian Pharaoh whose statue I was gazing at when my sister called me.
Ramses became our loyal firm mascot for the next 10 years! He also forged my connection to the Women’s Humane Society where I adopted him. I defended the Society in lawsuits regarding aggressive dogs and then started working with their positive reinforcement trainers to help our shelter dogs become adoptable. I learned the number one reason for shelter surrenders was a lack of training, so training dogs to become Canine Good Citizens became my passion. I found that helping people and their dogs was even more rewarding than just helping people! I joined the Bucks County AKC Club and worked with numerous trainers assisting with their AKC training classes.
When I moved to Florida in 2010 I started Canine Command, my dog training company and enrolled in the Animal Behavior College Training Program. The program combines rigorous classwork and hands-on training with an experienced mentor. I was extremely fortunate to be assigned John Zakens. John had been trained by another trainer icon in the field and poured all his training knowledge and technique into me.
I also became a professional member of the International Association of Professional Dog Trainers. The Association was founded by another training icon in our field, Dr. Ian Dunbar. Dr. Dunbar is a veterinarian and animal behaviorist who developed the SIRIUS positive reinforcement training system back in 1982 when most trainers were still using punishment methods to train dogs. Dr. Dunbar found that positive reinforcement/lure rewards helped dogs quickly follow commands and develop good habits. The Association conducts an annual members meeting filled with seminars to help us trainers further improve and refine our training and behavior problem solving techniques. The picture here shows Ian and I at one of our recent annual meetings.
Post-pandemic, my passion for rescuing, rehabilitating and training has only increased as more dogs are getting surrendered to shelters given the high cost of ownership and employment disruption people have faced. Currently, besides my training duties, I am volunteering at the Lee County Domestic Animal Services working to make their dogs even more adoptable. Please spread the word, shelters have awesome dogs, most of whom, through no fault of their own, ended up at the shelter due to divorce, lost employment, loss of a home etc. Shelter dogs are forever grateful and strongly bonded to their adopters. I know, I have 3 of them- Romeo, Bonnie and Chico!
