Philosophy.
I believe that the best dog-human relationships have partnership at their core. Partnership denotes communication, trust, and in the case of our relationship with our pups, love. As the humans in the partnership, we bear a responsibility to help our dogs thrive in a human world.
I built The Dog Human Alliance as a learning organization. As a trainer I am always learning, and as the human and pup in partnership, you are always learning too. You’ll gain the knowledge and techniques that make it easier to build a healthy, lasting partnership. We’ll discuss your goals, and we’ll learn about the unspoken goals of your dog. We will consider your dog’s environmental context, relevant breed information, developmental stages, and what we can learn from their body language.
As a CPDT-KA certified trainer, I use training practices supported by the latest scientific evidence and adhere to the LIMA standard: Least Intrusive, Minimally Aversive. Learn more about the CPDT-KA certification and LIMA standard here.
About Me.
CPDT-KA certified trainer, Family Paws educator.
Opening The Dog Human Alliance is my dream. For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to work with animals and open my own company. Prior to The Dog Human Alliance, I had a number of professional chapters that made today possible. I started my career working in microfinance in China, later transitioning to the startup space in Beijing, NYC, and Philadelphia, and finally working in corporate consulting across the US. I learned valuable lessons from each of these chapters, and I feel lucky to apply these lessons to facilitate healthier relationships between dogs and humans.
My love of dogs is lifelong due to many generations of dog lovers who came before me. Growing up, my family raised Seeing Eye puppies and a rotating-cast of family dogs. In my adult life, my love of dogs continued. My husband and I fostered a series of animals, working to find them permanent homes before adopting our own quirky pup, Willow.
Along the way, one of our fosters, Jacob, came to us with severe leash reactivity. I will always remember the relief when a trainer provided us with a positive-reinforcement framework to help Jacob and identified fear as the source of his behavior. This experience ushered in a new passion for learning about modern dog training techniques, including the completion of a year-long dog training apprenticeship in NYC and earning my CPDT-KA certification. Through my training, I was amazed at how much I learned--even as a lifelong dog person!
Whether a new pup or an old one, there are many things that we as humans can do to show our dogs our love--in a way that they understand. I’m looking forward to sharing all that we know about how to build partnerships with our dogs.
