Lisa has been a life long dog owner and lover. Her 1st dog was a shepherd x
beagle mix named Daisy. Daisy was Lisa's first training project.
Lisa taught Daisy off-leash commands, tricks, and how to run a make-shift
agility course. When Daisy was getting old, Lisa
adopted a shepherd x lab mix who she named Lucy or Lu for short. Lucy was a
terrific dog and as Lisa says, "If I had asked her to jump through a burning
hoop for me, she would have." Lucy passed away the summer of 2006 from cancer,
she was 12 years old.
Lisa trained both Daisy and Lucy with traditional choke chain and force
based methods. She didn't realize there was another way to train at the
time. While Daisy and Lucy turned out to be great dogs, Lisa saw the
damage the choke collar did to Lucy causing severe arthritis in her neck and
upper spine and tracheal collapse and when she adopted her next dog decided to
train with a no force approach.
In 2002 Lisa was give the opportunity to adopt a 3 week old Pembroke Welsh
Corgi who had a severe eye injury. This little puppy became known as Clara
and has been taking the world by storm ever since. With Clara, Lisa
embarked on the road to positive reinforcement. She learned about clicker
training, and how to create a dog who can think and be happy trying new things
as opposed to the dog who waits to be told exactly what to do all the time and
is afraid to put a toe in the wrong place. Clara is a vivacious little dog
who loves learning and has a wide repertoire of tricks and skills that Lisa has
taught her completely through positive reinforcement training.
Besides training at home, Lisa and Clara started taking agility classes when Clara was about 2 years
old with a local facility, then soon found out about
Maplewood Dog Training where she
still takes classes and is now on their teaching staff. She and Clara are doing
excellently in NADAC agility having completed their Novice Versatility titles as
well as a number of Superior Novice Titles in different classes. They also have
their AKC Novice and Open Jumpers titles and Novice Rally Obedience title.
In 2007 Lisa bought her 1st dog (all previous dogs had been given to her from
various rescue situations), Ryan, a Vizsla, who she waited over a year for! He
is her 1st male dog and 1st dog she hopes to compete in conformation with as
well as agility and obedience. She is also considering training him for Hunt
Tests, and is just trying to find a positive trainer with experience in pointing
breeds for that. He is a joyful little boy, with his ears flying and his non
stop energy. He has already begun some basic agility training and obedience
training.
Lisa has also been a Veterinary Technician for over 20 years and currently
works at Norwell Veterinary Hospital. She is their 'new puppy intake'
tech, teaching the clientele about proper puppy behavior, training and starting
their new charges off on the right foot. Is is through this experience
that Lisa has decided to begin R+, giving her another avenue to reach people and
teach them about another way to train. She is also an
APDT member and is studying to take her
Certification for Professional Dog Trainers exam. In addition Lisa is a
volunteer for Maplewood Assistance
Partners, Inc. a non-profit organization that trains service dogs for the
disabled in MA and RI.
