Awesome Paws Positive Pet Training

I will be out of the country earning my masters of science from Sep 2007-May 2008. Sorry for any inconvenience and happy training!

Hi. My name is Becky and I am Awesome Paws Positive Pet Training.

I have been working around/training animals for over 10 years. I have been training dogs for over 4 years. I first started working with animals of all kinds when I was only 10 years old, handling baby parrots at the Animal Store in Lincolnwood. I started training animals when I worked as a primate keeper at Parrot Jungle and Gardens in 2002. I learned the art of clicker training while volunteering as a dog trainer for the Humane Society of Miami-Dade County in Florida in 2002/2003. I continued my animal training education in 2004 as an intern at the John G. Shedd aqauraium, studying under the world reknown animal behaviorist, Ken Ramirez.

I have been teaching in-home private classes part-time since 2004. I taught the methods and theory of animal training as an education instructor at Miami Seaquarium as well as taught a college accredited course on dolphin training at the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys. While living in the keys in 2004/2005, I volunteered to train the dogs living at the Upper Keys Animal Shelter in order to help them find homes more quickly.

In early 2006 I was certified by Petsmart as a pet trainer where I worked full time teaching group and private classes. I now work as an animal trainer at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ training monkeys, porcupines, parrots, bats, dolphins, sea lions and more. I use only possitive reinforcement training so that training is not only positive and  bennificial for you and your dog, but its fun too!

I do not train your dog for you. Instead, I will teach you the tools necessary to communicate properly with your dog so that you can have that well behaved pooch you've always wanted. I will guide you through the process of dog training and work with you and your dog. There is no "Secret recipe" for success. I let you know what I am doing every step of the way AND WHY IT WORKS THE WAY IT DOES. I conduct private or semi-prviate in-home lessons to teach you and your dog the basic commands, more advanced training or even trick training just for fun! You can reserve a package of lesons or take just one lesson at a time.

I am always continuing my Pet Training Education:

I attended a four day clicker trainer seminar in 2002 run by Karen Pryor, author of Don't Shoot the Dog and the woman responsible for bringing clicker training to dogs and trainers everywhere.

I am a member of IMATA, the international marine animal trainers association and attended their 4 day annual conference in Nov. 2005

I am a member of ABMA, the animal behavior and management association and attened their 7 day conference in Jan. of 2007.