Walks are between a half hour and an hour, though more time can be added for those especially high-energy breeds! Walks include:

• leash manners

• focus-on-me tasks

• sniffing and searching enrichment

• active games, depending on ability/size/energy

Treats are provided during walks — if your dog has allergies, please include details when you book. Unless otherwise stated, a martingale collar is provided and used for walks, as it allows for the easiest and safest control of the dog. I do not use prong collars, choke collars, or e-collars.

Pricing starts at $50 per structured walk, or $280 for a six-walk package.

Training Walks taken with the owner are $60.

Are you a counselor or mental health professional looking for a trained therapy dog? Are you someone who works with kids, the elderly, disabled, or others looking for the comfort that animals bring?

My therapy training program follows a checklist of items from certification tests from various therapy animal organizations. First, however, we will meet so I can properly assess your dog or animal for therapy work — this type of job is not for every animal, and relies very heavily on each individual temperament and comfort levels.

See the Therapy Dogs page for more info.

• Teach your pup to greet guests, sit and wait, and take treats gently.

• You will learn how to lure and maneuver your pup without force.

• If you have children, they should be present for one or several lessons. Your pup will learn to treat your children like royalty.

• No more jumping, counter-surfing, or eating off the floor — we will practice impulse-control.

• Just what it says! Your pup will learn sit, down, stay, come, and leave it! These foundational commands will allow you to live peacefully with your canine roommate, and worry less about what trouble they may get into.

• Have something specific in mind? A behavior you’d like to change? Let me know!

• The 1st session will focus on a basic sit and down, and will find out where your pup lies with desensitization to physical touch, sight, and noise. We will touch on all of this throughout the next sessions.

• Sessions 2 and 3 will work on “stay” and “come”. We will use a long-line for this.

• Sessions 4 and 5 will focus on impulse control! “Leave it” is a highly useful command that may just save your dog from eating chocolate or a grape dropped on the ground.

• Session 6 looks a bit different — we will train with what we have already learned in different environments. Maybe that means busy streets, maybe that means the woods, on a trail, or on the beach!

• Dogs are highly environmental learners, meaning even if they know how to sit in your home, they might not while out in the world. We need to transfer that information in different environments, with different levels of distraction.

• Best Roommate training is more species specific — do you have a dog that doesn’t get along with your other pets? Two cats that hate each other? Even better, are you getting a new animal soon and want to introduce them properly to their housemates?

• New Cat!Introduce your new kitty to your current kitty with care and patience to ensure the best future relationship.

• New Dog! Introduce your current dog to the new puppy or rescue entering your home! These lessons will take place outside, then move inside, depending on the anxiety levels of each dog.

• New Critter! Introduce your current cat or dog to whatever critter they’re having trouble understanding. Prey drive can be a huge issue in a home, so if you have a hamster, guinea pig, rabbit, lizard, or small, quick-moving animal, dogs especially can become aggressive. I will teach you to manage these behaviors or, hopefully, teach your critters to get along.

Given the fact that Best Roommate training includes two animals, sometimes of different species and sizes, the starting rate is $115 per 45–60 minute session.

• My Happy Hounds course is between 5 and 6 sessions, and goes through the best ways to ensure your non-human roommate has their most enriching life.

• Session 1 will focus on the behavioral issues your pet is having in the home and how we can remedy those.

• Happy Hounds includes brain games, snuffle mats, low-cost enrichment games, and new ways to connect with your animal.

As I do not currently have the facilities for boarding, I offer housesitting in your own home. Whatever critters you may have — cats, dogs, birds, lizards, snakes, spiders, ponies or goats, your kid’s hamster or guinea pig — I am happy to take care of your non-human family members as if they were my own! I have experience with dogs, cats, and birds primarily, but I also have experience with fish (I have my own 20 gallon freshwater tank and 40 gallon paludarium), chickens and other outdoor-birds, and even pigs. There is no critter I’m not willing and even excited to meet and care for!

I am also a houseplant enthusiast, so if you’re a collector like me, you no longer have to worry about well-meaning relatives killing off your beloved plants!

Pricing

1 Dog: $80 overnight stay (includes midday check-in)

2 Dogs: $90 overnight stay (includes midday check-in)

—OR—

Morning/midday/evening check-ins (no overnight stay): $25 for each stop,

Cats: $50 overnight stay, $20 midday check-in (1/2–1 hour).

Birds: $35 overnight stay, $55 for 2 hours of flock time (I give your bird company in the middle of the day, which includes enrichment and potential target training).

Other critters: depending on size and difficulty of care, prices range from $25–$150 each overnight stay. Please reach out for more info.