I use a combination of positive reinforcement and humane, force-free methods when building skills or addressing dog behavior, including:

• adjusting the environment or the task to meet the dog’s needs

• advising you on equipment, gear, and other tools to enhance your and your dog’s ability to engage in a meaningful activity

• Leslie McDevitt’s Pattern Games and Control Unleashed program

• Linda Tellington-Jones’s TTouch

• Cooperative Care

• sensory budgeting and building a sensory diet

All coaching and grief guidance services begin with a 30-minute virtual Affinity Call.

During this call, we will discuss:

• your goals/expectations to ensure that they’re realistic, specific, and can be accomplished through the services that I provide

• any questions you have about my philosophy or process

• why you want to do this work

During this call, we will NOT discuss:

• what I think of your dog’s behavior

• advise for how to change or manage your dog’s behavior

You can schedule your Affinity Call here.

Yes! Working together requires that we establish an agreement that clearly defines goals, expectations, and the logistics of our work. Intake paperwork also includes assessments to measure your quality of life, your dog’s sensory processing patterns, and an objective measure of your dog’s behavior.

Paperwork includes:

• a questionnaire that provides me with information about you and your dog

• a Terms and Conditions form

• the Canine Behavior and Research Questionnaire

• a Canine Sensory Profile

• the Dog Guardian Quality of Life questionnaire

*All paperwork is filled out and transferred between us using secure and private software.

Most of my work is conducted virtually, via Zoom. You will access our sessions via a cell phone, tablet, or computer from the comfort of your own home.

I find virtual coaching and consultations to be beneficial for a variety of reasons, including:

• accessibility for humans who live in rural areas or at far distances from me

• accessibility for humans experiencing chronic fatigue; post-traumatic stress; sensory processing differences; difficulties with attention and memory; or limited space inside the home

• ensuring that the focus of our work is on building YOUR skills and enhancing YOUR relationship with your dog

• minimizing stress on dogs who display fear and anxiety around unfamiliar humans

• less stress on my sensory system, which allows for me to use the full capacity of my clinical reasoning, communication, and empathic skills

Yes. I will meet with you inside your home when:

• you live within 30 miles of me (in the Albany, NY greater capital region)

• it is not possible to effectively evaluate your dog’s behavior via virtual consultation

• technological, physical, cognitive, or sensory limitations prevent you from otherwise accessing this work

In-home visits incur a travel fee. This fee is the same rate as your regular pricing tier, prorated for the amount of time it takes me to travel to your home and back. See pricing tiers here.

When I interact with your dog, I am gathering information on only 2 things: how your dog interacts with an unfamiliar human, and how your dog behaves when an unfamiliar human is in their home. This information may or may not be useful to understanding the issue for which you are coming to me for support.

In order to truly understand your dog’s behavior, it is necessary to gather information in a variety of ways, using a variety of methods, including:

• interviewing you and your family, and reviewing your answers on a questionnaire

• using standardized assessment tools and questionnaires

• observing videos* of your dog’s behavior in different environments

• observing your structured or unstructured interactions with your dog during virtual sessions

• interviewing other humans who know your dog, including your veterinarian, dog walker, other dog health or behavior professionals you have worked with, daycare staff, and groomer

*When the behaviors in question involve aggression or anxiety, I will not review videos in which you specifically prompt your dog to behave in these ways just so I can see it. Aggression and anxious behaviors result out of stress to your dog, and there is no reason to cause stress to your dog just so I can see their response. If you have security camera footage or doorbell recording device footage, or happened to capture a behavior organically, then we can review that. But we will not purposely stress your dog to record their behavior.

Each coaching or grief guidance session is 60 minutes.

During each coaching session, we will begin by defining our goals for the session. This is often determined by you and whatever is a priority for your day or week. If you are not sure about the priority for the session, I will help you define this. From there, we choose a path depending on your needs, which may include:

• processing a difficult situation by sharing what happened and using somatic (body-based) strategies to move through difficult feelings

• problem solving a situation to identify how you can adjust the environment, communicate something to your dog, set a boundary, care for yourself or your dog differently, meet your and your dog’s needs better

• build knowledge and skills in self-awareness, sensory processing, somatic consent, boundary setting, nervous system health, understanding dog communication

• build skills and practice exercises with your dog (I will help you understand an exercise, set up your environment and camera, and then will observe you while you work with your dog so that I can tell you what you’re doing well, identify challenge areas, and help you make adjustments

• build skills and practice exercises to help you budget your sensory needs, care for your needs, and manage stress

• plan for how to incorporate learned knowledge and skills into your daily routine

Yes! This work requires that you dedicate time each day to building your awareness, knowledge, and skills. This work requires attention to your needs, your dog’s needs, and the relationship you are building together.

Sessions are designed for building knowledge and skills, understanding patterns of behavior, problem solving, and planning for how to incorporate learned knowledge and skills into your daily routine.

Homework is designed to help you build awareness of yourself and your dog, and to practice skills for yourself or with your dog that we learned in session.

You will not make progress without bringing this work into your everyday life between sessions.

Sessions are priced on an income-based sliding scale.

Please see my pricing page to learn about my sliding scale.

I accept payments via:

• Venmo

• PayPal

• Apple Pay

• Zelle

• Cash App

• credit card (through my site)