Training With Sara

The Behavioral Discovery Session is really important when it comes to understanding what may be causing the behavioral issues you’re facing with your dog. The process actually begins with the Canine Questionnaire so that Sara can gather information about your dog to gather background information and make the most out of your time together during the Discovery Call.

• 45 Minute Virtual Session
• Follow-up Email
• 15 Minute Follow-Up Phone Call to Review Summary / Q&A as Needed

Sara works with a multitude of behavioral concerns, everything from instilling foundational behaviors in puppies (to prevent behavior problems in the future) to severe aggression cases involving injury. Sara takes a particular interest in fear aggression cases; however, she will also work with obsessive-compulsive disorders, conflict aggression, prey-driven aggression, selective aggression, and Separation-Related Problems, including separation anxiety, cooperative care for medical and handling procedures, and low-stress handling techniques.

Sara will also consult on cases being addressed primarily by other behavior professionals, dog trainers, and veterinary staff as needed.

Sara is a Certified Behavior Professional, which is different from a Certified Dog Trainer. While training is often intertwined with behavior, they are two separate fields. This is often a confusing topic for pet parents, especially since some Dog Trainers will take on behavior cases. Sara wrote an article outlining all of the different titles (and what they mean) in an effort to help pet parents better understand the differences.  You can check out that article here:

What is the Difference Between a Dog Trainer and a Behaviorist?

The short answer is that you can think of dog trainers as those that focus primarily on obedience skills and cues (sit, down, stay) and canine behavior professionals as those that focus on why the animal is acting a certain way and how to modify undesirable or dangerous behaviors into alternative, appropriate, healthy behaviors.

While Sara is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant, for years, she has been training PTSD Service Dogs in her spare time for a nonprofit program called Operation Sidekick. Included in her position with the team, she specifically trains obedience, relationship-building, and tasks specific to handler needs. She teaches volunteers and other trainers how to train the dogs, and teaches veterans being paired with the dogs how to utilize the skill set of their service dogs.

Once you’ve had a Behavioral Discovery Session with Sara, she will send a follow-email based on your discussion to outline a plan to move forward with your dog. You can then schedule a 15-minute post-session phone call to review the summary and ask for any clarification on the topics covered (if needed).

If you decide that working with Sara is the best fit for your situation, we will then schedule sessions for you and your dog.

Yes. Sara does in-person behavioral modification all throughout the Greater Charlotte Area. Due to the demand on her time, she limits her travel for the initial evaluation but extends that radius for clients that want to hire her for behavioral modification. For clients located out of state (or area), Sara requires that the client covers travel and lodging in addition to her consultation fees.

Not typically. Changing behavior in dogs (and humans) takes time and consistency.  A single session or two will generally not lead to completely modifying a behavior. When Sara takes on a behavioral case, the average to onboard behavior modification skills is between 8 – 12 weeks, and then often, modification and progress continue well after sessions have ended. Sara is committed to each case individually and finds open, frequent communication, homework completion in between sessions (practice), consistency, and a team approach as needed to prove most successful in modifying undesirable behaviors.

Sara does not offer a board and train option. While these situations can be helpful in jump-starting obedience for pet parents, the majority of the cases that Sara works with require coaching pet parents on how to open up communication channels and modify behaviors so that they can continue progressing once sessions with Sara have ended. Sara prefers to work with the client and the dog in the environment/s where the problem behaviors occur. When Sara works with dogs in her home on a very limited case-by-case basis, the dogs progress well in a controlled environment under constant supervision and direction from a behavior professional; however, what is instilled in a board-and-train type situation also needs to be able to translate back into the environment where the problems occur and remain consistent through the guidance of the pet parent.

Sara will not be wearing a mask when meeting for the first time. It is important for dogs to be able to read her facial expressions and wearing a mask impairs that from happening.