My Story
I am fortunate to have been working directly with animals since I was 15, beginning my animal training career just after high school with Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins and African Penguins for 8 years at West Edmonton Mall. In 2005 I moved from Edmonton to Nanaimo and decided to expand my love of teaching and public speaking into the dog training world, so my first dog Rudy and I attended a dog training school. I am a Certified Professional Dog Trainer, a Dogsafe Canine First Aid Instructor and I am a graduate of the Animal Care Aide program at Vancouver Island University.
It was the late sweet Rudy, a miniature schnauzer, that was the inspiration behind my business Best Paw Forward Dog Training, which I began in 2006. A few years after that Rudy and I adopted Ty, a border collie mix who was just over a year old, but had already had 6 homes! For 16 years, Rudy, Ty and I taught a variety of puppy and obedience classes, private lessons, and led countless off leash dog hikes in Nanaimo. We had a large training center and hundreds of clients a year.
Best Paw Forward was an incredibly busy business, adding more staff and new classes each year, and with 9 staff and 26 classes a week in 2019, it felt like we were training all the dogs in Nanaimo! 2020 was a difficult year for a business owner, I took time to reflect on what I had accomplished and what I wanted to do next. Ty and I worked hard for many years, and ultimately we decided to sell the business in early 2022 and we relocated full time to Powell River BC.
While I no longer own a very busy business, I am happy to continue to help people with one on one lessons in Powell River. Coaching new dog parents with puppy training and showing them how to be great trainers for their dogs is so rewarding to me. Teaching kids how to play with and train their new puppy is something I am great at and love to do as well. In-home family lessons, as well as training walks in the neighbourhood are my most favourite, along with teaching Dogsafe Canine First Aid.
I am blessed to have shared a deeply impactful part of my life with Ty, my canine companion for 15 years who recently transitioned to his next adventure at almost age 17. We taught hundreds of dogs over the years at all levels of classes. His most notable being the Dogsafe Canine First Aid courses, where he gave so many eager dog owners the chance to learn hands on him, allowing them to check his vital signs, learn anatomy and how to give the dog heimlich manoeuvre, as well as how to deal with canine injuries all over. Ty was the star of the course and while I process the loss of my constant companion and long time co worker, my in person Dogsafe courses are currently on hold.
In addition to dogs, some other loves of mine are traveling, live music, hiking, swimming and watching hockey - big Oilers fan here! I work at Terra Nostra Farm helping to seed, weed, grow and harvest organic produce for our community. You will see me working our stand on Saturday mornings at the Central Farmers Market. I also bake some of the best Sourdough in town!
I used to walk with Ty often on the seawall, and if you are reading this and you remember seeing us while we walked slowly and Ty sniffed and said hello, please know how much your kindness meant to me. I so deeply miss Ty and our walks in the community.