Assembly of the Wandering Shepherd

I found Robynn & Assembly of the Wandering Shepherd when I was researching what it would take to certify my dog as a therapy dog. Happy to say with a lot of coaching and mentoring from Robynn, my dog completed her certification and can now start sharing more love with more people. Robynn is so passionate and generous with her knowledge and expertise. I'm so grateful to her for everything she taught both of us thru this process. She is an amazing human and clearly has a love of dogs!

I am writing to share my recent experience with The Assembly of the Wandering Shepherd and its owner, Robynn. While I initially hesitated to write this, I feel it is important to provide feedback regarding the inconsistency and lack of professionalism I encountered during a very difficult time. A month ago, following the loss of our dog, our veterinarian gave us referrals to pet loss support groups. I decided to reach out to Robynn for grief support. During an initial virtual meeting, Robynn was supportive and specifically invited my husband and I to visit in person, to further process and to do some rock painting to memorialize our beloved pet. She also encouraged us to bring our surviving 15-year-old Chihuahua. However, the day before our scheduled appointment when Robynn reached out to confirm, the tone of her communication changed abruptly. Despite her previous invitation of us bringing our Chihuahua, Robynn began questioning our dog’s activity level and stated her space was not set up for dogs. This of course was confusing considering she runs a dog training business. When I reminded her of his senior age, how calm he is, and offered to keep him on my lap, she expressed discomfort to this. I was perplexed considering she had mentioned that there would be no other clients or pets during this visit. She then introduced several new requirements for my senior Chihuahua —including proof of vaccinations, recent fecal tests, and student forms—NONE of which were mentioned during our initial consultation weeks prior. When I noted that she had previously encouraged us to bring him, and never mentioned any of the policies, she dismissed the earlier conversation entirely, stating, "This is a place for you and your partner to process, not your dog." What began as a supportive resource turned into an odd experience. For a professional specializing in pet loss and grief counseling, the lack of consistency and empathy regarding our surviving pet was again disappointing. Robynn did a complete 180 on us. I can see there are positive reviews on here from others, and while others may have had a good experience, unfortunately our family did not. We have moved on from this experience and hope that this feedback will deter others from going through this. There are other pet loss support groups/pet grief counselors out there who are professionaly run, and who don't flip like a switch and go on a power trip like this owner did. If this owner responds to this review, without a doubt there will be a lot of gaslighting and crazy making and I'm sure using our grieving as an excuse for her unprofessionalsm. To put it bluntly: Narcissist or a split personality is how I would describe this individual. To all grieving pet parents, skip this business and find someplace else. Good luck to all ❤️

I feel so fortunate to have met Robynn when I was first starting my training journey with my sweet little companion, Ila. I have done training with dogs I've had in the past, but the experience with Robynn has been far beyond regular dog training. We've done several classes with her over the past few years. She has taught me so much about how to build a strong, trusting relationship with Ila. I've learned so much about trust and respect towards our pets, and the training has been successful and fun. Robynn and all those who work with her are extremely caring and always happy to help with questions or advice. In addition, Robynn is helping us through the journey towards being a pet therapy team. Robynn's knoweldge, expertise and compassion show in all she does, and I'm so grateful for all the help and support!

I'm so happy to have found Robynn and the Assembly of the Wandering Shepherd! It's a bit of a drive for us to get to Gresham, but WELL WORTH IT! She's an amazing, supportive trainer and all about a positive, humane approach to dog training. There are many trainers out there who use a dominance approach (even at least one that advocates shock collars...Yikes!) Robynn's approach is kind, positive and FUN for the dogs and their guardians. My dog, a willful terrier, gets soooo excited when he knows we're going to Robynn's class. He can hardly contain his joy. I highly recommend Robynn, her approach, and Assembly of the Wandering Shepherd. Anne Anderson And from another class participant.... I am posting this for my friend, MP, who has tried posting it several times, but it is not getting publicly displayed. We came to Robynn after an experience with a company whose trainers used aversive training techniques and deceptive advertising with our new puppy. By the time we realized what was happening, we had an anxious puppy and felt stuck. We recognized that an ‘obedient’ dog has a ‘happy’ owner, but is not always a ‘happy’ dog when aversion is used for ‘training’. Robynn was absolutely amazing in helping us. Robynn helped us focus on “building mutual trust” and a “two-way communication” with our dog. She encouraged us to video record our sessions in her classroom and we could not believe the amazing changes we were seeing in his self-confidence after every class. We learned a completely different way of interacting with our dog. We found ourselves shifting from using ‘commands’ to using ‘cues’. Throughout every class, Robynn would teach us how to read our dog’s body language and modify our interactions to increase his self-confidence. Robynn’s techniques are based on veterinary science and FUN for the dogs. At the end of every class, she gave us research articles to back up what we had learned in class. Robynn comes to every class well prepared and with relevant reading materials about canine health, behaviors, fitness and current research. Her holistic approach focuses on having a trusting relationship with your dog, actively advocating for them and keeping them fit and healthy throughout their lives. While we started out classes with Robynn to help us reverse the effects of the aversive training, we have continued with fun classes in fitness and olfactory work that our dog absolutely loves. As soon as he sees that we are going to Robynn’s class, his tail wags non-stop and it is a delight to see the dog who was too scared to cross the welcome mat at the door the first time, running into the class for new adventures. From our previous negative experience with aversive training we learned to ask details about training tools and techniques that a trainer uses and the science behind it. Robynn is a human-animal coach who gladly answers every question patiently and knowledgeably. We learned a valuable insight from Robynn: Your dog’s behaviors are an integral part of understanding what they are communicating to you, responding to their needs and building a trusting relationship with them. We are SO grateful to have found Robynn!!!