My Sidekick Dog Training

I cannot express in words, the enormous amount of gratitude we have for Ash! She has made a tremendous impact on our lives and the lives of our two dogs. We had hired many trainers in the past who employed negative reinforcement techniques, and only made our situation worse. We were desperately seeking someone who understood our situation, but trained in a way that was compassionate and caring. Then we found Ash and our world transformed! Ash is highly, highly knowledgeable and her techniques are everything we were looking for. Within a short amount of time, we saw our two reactive dogs transform into calm, well behaved and peaceful dogs. We followed her advice and training and continue to remain diligent, and every day we reach new milestones. Ash is compassionate and passionate in her work. It is evident that she loves animals, and her work is a reflection of that love. If you are looking for the right trainer who will support you, encourage you and show you the right way to build a bond with your dog, then Ash is your trainer!

I worked with Ash initially to help my new puppy with socialization. After only a couple of sessions, Ash made me aware of some behaviors that signaled my pup was struggling with anxiety. This was super challenging for me but I am so grateful for Ash’s knowledge and compassion - without this early intervention things could have gone very differently for us! She willingly pivoted her approach to support my puppy’s challenges, supported me through my own disappointment and learning journey, and also included sessions with my other dog to help with his reactivity issues. She has an advanced understanding of dog behavior and has more compassion for both the dog and human ends of the leash than any other trainer I’ve worked with. Both dogs are now thriving and this would not be the case without Ash. Ash helped me become a more educated handler and an infinitely better dog guardian.

Our rescue dog was a stray with unknown history, and he came to us with chronic pain, anxiety (including separation anxiety), reactivity, and some resource guarding and aggression issues. Before working with Ash, we'd read multiple books, and worked with countless trainers, specialists, vets, and vet behaviorists, all of whom were knowledgeable, but our pup still made such slow progress, and many of the experts ran out of ideas or gave up. Ash, hands down, is the best we've ever worked with. First, Ash is more well-versed with the most up-to-date information and science about dog behavior. That means we were able to try things that no other trainer or vet had suggested before, and we were able to make huge progress on things we had lost hope about. But the best thing about Ash is that we, the humans, felt understood and seen. The training plans were always based around our real lives, our actual bandwidth, and what we were reasonably able to do (while still making progress). I am forever grateful, and I will recommend Ash to anyone, no matter your pup's issues!

There are no words to explain how thankful we are for Ash. I found Ash Instagram when we were in a dire situation after bringing home our baby and our dog was struggling majorly. Ash responded immediately and called me. We had done training to prepare our dog but nothing prepared us for how she reacted to the baby. Ash immediately stepped up to help us with boarding. Ash listened to us cry, heard our concerns, and took the best care of our dog while she couldn’t be with us. It was truly the hardest thing we ever went through and we have no idea what we would have done without Ash. Ash helped us navigate our options and supported us along the way. We went to Ash to train with our dog and baby every week, and Ash truly went above and beyond for us and our dog. Without Ash’s training and support I am not sure what we would have done. We now have our dog back with us, thanks to Ash. If you are looking for a trainer, Ash is extremely knowledgeable, caring, and supportive. We are forever grateful for her.