Trainer Barbara Demarest Trainer Barbara Demarest graduated from Franklin and Marshall College with a Bachelor's Degree in Behavior Psychology. After college, Barbara began training her own dogs in competition obedience over 20 years ago. As she became more active in dog training, she started assisting obedience instructors who were teaching basic obedience classes. After gaining experience with a wide variety of dogs, she started teaching her own classes. As she began to learn about the positive reinforcement revolution in dog training, she and a friend started Best Friends Dog Training Club in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. There, she taught Basic Obedience and Puppy Kindergarten. Barbara received her Certification from Cornell University for the program Solving Canine Behavior Problems. It became clear to Barbara that in-home, individualized training was more effective for solving behavior problems. In 1993, Barbara began in the dog's house as a full-time career.
In 2002, Barbara moved to the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, area. Despite no prior contacts in the area, Barbara was able to quickly establish a reputation with area veterinary hospitals as the person best qualified to solve the issues of the anxious or aggressive or just plain unruly dogs and puppies in their practice. In 2007, more than 14 veterinary hospitals referred clients to Barbara.
As of 2007, Barbara has worked with over 4,000 dog in their homes. Her canine students have ranged on size from 3 pounds to 225 pounds and in age from 8 weeks to 15 years. She has worked with most of the AKC breeds and many of the rare breeds. Problems she has solved have included such ones as the Rottweiler that chewed open large cans of cat food the and ate them, the Maltese that attacked a Great Dane, the Mastiff that would not let anyone in the house and the Weimaramer who opened the dishwasher and scattered the dishes around the house. Presently, she is mentoring a trainer who is experienced with training but wishes to learn more about behavior problem solving.
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