Stage 1 — Training With Me
I establish your dog’s foundation of obedience, impulse control, respect for boundaries, calmer behavior, and better decision-making.
About Virginia
One Trainer. One Very Personal Approach.
I founded Oliver’s Travels Dog Training and Behavioral Rehabilitation (OTDT) in 2013 after my experience with my own challenging dog, Oliver, changed the direction of my life. What began with my desire to better understand him ultimately became a career helping other owners navigate many of the same frustrations, limitations, and worries that can come with living with a difficult dog. Over the years, my work has increasingly focused on behavioral rehabilitation — particularly dogs struggling with aggression, reactivity, anxiety, poor impulse control, and other behaviors that make ordinary life difficult.
Oliver Started It All
Loving a dog and knowing how to help aren’t necessarily the same thing.
Oliver was my introduction to that reality. My experience with him pushed me to learn more about canine behavior, training, communication, structure, and the role we play in helping our dogs navigate the world successfully.
With Oliver, I learned the invaluable difference between what a dog understands intellectually and how he feels emotionally.
Learning to give him the emotional confidence that came when he believed in my leadership created the strongest bond between us. It allowed us to go out and enjoy the world together, free from reactive or aggressive outbursts.
What I learned next
Training the dog was only part of what I needed.
But my experience with Oliver taught me something else that ultimately became just as important to the way I designed my own Board & Train programs.
I needed help learning how to create and sustain those same changes with Oliver myself.
At the time, the support traditionally offered after a Board & Train didn’t give me what I needed to confidently make that transition. I understood firsthand how different it was to see what a trained dog was capable of doing and then have to learn how to achieve those same results yourself at home.
Why OTDT Has Two Stages
That experience is why an OTDT Board & Train doesn’t end when your dog returns home.
Stage 2 — Guided Home Leadership With You
Gives you the support to establish your own leadership relationship with your dog so that she can sustain the positive changes she achieves with me throughout her life with you.
That experience ultimately led me to become a professional dog trainer and create the business that bears his name.
More than a decade later, the dogs who are the most challenging are the dogs I find most rewarding to work with.
THE SAME TRAINER FROM START TO FINISH
Consistency from consultation through follow-up.
During the initial days and weeks, when consistency is critical, there isn’t a staff of trainers teaching your dog. It’s just me, making sure each new challenge is folded in at the right time and in the right sequence.
I am the person you speak with before training, the person who lives and works with your dog during Stage 1, and the person who guides you through the Guided Home Leadership stage after your dog returns home.
By the time your dog returns home, I know your dog — not simply which commands your dog has learned, but what creates uncertainty, what increases confidence, what causes frustration or excitement, and where your dog still needs support.
That knowledge becomes particularly important when I begin helping you establish your leadership foundation and build a new leadership relationship with your dog.
More Than a Decade of Relationships
Long-term outcomes matter.
Since 2013, I’ve worked with dogs and families throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California. Many of those relationships continue long after formal training ends.
Former clients reach out when new questions arise. Dogs I’ve trained return to stay with me for vacation boarding. Owners send photographs and videos showing what they’re now able to do with dogs whose behavior once placed significant limits on their lives.
Behavioral rehabilitation isn’t about creating a perfect dog. It’s about giving a dog and owner the foundation they need to experience more of life successfully together.
See Client Stories & Results →Ready to talk about your dog?