Decreasing the language barrier between dogs and humans, one dog at a time.
Amillie’s Philosophy.
Dogs first and foremost are living , breathing, strategic, and extremely intelligent creatures. Just like us, humans, the way they think , react and engage with the world is complex. By learning to understand them and how they think, we understand ourselves. I train dogs with compassion, understanding and knowledge on how they communicate with us. My main goal as a professional trainer is to increase owner’s relationships and bonds with their dog. This is best done through positive reinforcement and fulfilling a dogs physical, mental, and emotional needs!
Amillie’s Training Method, in a nut shell!
Throughout her career , Amillie has tried all styles and methods for training dogs. In her experience, based on her education, knowledge and mentor guidance, she has found the most success with reward based methods. This means she realizes that dogs learn best through motivators and rewards that speak to their natural instincts and biology. Dogs live this world through their noses and their mouths. They are opportunistic predators, which means they are very observant of every little detail in every situation, and they react accordingly. Due to this, they are masters at reading our body language, feeling our energy and reacting according to how they see fit. Knowing this , we can use our natural body language to communicate with them. Reward based training is not all about the treats, for the most part yes, but its about understanding our dogs, what motivates them and using that to teach them what we expect from them. By doing this we enrich their lives, fulfill their needs and decrease the language barrier between them and ourselves. This all in turn strengthens the bond we have with them, which increases their choice to do what we ask of them.
ABOUT AMILLIE ZICKMUND!
Hi , my name is Amillie Zickmund and I have been a professional dog trainer since 2013. I have worked in the dog field since 2010 as a pet care associate (4 years), a groomers assistant (11yrs total), a kennel tech (3 years) and as a daycare attendee in two daycares ( total of 4 years exp.), where I learned the most about dog to dog communication.
I, like many dog trainers, was on a completely different career path, before finding my calling as a trainer. Throughout my life, I’ve always known communicating with animals came natural to me, and I truly wanted to work with them as a career. It wasn’t until college, when this dream became reality.
In 2013, my husband and I got our first puppy together, a great Dane named Appa ! (pictured above). We began training with him right away, and continued weekly classes for the first 8 months of his life! I quickly discovered my love for training, and spent ALL of my free time working with our Dane and putting all I had learned to use! At this time, our head trainer at my job was moving on, and I was offered to take her position. I immediately said yes, and the rest as they say is history!
Since then, I have lived and explored multiple parts of the U.S, as my husband is in the Navy. I have owned this business since 2015 and its been active in multiple states such as: South Carolina, Connecticut, Indiana, New Hampshire and currently here in California.
Throughout my career I have worked with other amazing trainers, such as Rebecca Maurice CPDT-KA and owner of All Bright Canines LLC in Oakdale Connecticut, and Linda Haley CPTD-KA and KPA-CTP in Massachusetts. I have attended multiple KPA Clicker Expo Workshops, as well as seminars with Mike Shikashio.
I am a CGC evaluator, a member of the APDT and currently waiting for my application for the IABBC to be approved. This fall (2022), I will be taking the exam to be CPDT-KA certified, and potentially joining Jean Donaldson’s Academy for Dog Trainers to further my education.
I understand and believe that continuing education is a must when working with dogs and am always willing to learn and expand my knowledge! Each dog teaches me something different and I decipher my training plans around each of them.
Currently, my family consists of myself, my husband John ( who occasionally helps with our training needs!), our son Dean, (a very dog savvy toddler who helps dogs who are fearful of children understand kids are not always scary) our cat, kit Kat, (who also helps many of my clients communicate correctly with another species). Accompanying us are our two dogs: Katara our cattle dog Pyrenees mix, who is my most used helper dog because she communicates beautifully and helps many of my dog- reactive and fearful dog clients work through their fears while making a new friend, and our New Great Dane puppy Heimdall, who once fully trained will follow in Katara’s PAWsteps!