About Us
ABOUT KATHLEEN
Since 1989 I have been serving the pets and families of the Hudson Valley as a master trainer. My speciality is behavior rehabilitation and obedience training. I help people understand their dog's perspective and how to understand and speak the language of canine.
SERVICES
Dog training (private lessons or residency program), boarding, doggie day care and light grooming facilities.
CONSULTATION
To set up a consultation / evaluation contact 1 (845) 876 0815
Testimonials
Holiday
Holiday
Holiday
We tried different trainers before we worked with Kathleen. They were all supposedly 'the best'. Nothing worked. Our rescue was aggressive, strangers could not pet her, and we were told she was a lost cause and she should be put down.
Since working with Kathleen our dog and our lives have totally changed. No aggression, strangers can pet her, and we feel like we understand our girl and she understands us for the first time. And then there is all that we have learned from Kathleen about how our behavior shapes so much of our girl's behavior. And well it has just...no exaggeration...changed our lives. Forget the dog whisperer on TV...this is the REAL dog whisperer.
Lola
Holiday
Holiday
Two months ago, we adopted a two year-old street dog from Puerto Rico named Lola. We had her for about 3 weeks when we started working with Kathleen Cano. We had heard about the work that Kathleen does with troubled dogs and hoped that she could help us with the skittishness and anxiety that Lola exhibited, particularly outdoors, where Lola would regularly bark and growl at cars, people and other dogs.
Kathleen has been amazing - from her initial evaluation and through our continuing lessons, we have seen remarkable progress in Lola, a real shift in her mindset - she is getting calmer and more secure each day. Kathleen is truly gifted in understanding dog behavior and psychology, and is also gifted in teaching the human how to interpret behavior and respond effectively. We’ve approached the training as a family (including two kids aged 10 and 13), and Kathleen has worked with each of us to gain the skills we need to help Lola. We’re so happy to be working with Kathleen.
Charlie
Holiday
Charlie
I highly recommend Kathleen Cano for her wonderful work and talent as a professional pet trainer — she worked with our German Shepherd, Charlie, a very friendly, people-loving dog, but as the attached photographs show, he is big and strong. On the recommendation of several friends and neighbors, we contacted Kathleen to train Charlie when he was young in the basics of general obedience training — recall, heel, staying, lying down, waiting till called to eat, not jumping on us, among other commands. She also “trained” us: to have high expectations of Charlie, to coney to him we are “in charge” and taking care of him so he did not have to be defensive to protect us.
We mainly live in New York City and walk our dog daily in Central Park, including off-leash before 9am. We had to know that Charlie would listen and obey, especially because as a large dog, Charlie had the physical strength to disobey us and cause problems if he chose not to listen. We also have a home in Dutchess County — with no fence, so having Charlie well-trained upstate was also essential.
Charlie is now 8 and continues to follow the lessons he was taught by Kathleen, who also made sure we were confident and could maintain our status as the family members “in charge.”
Charlie loves Kathleen and has boarded with her several times, to his joy and our enormous peace of mind to have him in the care of a “trainer” and, also, a person he knows loves him.
If you are not yet “in charge” of your dog, turn to Kathleen for guidance and training. She was a game changer for us.
Penny
Keetna and Shadow
Charlie
We adopted Penny (a pitbull/ shepherd mutt) as a 12 week old puppy from North Shore Animal League on Long Island. At the time, my children were 3, 5, and 7 years old. As I later learned, we really knew nothing about training dogs (or a puppy) or about dog psychology, dog body language, being a pack leader, etc. We started to see some issues in the coming months. I'm not sure how old Penny was, but she was less than a year old, when she barked quite ferociously as my young daughters went to pet her.
Although I had tried to "socialize" her while on the leash, she would pull and lead endlessly and later began to show major dog aggression when approached by another dog. The last straw was when my three year old son began to pull Penny from the garbage can, in which she growled, then nipped him in the face, leaving a reddened mark and crying boy. I knew we had to do something or this dog was going to bite one of the kids. And honestly, I was afraid of her because I didn't understand her behavior. I called a friend of mine who had used Kathleen to train her German Shepherd and had a lot of success in training and socializing their puppy.
We met Kathleen for a consultation and I was instantly impressed. She was confident, knowledgeable, and totally comfortable around my dominant, intelligent, and now aggressive dog. We worked with Kathleen for many months. Kathleen never used a treat, shouting, or fear to teach Penny how to behave. Instead, she taught us how to have confidence, how to walk and act like the pack leader our dog needed us to be, how to work our dog on the leash so she listened to us and behaved when meeting strangers and other dogs.
We learned about things we were doing at home that were actually encouraging her bad behavior and the aggression we were seeing. Kathleen would have us train Penny in a store, out in the busy village, and around other dogs. I am happy to say that Penny is now a well-behaved member of our family.
She can meet strangers, heels nicely while on the leash, can play with other dogs while at Kathleen's, and I don't ever worry about her hurting one of the kids or me. She comes when called and listens to our calls and commands. I would absolutely recommend Kathleen as a trainer to anyone having any issues with their pet or anyone who has a new puppy and want to get started on the right foot with their new dog. She's amazing at what she does and I'm very glad we found her!
Keetna and Shadow
Keetna and Shadow
Keetna and Shadow
I can’t thank you enough for the help you provided me with our Border Collies, Keetna and Shadow. We needed to board our dogs for our vacation. Shadow – our new rescue dog was a biter and was aggressive with people, Keetna and other dogs so she could not go to our previous kennel. I asked our vet for a recommendation and she suggested you because you work with and solve tough dog issues.
When we came to our pre-boarding visit, I was so afraid that you were going to say no due to their behavior. Immediately you noticed their odd behavior -- Keetna could only focus on sticks and balls and would not explore the yard or anything else, while Shadow could only focus on Keetna. Shadow would not greet people or other dogs without aggression. The entire 45 minutes of our conversation, Keetna stared at a single stick you had thrown, not moving. Within seconds of meeting them, you knew you could fix their behavior.
You explained what was going on in their minds and why it was not normal, giving me some advice on how to begin correcting this behavior. While we were gone, Keetna and Shadow needed to be separated from the other dogs due to Shadow’s aggression and you accommodated that. You worked with them and we could see a difference when we got back. It was such a relief to have your professional guidance. I felt so hopeful and started private training lessons with you. Your training of our dogs (and me) was transformational. Within a few days, we could walk on the sidewalk in crowded areas without aggression and I was no longer afraid to be in public places with our dogs. They also quickly learned how to be together and started playing.
It was so rewarding to work with you and to see such a quick and lasting change in the behavior of our dogs. Sadly, Keetna is no longer with us, but Shadow is still excited when we drive into Kathleen’s for boarding. Thanks again for all of your help.
Sisi
Keetna and Shadow
Keetna and Shadow
We brought Sisi to Kathleen when she first arrived. Alot of people think that dogs need to be older to be trained. Especially smaller size dogs. If we had not have worked with Kathleen, at the very beginning, hard to imagine how so much would have turned out. Kathleen uses a NON food based system of training. Very much in tune with the work of Monty Roberts the horse whisperer. It is not about tricking your dog into doing things, but establishing an authentic connection based on the system of respect that they need to feel safe, and then all else flows so organically. And you can see the ease in your four legged friend, and you can feel it in your gut.
Dot
Dot
Dot
We got Dot, our teacup labradoodle, in November of 2020. As the world was still shut down, we did not have the opportunity to socialize her during her more formative months. As a result, Dot became a very anxious little girl. We tried trainer after trainer, and still we could not get Dot to relax.
We happened to spend 6 weeks in the Hudson Valley this past summer and needed to find a place to board Dot. Who knew that a google search would change our lives, and that of Dot.
Kathleen Cano is a dog whisperer. With minimal training we learned to resolve many of Dot’s unpleasant behaviors, including her reactions to strangers. We learned to think and behave like a dog. Within a few days of implementing a handful of techniques Dot become a better-behaved and less anxious dog.
We will be back to Kathleen and can’t sing her praises enough.
The A’s
Colorado
