About the Behaviorist
Carmen brings both masters’ degrees in animal behavior and 25 years of professional experience to her work helping dog and cat owners find relief from frustrating and dangerous behavior problems.
As an applied animal behaviorist, Carmen has supervised, university graduate training — including advanced learning theory, applied behavior analysis, ethology, biology, psychology, psychopharmacology, and husbandry.
Carmen’s comprehensive expertise in behavior modification allows her to evaluate, diagnose and treat serious behavior problems, choosing from a range of proven methods and techniques adapted to the specifics of your pet and goals — rather than relying on a limited set of cookie-cutter recipes or trial-and-error methods.
Clients can count on science-based behavior therapy and obedience training that’s proven effective, pet friendly, tailored to their goals, and supportive of them.
- Master of Science degree in animal behavior/experimental psychology (the science of learning)
- Graduate Specialty in Applied Behavior Analysis (the science of changing behavior)
- Board Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (ACAAB) (through the Animal Behavior Society)
- Valedictorian graduate of the “Harvard of dog training schools,” the Academy for Dog Trainers (CTC)
- Low Stress Handling, Silver Certified, by CattleDog Publishing.
- 25 years of experience: behavior consulting, teaching training classes and private lessons, producing class curricula and a library of expert handouts and videos, managing training departments from a luxury pet lodge in Hood River to animal shelters in Washington and Oregon
- Has competed and titled her own dogs in Rally, Competition Obedience, Canine Freestyle and Tricks
“Carmen is a literal godsend. We have been working with her for over two years now. We rescued a pup from an abusive environment awhile back, but as he continued through his first year of life it became very apparent that he had more trauma than we were capable of handling. It reached a point where we couldn’t even have friends over or leave the house without some form of acting out from him.
Since utilizing all of Carmen’s recommendations, he is a new dog. Of course he still has slip ups and there’s always room for improvement, but we now feel like we know how to manage them. Carmen always says to think about it like therapy for human. We are teaching him coping skills, and when practiced regularly, we see improvement.
We are now able to have friends over, regularly introduce him to new people, confidently leave the house with him free roaming, and we can even trim his nails/clean his ears. Before Carmen, we couldn’t even touch his ears! Carmen has helped his best self rise to the surface and I can’t wait to see what she can do with our senior pup’s door/fence protection response and hyperactivity.”
“Carmen has been fantastic. We ordered 8 private sessions for my two dogs, a pure-bred Havanese and a mixed-breed rescue. Both dogs had a lot of unique issues, but we covered a lot of ground (door greetings, sit/down stays, heel, leash manners, crate training, paw handling / nail trimming). These sessions are as much for training the owner as training the pooch, so not only have we made massive improvements on a whole range of behaviors: we have also developed the skills to reinforce ADDITIONAL behaviors. A lot of this work is owner-directed, so you definitely have to put in the time and work in between sessions, but it is AMAZING what you can accomplish having someone with Carmen’s training working directly with you and your unique animals in your own home. A+, 5*, 10/10.”