Heather is a certified dog trainer with more than 10 years of experience training animals. She started when she was a teenager, volunteering at wildlife rehabilitation centers and animal shelters. Her fascination with training led her to get a bachelors in behavioral biology from Johns Hopkins University. She then spent the next 6 years working as a zookeeper, where she learned to train everything from tigers to lizards. Her experience with exotics led to giving training presentations at zoo conferences and achieving a Professional Bird Trainer Certification. After moving back to her home town of Philadelphia, she decided to open up a business where she could bring those skills to good use in helping people with their pets.

Pawsitive Reinforcement opened in 2018 and Heather dove right in to training dogs, cats, birds, bunnies, and anything else that needed it. While at first she was primarily working in peoples’ homes in the Manayunk area of Philadelphia, she was able to open her dog training studio in Bala Cynwyd in 2021. She has also continued to develop her dog training skills by completing additional certification through the Victoria Stillwell Dog Training Academy. She also works to rescue dogs and reduce recidivism with New Leash on Life USA, a wonderful program that takes dogs from city shelters and brings them to live in Philadelphia prisons, where she teaches incarcerated individuals to train and care for them.

Heather loves exploring the bond between animals and their humans, and helping them grow and succeed through training. Her positive-only philosophy is designed to foster and environment where pets and people have fun training. While she’s happy to provide basic obedience, most of her clients are involved in problem solving for behaviors like leash pulling, separation anxiety, and reactivity. She customizes her sessions to try to provide the best impact, adjusting things like timing and location of training as she finds what best fits for the dogs and humans. Please check out her website for more information!