Hi everyone! I’m Beccy and I’m the owner and head trainer of Smoky Mountain Awesome Reinforcement Training [S.M.A.R.T.] With Dogs. Located in the Foothills of the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, we service several counties with day training and one on one private coaching.

I received my Bachelors of Science from Coastal Carolina University in 2012  and since then I have spent many years working with animals. From 2012-2015 and then again from 2019-2022 I worked with Californian and South American sea lions. This is where I got my start learning and using positive reinforcement training. In this time I trained sea lions to do everything from show/theater behaviors to participating in their own husbandry procedures like blood draws, injections, and even anesthesia so they could receive cataract surgery! The years between working with the sea lions I cared for and trained many rescued domestic and exotic species, such as dogs, cats, pigs, macaws and skunks! We did some training for basic manners, but mostly trick training. My favorite was by far training a very energetic jumpy black lab to jump rope with me!

I decided to leave working with larger species to pursue a certification in dog training because of a very personal experience. My own dogs were starting to have aggression issues towards each other. Even with the experience I had with other animals, my partner and I didn’t know how to handle the stress in our own home. After seeking out help from a behavioral specialist, I started doing more training with my own dogs. It was then I realized that I needed to get more education and learn how to help others who are going through similar experiences. 

My goal of S.M.A.R.T. With Dogs is to help people who might feel at a loss with how to communicate with their dogs. I want to help alleviate some of the stress people have when their dogs seem to be “out of control.” By focusing on basic manners, behavior modification of “problem behaviors”, and enhancing education on enrichment I hope to help create happy homes for humans and their dogs!