Training Philosophy

TRAINING PHILOSOPHY

Laura Nativo brings a fresh approach to the canine / human bond.  She is a passionate advocate for integrating dogs into our daily lives, dedicated to animal-assisted therapy work and public-access rights for exceptionally trained dogs.  She believes that training is a simple and as rich as the art of conversation with a great friend.  Friends make each other better… take more risks together… and have more fun than either of them could alone.  When your friend is a dog, you get double the chance for adventure, because you see the world in two very different yet magical ways.  If Laura were your fairy dogmother, she would make your wishes come true with fun, enthusiasm, inventiveness and a deeply felt passion that anything you can do with your dog is better than almost anything you can dog without him.

Laura’s journey began with Bambi, a homeless puppy rescued by her aunt from the streets of Puerto Rico.  Knowing her strict, single-parent father would not approve of the adoption, Laura & her younger sister took care of the dog (secretly) for weeks.  When her dad finally discovered the dog hiding in Laura’s bedroom, she was forced to return him to her aunt.  After losing her mom to breast cancer at the age of 6, Laura was devastated at the loss of her newfound four-legged best friend.  The experience touched her in a way she would never forget.  She spent her childhood bonding with friends’ and family’s dogs whenever possible, unknowingly laying the path for her life vocation.  As soon as she was living on her own, in LA, Laura adopted Preston.

Laura developed her unique style of dog training because of Preston, when she realized that she wanted a full-time friend, not just a little dog waiting for her to come home from auditions or long days on set.  To bring Preston everywhere meant that Preston couldn’t just be cute, he had to be well-trained, well-mannered and sophisticatedly charming enough to get past all the “no dogs allowed” signs in town.  Every time Laura worked with Preston, he made her ridiculously happy… and she let him know it.  He responded with joy, confidence, and more than a little delight to find out all that he was capable of doing.  Soon her approach was refined to a uniquely positive use of rewards of which happiness is a central part.  Soon friends and even strangers began to notice Laura and Preston’s incredibly relationship and started to ask her how she got there.  For Laura, the answer is not just training but lifestyle choices in which your dog is included.  Which, as it turns out, is all it takes to make them happy.  Laura’s training clients don’t just teach a dog to sit, they have their dog sit at the bookstore and the coffee shop and anywhere else they can bring them.  And they are always looking for places to bring them.  That’s lifestyle.  That’s happiness.  Laura believes in positive-based methods that make your dog want to work with you, building a foundation of love, trust and mutual respect, which ultimately defines any happy, healthy relationship- human or canine.