Owner, Vicki Ronchette, CPDT

    Vicki has lived with dogs her whole life.  

    She began working with them professionally in 1985 when she received a certificate
    in Veterinary Assisting while still in high school.  She began focusing on training dogs
    just a couple of years later.  

    She started as an assistant trainer with her own dogs in Competition Obedience.  
    Later, she offered classes through Heads or Tails Pet Grooming, the salon she owned
    and operated for 8 years.  

    Vicki is a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, a national organization
    dedicated to training dogs using exclusively dog friendly methods.  

    As dog training is evolving all the time, Vicki continues to take courses and attend
    seminars and workshops from well known trainers and authors to continue to grow
    as a trainer.

    She competes with her standard smooth and standard longhair dachshunds in
    obedience, conformation, earthdog and field trials, as well as agility with her
    Australian Cattle Dog, Bill.  

    She is an AKC licensed dachshund and basset hound Field Trial Judge and an AKC
    CGC Evaluator.  

    She was the Rescue Coordinator of the Golden Gate Dachshund Club.  She evaluates,
    trains, fosters and rehomes rescue dogs and serves on the board of this club.  

    In November 2006 she became a CPDT (Certified Pet Dog Trainer).  

    Vicki has competed with, shown and trained many breeds including rottweilers, chow
    chows, Maltese, havanese, clumber spaniels, boxers, pekingese, terriers, afghan
    hounds, shih tzus, pugs, dobermans, German shepherds, golden retrievers, various
    mixed breeds and has worked with virtually all breeds with much success.  She takes
    pride in being a versatile dog trainer, capable of successfully working with all breeds
    of dogs.

    Vicki has a special interest in using positive reinforcement training (including clicker
    training) to train show dogs.  She will show you how to train your show dog or train it
    for you.  Additionally, she also works with show dogs who have fears or anxieties in
    order to help them learn to enjoy the showing experience.  She has a book due out in
    mid 2007 (with Dogwise publishing) on positive/clicker training for show dogs.

    Professional Affiliations

    APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) - Professional Member
    CCPDT (Certification Council for Pet Dog Trainers) - Certified Pet Dog Trainer
    DogTec - Member
    Four Paws of San Leandro - Member
    Golden Gate Dachshund Club - Vice President
    Northern California Dachshund Club - Member
    Dachshund Club of America - Member, 2007 Show Chair
    Gold Coast Australian Cattle Dog Club - Member
    Dachshund Rescue - Rescue Agent


    Christina Southworth, Assistant Trainer/Playgroup Supervisor

    Christina has been assisting Vicki in the San Lorenzo and San Leandro Classes for 5
    years.  She also supervises the Saturday play groups.

    Christina is a talented trainer that the dogs adore.  

    Christina has competed in obedience with her black labrador Butch earning him his
    CD.  Currently, Christina is concentrating on training her greyhound/pit bull mix
    Shadow.

    Dawn Bushong, Rally and Competition Obedience Trainer

    Dawn trained her first dog, the family basset hound at age 12.  

    Currently,  Dawn is training Pablo, a black lab mix she adopted from the pound and
    has trained him to the following titles CD, CDX, UD, RN, RA, RE, CGC.  And, Penny,
    a German shepherd dog mix that already has her RN and CD titles.  

    Our Methods

    At Braveheart, we believe that the best way to train a dog is to make it worth his
    while.  If you make it fun, challenging and exciting your dog will be more inclined to
    want to work with you.  

    Our training uses exclusively positive reinforcement methods.  With this method,
    your dog enjoys the training and the process is much easier on the owner.  Having
    trained for many years with a variety of trainers and  methods, Vicki has found
    positive reinforcement training to be the most effective and enjoyable.  Even
    children and people with less than perfect timing can succeed with positive training.  

    Unlike typical dog training classes, you will not be asked to jerk your dog's neck  or
    use painful collars.  We will teach you to train with the dogs well being in mind.  We
    will teach you to build a strong relationship with your dog so that force isn't
    necessary.

    We have success with obedience training as well as helping owners of dogs with  
    issues like aggression, shyness and destructive behavior.  All of these are solved
    using positive, scientific, non-violent methods.  

    Does positive training mean that there are never consequences or discipline
    involved?  Absolutely not!  Pain and intimidation is not the way to build a healthy
    working relationship between you and your dog.  We teach people to communicate
    with their dogs and train them in a fun, kind and humane way.  We are committed to
    treating both the dogs and their humans with compassion and understanding.
"My goal as a trainer is to
show people how to
effectively communicate
with their dogs, and teach
them to train in a positive
way that both the owner
and the dog will enjoy."     
                           ~Vicki
Braveheart Dog Training
"Dog Training from the Heart"
Christina with "Butch"
Vicki with "Ribbon"
Dawn with "Pablo
Copyright © 2007 Braveheart Dog Training
The information on this page may not be reproduced, republished or mirrored on another webpage or website.
2123 Marina Blvd.
San Leandro, Ca  94577
(510) 483-2631
braveheartdogs@sbcglobal.net