About Us

Desiree’s love of dogs has been present her whole life, but her passion for everything dog-related just keeps growing!

Since starting her career in the canine industry she has met many fabulous trainers from local trainers to around Canada and the USA (including TV celebrities Cesar Millan of “The Dog Whisperer” and Brad Pattison of “At the End of My Leash”) and has learned something from each one of them.

Desiree founded “In The Dog House” in 2007. After a couple years of traditional obedience training, Desiree’s focus shifted to learning more about dog psychology and behaviour. She believes that educating the owners is a critical component in achieving long-term success.  She descibes her training as “relationship based”.

Desiree claims: “it’s about understanding dogs and developing communication, trust and respect between our two species”.

Desiree enjoys teaching her family friendly obedience classes and modifies/updates her techniques and curriculum annually. While Desiree considers her class method primarily “positive”, you might find its not as strict as you may have experienced with other positive trainers. The class atmosphere is very casual and Desiree provides ample explanation on why certain methods are used and how it benefits the training process or why it makes sense to the dog to do something a certain way. Despite her love for obedience, her heart lies in helping the truly troubled canines.

Recently appointed Vice President of the newly established “Paws for Hope Animal Foundation”, http://pawsforhope.org/about-us/ Desiree hopes to grow her business to one day open a rehabilitation centre for particularly challenging dogs. Her desire to learn about canine behaviour, and dogs in general, seems never-ending.

Desiree and her husband share their loving home with BamBam (Yorkshire Terrier), Orion (Cat), Merlin (Mini Australian Shepherd),  Oliver (Golden Retriever) and Helen (Chihuahua mix)… who was born blind and is a rescue from Los Angeles.

We believe in ongoing Education… 

Here are some of the courses Desiree has taken over the years:

• Upcoming Ian Dunbar 4 day seminar March 2012 – Seattle, UDA
• Upcoming Dr. Sophia Yin 2 day seminar March 2012 – Bellingham, USA
• Upcoming April 2012 “International Association of Canine Professionals” Annual Conference -Florida, USA
• DOGSAFE 1st aid- October 2009 & January 2011 – Vancouver & Cloverdale, BC
• Working with Fearful Dogs & Creative Client Coaching. 2 day seminar- Nicole Wilde, Langley, BC 2009
• Cesar Millan Seminar (Seattle, USA 2007 & Coquitlam, BC 2010)
• Brad Pattison 2 day course (Including “Street Safety”) Coquitlam & Abbotsford, BC 2008, repeat Street Safety 2011
• That’s My Dog (E-Collar Training) 2 day Seminar – Langley, BC 2009
• Dog Trainer with Petsmart 2006-2007 Langley, BC
• Plus several Obedience and Agility courses taken from a variety of other local Trainers