Our Focus
RocketDog Training is committed to bringing you the highest quality training Vancouver has to offer. For us, that means focusing on these goals:
Teaching you to teach your dogs: Every good dog/owner relationship depends on the owner being able to communicate effectively with their companion.
Making classes fun and informative: Teaching your dog should be fun! That’s why we use games and dog tricks to teach important training skills.
Using positive reinforcement to teach your dog effectively and quickly: Positive reinforcement leads to model doggy- citizens who are happy, easygoing, and attentive.
Our Owner and Trainer
Sarah Giammarino, BA
As the owner, director, and head trainer of RocketDog Training, Sarah Giammarino has been training dogs in the Vancouver dog community for the past ten years, running RocketDog since 2003, and has taught over 1000 students comprised of families, adults, teens, and children. She is a full member with the Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers.
She has attended lectures, working seminars, and conferences with:
- Dr. Ian Dunbar.
- Dr. Patricia McConnell.
- Trish King.
- Pia Silvani.
- Brenda Aloff.
- CAPPDT 2003 and 2005 Annual Conferences.
- The 2007 American Psychological Association's Convention in San Francisco.
- Karen Pryor's ClickerExpo in January 2010.
Her volunteer experience includes:
- Various schools and daycares. Teaching dog care and reading body language.
- Bully Buddies Rescue. Taught training classes for foster and adopted dogs. Helped Raylee Perkins take over (and upgrade) the course.
- Developed and presented "Doglish: The Wonderful World of Canine Body Language" at the Vancouver Animal Wellness Hospital, schools, daycares, and a Bully Buddies meet-up.
- Vancouver Animal Shelter. RocketDog offers free training certificates for new adoptees in Vancouver. Sarah is currently teaching a program to guide the senior volunteers on socializing the shelter dogs.
She has been featured on:
- CBC's Almanac with Marc Forsythe.
- Breakfast Television (on several occasions)
- TV show, Living Vancouver
Sarah's dog Vegas (seen here) is an invaluable asset and teacher at RocketDog Training. She has helped rehabilitate many reactive dogs and a few puppies. Her quiet nature puts dogs at ease. Sarah recently lost her second dog to cancer, (Toonie, the Portuguese Water Dog seen on her right above). Vegas and Sarah now compete in the exciting sports of agility and rally obedience of which Vegas competes in at the "Excellent" level. Also, Sarah and has trained Vegas to be the first informal disc-golf "assistance dog". Vegas finds, marks, and retrieves discs lost on course.
Sarah has also spent time training horses. In 2007, Sarah focused on learning the art and science of Parelli-syle horse training (aka Horse Whispering) by taking weekly lessons and training a variety of horses in Southlands.
"I really marvel at how much time we spent teaching the horses to be properly 'led' (by a lead-rope). I know many dog owners get frustrated by how much their dogs pull, and I think dogs need to learn how to be led much better. Neither horses nor dogs learn to be gentle on the leash by yanking them around"-Sarah G.
Sarah lives with her husband Matt Giammarino (a director at BrainBoost Education) and baby, Henry (16 months old) in Vancouver. Sarah is keenly interested in raising and training family dogs. She continues to update her education and strives to teach owners how to teach their dogs in a humane, educational, and fun atmosphere.
