Meet the Trainer - Dawn Gilkison (with Puffin)

Dawn Gilkison - KPA Certified Training Partner & Fear Free Certified Professional

I work with dogs and their owners to create attentive companions and focused performance dogs. I am committed to using only force-free training methods and will make training a great experience for you and your dog.

Personalized Training Plans

You may need to solve common behavior problems such as leash pulling or jumping up on people; or perhaps a new puppy is joining your family. Or you may be interested in positive training methods for field work, rally, or agility competition.

I will work with you and your dog to develop a custom training plan that will meet your needs.

Dawn's Story

A life-long dog fancier, Dawn is the owner of Positive Solutions Dog Training, and has trained dogs for agility and obedience competition, conformation showing, skijoring, and field work. Dawn earned a B.A. in Biology from Reed College and a M.S. in Biology from San Diego State University where she researched social behavior in captive wolves.

After managing a pet food/supply store and teaching basic obedience classes for a few years, Dawn got involved in showing her Flat Coated Retriever in conformation and training her for upland and waterfowl hunting. Returning to college for a teaching certificate, Dawn became a high school science teacher and dived into agility training and field work with her Large Munsterlanders.

After 15 years of teaching high school, Dawn decided to "go to the dogs" and graduated with distinction from the Karen Pryor Academy and started Positive Solutions Dog Training. She attends seminars and training conferences every year to keep current on scientific knowledge about animal behavior and training. See the video at left for more information about positive training.