• Diane Podolsky, CPDT-KA, CTCNeighbor

  • Greenwich, CT

When Diane drove home with a 6 month old pet shop Maltese after longing for a little dog for many years, becoming a dog trainer was the last thing on her mind.<br> <br>But vacations spent at Camp Gone to the Dogs and, later, her determination to learn about her dog’s increasingly complex behavior issues eventually led Diane to apply for acceptance to the San Francisco SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers, the “Harvard” of dog training academies.<br> <br>After graduating at the top of her class (and earning her CTC), she founded The Cultured Canine, LLC, thus beginning her career as a full time dog trainer, visiting clients in Greenwich, Westchester and Manhattan.

Her next step was to earn her CPDT-KA (the nationally recognized certification granted by the Council of Certified Professional Dog Trainers).<br> <br>Eager to learn all she can about canine behavior and how to train dogs (and people) using up-to-date methods, Diane attends seminars well in excess of the 36 hours required every three years to maintain her CPDT-KA certification. These include Association of Pet Dog Trainer conferences, Clicker Expo and seminars given by eminent speakers such as Dr. Ray Coppinger, Jean Donaldson and Dr. Sophia Yin.<br> <br>Diane’s passion is training toy breed and very small dogs and working with the people who love them. Her private, in home dog training courses focus on the unique needs of these diminutive canines. Students learn to use tiny bits of food as motivators, exercises designed to prevent hand-shyness and how to train specific skills such as relaxing in a carry bag or on a person’s lap in a busy café.  In addition,

Among Diane&#39;s services is her intensive housetraining program, which is excellent for training a puppy or a dog. She performs the training protocol personally, in her home, one little dog at a time.  Clients tell her that it is difficult to find her special blend of a true “home-away-from-home” board &amp; train setting and precise, positive-reinforcement oriented, dog training which transfers well to the dog’s family and home environment.<br> <br>The Cultured Canine’s “Housetraining Hotline” program enables clients to receive customized, cost-effective housetraining assistance via telephone consults and telecourses. This program enables Diane to assist clients from all over the United States and even some from abroad.<br> <br>Currently, Diane is the “New York Small Dogs Examiner” for Examiner.com.  Her dog training tips were selected for the book “APDT’s Top Tips from Top Trainers.”  Her articles appear in The Pet Gazette, Pet People, and In Town Magazine&#39;s pet gift guide and she was profiled in the Westchester Business Journal. Her insight and opinions are sought by varied media outlets such as Animal Planet, Westchester Magazine, NY Tails, Westchester Life &amp; Health, and Dogs &amp; Kids magazine.

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