Naturally Driven K9, LLC.

Sarah is a life-​changer. We recently adopted a 3^rd pooch for our family and were struggling with integrating the new guy into our home. I reached out to Sarah to arrange for 1:1 help. She visited us in our home and provided tips for all of us (people & dogs), e.g., reducing the excitement around feeding and walking times by using leads, place commands, and a baby gate. All of these techniques have created a calm, positive environment and the three dogs are doing so well. Sarah also invited us to visit her wonderful training center, where we practiced walking and relaxing/​massage techniques. She is an expert in dog behavior, and helped us understand our oldest dog’s motivation and psychology around this new family member. I highly recommend Sarah to dog owners, whether it’s a new puppy or an older dog or, in our case, adding a new dog to your family pack.

This much as obvious as soon as you meet Sarah in her training center – she’s passionate about a) the well-​being of all dogs, b) her human clients and maximizing their communication /​relationship with their dogs, and c) the art /​skill /​career of dog training.
We already had 2 well-​adjusted dogs when we adopted our third, a 7-​month old puppy with issues our older dogs never had… so we took the new guy for private training in Sarah’s «Fundamentals Program». Sarah spent several hours with us during the initial session (in the evening, so both human parents could be there), getting to know our dog, our concerns, teaching us techniques, literally walking us through drills with a slip lead (since leash reactivity was one of our pup’s biggest issues), and observing both of us ‘parents’ and giving us individual pointers. It wound up being literally life-​changing for us and the puppers.
Ever watch a YouTube dog training video, or any episode of Cesar Milan, where some out-​of-​control punk pup is rehabilitated into a responsible canine citizen within the span of a few minutes of screentime, and think ‘it’ll never work like that with MY dog’? (I have… cuz we were pretty desperate before heading to Naturally Driven K9).
Well it’s not instantaneous in real-life…but spend a few hours with a kickass trainer like Sarah, and it CAN be that easy to transform the puppers (or your relationship with your puppers) if you’re consistent in applying what you’ve learned. It’s not like we weren’t trying before, it’s just that our pre-​Sarah attempts at training him were ineffective.
One of the open secrets about Sarah’s profession must be that ‘dog training’ is just as much (if not more) about training the humans. Dog ‘parents’ can run on the defensive side – so the fact that Sarah teaches us humans in a way that’s expert, constructive, but comes across as non-​threatening, makes her training so easy to be receptive to. She’s clearly studied many different philosophies of dog training (and continues to do so), but she’s a dog parent just like the rest of us and seems to have adapted the best aspects of other trainers she’s learned from, and her own experience, into her own common sense, effective style.
Leash walks used to be dreadful ordeals for us as well as the puppy, and she’s given us the tools to make our walks happy and productive instead of loud, stressful, and aggressive. Long way of saying, we love Sarah, and can’t thank her enough – the things she’s taught us about how to interact with our puppy has improved our communication with the older dogs as well – and by the time we returned for our 1 hour followup session with Sarah only 2 weeks later, it was like we were bringing back a completely different dog. Highly recommend her services.

Sarah is wonderful! She has boarded our skittish 14-​year-​old dog Penny several times when we’ve gone out of town, and Penny always loves her visits with Sarah — she’s noticeably happier whenever we pull up at the house to drop her off and always seems to experience a resurgence of happy energy after each stay. I highly recommend Naturally Driven K9 if you’re looking for someone who will treat your dog as well as (or even better than) you would yourself while you’re away. Fantastic service.

I have known Sarah my whole life, and have witnessed her journey to progress and grow as a professional dog trainer. She is gifted with what I would say is a natural connection to all animals and is one of the most genuine, generous, and caring people I know. When my husband and I brought home our first puppy, Gus, three years ago, Sarah was first on my call list when it came to all the «puppy issues» that come along with a wiggly, adorable little bundle of doggy joy. She easily advised us on best practices for potty training, puppy biting and nipping, barking and how to begin the process of socialization for our little guy. Once Gus was old enough we set up private training with Sarah and were very pleased with our results. Sarah gives clear instruction and was extremely patient with Gus (who can be very wiggly and easily distracted!). By the end of our private lessons Gus was well on his way to mastering the basics of obedience — exactly the results we were hoping for! We have also entrusted Gus to Sarah for boarding on several occasions and have always been able to enjoy our vacations to the fullest knowing that Gus is safe, well cared for and most importantly being loved even though we are away. Gus adores Sarah and you can see him just light up when he sees her — that to me is proof of her tremendous talent and ability with dogs. I 100% recommend Sarah and all of her dog related services — she is absolutely FANTASTIC!

Sarah is great with dogs, extremely flexible in scheduling and fun to talk to. She had my 100ish pound akita for almost a month while I was moving and when I picked her up she was happy, alert healthy etc. She is more responsive to commands and does not pull quite so hard on the leash. Not having access to Sarah is one of the things I will regret about not living in Seattle anymore.
Gordon

Sarah taught me so much. My dogs have been with me for 4 and 7 years respectively. Their manners were not bad when at home but they were awful when out in public. I couldn’t even enjoy taking them for a walk around my new neighborhood. Thankfully I only live a couple of blocks from Sarah. So hiring her was easy. We all learned a lot and both of my dogs are much better behaved. We still have lots to learn and more discipline to reinforce. But now we know how. Thank you, Sarah.

We met Sarah when she was at Bone-​a-​fide and have been sending our two dogs to her since she moved out on her own for both regular walks during the day and the occasional boarding. The results are great. She not only walks the dogs; she takes them on grand adventures! I know because I see the photos on facebook and because they come home exhausted and happy. Sarah has also been working with them on heeling and the results have been really amazing — our super hyper dog no longer drags me down the street. Also worth noting that I trust Sarah completely when it comes to the safety of our dogs. She’s always careful about keeping them under control when taking them back and forth between the car and house — this may seem like a little thing, but on a busy street, it’s a comfort to know that she’s never sloppy or in a rush.