MEET KAREN

Our owner and primary behavior counselor is Karen Reardon Taylor, CPDT (formerly Sumner). Taylor's training career began at the tender age of seven with her first dog, Sparky.  Mom & Dad said, "Train Sparky or she's off to the shelter."  Karen had wanted a dog ever since she could remember... it must have been in her blood because her Granddad and his father used to run a training kennel in the early 1920's & 1930's!  Mom and Dad weren't being mean ... they were simply fed up with the chewing, barking and peeing in the house.  Sparky, a Pit Bull mix, was going the way of many other, so called, untrained and unruly dogs; shelter bound with no chance of a full life!  So she and Sparky joined a 4-H Junior Dog Obedience Course and the rest is history! 

As a teen, Karen stayed out of trouble by training neighborhood stray dogs and placing them in new homes (after diligently trying to get Mom & Dad to let her keep them instead).  From that point forward her mission was clear... TEACH DOGS TO RESPECT THEIR OWNERS AND THEY WON'T END UP ON THE DEATH ROW!  Simultaneously, Karen began studies in horsemanship and eventually worked at various breeding, riding and boarding stables in Maryland training and exercising horses.  Karen also took numerous Dog training courses with the Montgomery County Maryland Recreation and Parks Department, with Dog Sense Unlimited, and the Montgomery County Maryland Humane Services organization.  She then began college at North Carolina State University to pursue a Veterinary Career ... but, alas, the scholarship ran out!  As a young U.S. Navy wife, she moved to Florida and found herself training dogs with Five Flags Dog Training Club in Pensacola.  With the support of her club and their dog show expertise she titled her Pomeranian, Frodo (see his picture in our Logo), in obedience and received the FFDTC's award for Highest Score in a trial!  They were so happy they even let her teach!  Shortly after moving to Los Angeles Karen split with her husband and returned to College to begin her studies in psychology and behavior.  Being single, going to school, and keeping a full time job was taking it's toll physically and financially; so she finished her current courses and, at the urging of some friends who had just gotten puppies, started a small dog training class at a "pseudo" dog park in Venice, California.

Karen never really thought of herself as a dog expert or trainer, just a training hobbyist who liked dogs!  But her students felt differently and sent their friends to Karen's class.  Then, people who stopped just to observe asked to join in!  Hundreds of happy, well trained humans and dogs later, Karen realized she had inadvertently come across her "calling" and made dog training and behavior a career.  Of course, being an instructor is more than just having some knowledge and experience... Karen wanted a whole lot!  So she started reading everything she could get her hands on, watched every video she could find, and joined the Society of North American Dog Trainers... and, later, the Association of Pet Dog Trainers.  These organizations regularly coordinate national and international speakers to provide continuing education for their members.  Karen started MY BEST FRIEND OBEDIENCE in 1992 and is a member of the Los Angeles area Better Business Bureau.

Karen's Seminars and Intensive Workshops include:

1. Jean Donaldson's Swimming Upstream: Training Against the Genetic Grain

2. Wayne Hunthausen, D.V.M.'s  Fears & Phobias, Compulsive Disorders, Aggression and Medical Causes of House Soiling

3. Patricia McConnell, Ph.D.'s  Diagnosing and Treating Aggression in Dogs

4. Dawn Jecs' Learning the "Choose to Heel" Dog Training System

5. Sue Sternberg's Recharging Your Instructing Skills, Reading Dogs and Defensive Dog Handling

6. John Fisher's The Nature of Dog to Dog Aggression, Living with the Emotional Dog and a New Perspective on Dominance

7. William Campbell's Consultation Skills

8. Jean Donaldson's Treat, Manage or Execute

9. Leslie Nelson's Can You Use All Positives in a Group Class

Additional Seminars attended include a week long intensive program given by John Rogerson on Behavior as well as behavior seminars given by Ian Dunbar and Roger Abrantes, and one given by Debra Potts on T-Touch, and the APDT's Annual Conferences in Phoenix, San Diego, Chicago and King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Tellington T-Touch is a gentle and unique method of working with both health and behavioral problems in animals.

Karen's achievements include:

• Appearing on Amazing Animal Rescues on Fox Television and KABC Los Angeles Channel 7 News as a Dog Behavior Specialist. 

• Providing dog behavior counseling services to other dog trainers, groomers, dog day care owners and veterinarians.

• Performing low cost Behavior Consulting for Perfect Pets Rescue, Amanda Foundation, NEVA, Pet Adoption Fund, Pet Orphans, Villalobos Pit Bull Rescue, Husky Rescue, Golden Retriever Rescue, Labrador Rescue, Much Love Rescue, Angel Puss Rescue, and the Santa Monica and West Los Angeles Animal Shelters, among others.

• Serving as an expert witness, and providing written reports on dog behavior, for owners of "aggressive" dogs and "barking dogs" for Los Angeles county and in Animal Control hearings.

• Writing a monthly dog training column for a popular Internet publication called Valley Pet News. (see our links page).

• Training Knuckles the bulldog on the X-Show (for men and the women that put up with them) that ran on FX-FOX Cable Network from 1999 - 2001.

Karen was the first obedience instructor for the Pets in the Hood program, the brain child of Tia Torres of Villalobos Pit Bull Rescue.  Los Angeles probation camp adolescents learned to train and care for dogs by working with Pit Bulls from the Rescue, thus making the dogs more adoptable as well. (for more information see below and the other offerings page).

Karen Reardon Taylor now brings her expertise to you and your dog, while, of course, always continuing her education, as every good dog training and behavior modification specialist should.

Karen is currently a professional member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and a Member of the Southern California Better Business Bureau.  In her limited free time, Karen can usually be found hanging out at home with her husband, Doug Taylor, and her dog Chance (an American Water Spaniel) and Screamer (the black cat),,, not to mention a whole bunch of her clients dogs who need a little extra training!