Dog Training Classes

Tuesdays at Spring Oaks Animal Care Center
Reserve your spot, spaces are limited.
(mostly indoors)

6:30 pm — PuppyLove
(born after 4-7)
7:30 pm — Basic Manners

P.J. Lacette has been training dogs and people for more than 30 years. When her first Irishsetter destroyed its third couch P.J.'s husband Larry demanded that something be done about those dogs. P.J. took Erin, a sweet, rowdy, destructive Irish setter to an obedience class and has been involved in obedience classes ever since. Erin was the first of a number of P.J.'s nationally-ranked obedience dogs (Irish setters and flat-coated retrievers), as well as champions and dogs with agility rankings and sporting field titles.

Twenty five years ago P.J. and training school partner Sandy Guy started Best Paw Forward Inc. for private and group dog training. Sandy has retired due to poor health and P.J. runs the full-time operation on 10 acres in Osteen in Volusia County as well as various area locations. The program features all facets of pet training: obedience, agility and conformation classes and workshops, as well as behavior problem solving including aggression counseling and workshops (the only facility offering these programs in Florida).

Seminars presented by P.J. at Best Paw Forward and other clubs have covered a wide range of topics including scent articles, recalls, retrieving, training foster dogs, jumping for obedience and agility, weave poles, agility teeters and conformation, all from a clicker point of view. Best Paw has the longest running group clicker classes in the southeast u.S. and P.J. was one of the original trainers/instructors to become faculty members for Karen Pryor Academy, an advanced-level certification program for dog trainers who use positive methods. She has since dropped out of that organization to focus on her own new property and programs.

Her numerous television appearances have included Petsburgh U.S.A., Good Dog U, Ask theVet, iVil/age Live, That's My Dog and Way to Grow as well as countless t.v. news segments and programs. She has been a consultant and was featured on Zig & Zag Alpha Dog Challenge. Her dogs and cats, as well as those of her students, have also been featured in television and print ads, in movies and at conventions and trade shows.

Working for The Orlando Sentinel, a major newspaper, for 20 years helped maintain an early love for writing, and her by-line has appeared in dog publications such as the AKC Gazette and Setter Quarterly. Dog photography is another way P.J. enjoys her time with dogs and her photos have been featured in multiple national magazines and journals, including covers of the Flat-Coated Retriever Directory, the golden retriever national club magazine and an Irish setter calendar.

An early introduction to Ian Dunbar's positive training methods paved the way for quick acceptance of clicker training. Association of Pet Dog Trainers charter members 15 and 16 respectively, P.J. and Sandy heard Karen Pryor and other clicker trainers speak for the first time at an early APDT conference in Chicago and were instantly hooked! Before long, the clicker way was firmly ensconced in their Central Florida program.

P.J. has also volunteered or worked at nearly every APDT conference and at multiple Clicker Expos, and has attended literally hundreds of educational seminars before and since, proof that all roads lead to clicker! She was vice chair for the APDT conference committee in 2008 and continues to provide assistance to that committee.

She is also a member of the National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors, and Best Paw Forward Inc. is a member of Dog Obedience Clubs of Florida.

Spring Oaks Animal Care Center
152 McGregor Road
DeLand, Florida 32720
Phone: (386) 736-6747