About Me

My name is Millie Stone, while growing up I was certain I wanted to become a Neurologist due to my fascination with the brain and how it functions. The only books I enjoyed reading were about the brain and it was that way for many years. 

Simutainiously, at the young age of three years old, my favorite toy was a German Shepherd figure, I carried it around the house, and knew I wanted one that looked just like it when I was older. Dogs have always been my "spirit animal" especially the dogs that many people view as "bad" or "dangerous" because I could always look into their eyes and see how misunderstood they were by people. As a kid, any house I entered you could quickly find me lost with the family dog. 

I grew up with the Idea that the only way to be "successful" was to become a doctor or a dentist or a lawyer. I attended university for 2 years working towards a major in biology and a minor in chemistry while on a pre-med track. All was well, well on paper that was. My grades were A's and B's and that was impressive to many people but not to me. I was very unhappy, I did not find what I was learning intresting I did not enjoy attending classes and because of Covid-19 I had minimal personal connection to my peers nor teachers. My mental health was declining and I knew I needed to make a big change. Still the idea of working with dogs as a long term career never even crossed my mind. 

That was until I got my long awaited german shepherd, Sergeant. He is the reason I was introduced to the dog community. Though he is adorable, it was not because he was the "perfect" dog that I got here. From a young age he began showing signs of animal reactivity and aggression, he had extremely low confidence, and feared the world. I was going to do anything and everything I could to help him have the best quality of life. So thats what I did. I shadowed a wide variety of experienced dog trainers for the first two years of Sergeant's life in order to build my tool box with many tools to help sergeant become the dog he is today. It didnt stop there, I wanted to learn all the approaches people used so I could become equipped to try and help every dog I came in contact with and I did just that. 

I have spent the past 2 years finding every trainer (over 20) who would allow me to watch them train and doing just that. I asked as many questions to each of them as they would answer. I never stopped asking "why?" I built a tool box full of many different ways to approach training each individual behavior. I got my hands on as many dogs as I could, friends, family, and neighbor dogs. Most significantly, I have spent the past 2.5 years working with my own personal dog who is extremely difficult. Despite multiple professionals recommending behavioral euthanasia I found a way to effectively communicate with him. That took exploring training methods that people had never used before. It took forgetting every main stream training method that most dog trainers use and sitting with the dog in front of me. It took trial and error but I tried until I found a method that worked for him. This is why I believe that the first step to a well trained dog is a strong relationship. No method is guaranteed to work, but when you establish a relationship, effective communication will follow and in tern, you will see improvement in your dogs behavior.

I consider myself a Balanced trainer. I use a combination of Positive Reinforcement and negative reinforcement. I would say that I try to use as little aversion as possible but am not against using it when other options have been exhausted. When a negative is used, I believe that it is crucial to follow it with a positive in order for the dog to have a positive association with the behavior being asked of it. 

I believe each dog requires its own unique training plan and therefore variation in methodology is apparent. That being said, I believe that the first step to having a well trained dog is having a healthy relationship with your dog. Without that, whether positive or negative methods are applied, I do not believe any dog can reach its fullest potential. While training, I believe you have to give the energy that you want your dog to be giving you. It has to be mutual. 

I believe tools can be extremely beneficial when used properly. That being said, before I EVER recommend the use of a training tool, I ask what knowledge you already have on the tool, answer any questions regarding the use of the tool, and most importantly, make sure you are 100% comfortable using the tool. I believe that the use of a tool also needs to be followed by a positive.