Welcome!

As a dog parent to three rescue pups, I know the trials and tribulations of rearing well behaved (and sometimes not-so-well-behaved) city dogs-and it is TOUGH. Barkswell is a safe place to share and grow, laugh and probably shed a tear or two, and to build community with other dog lovers and owners (while hopefully learning something along the way). What better way to enrich the lives of our beloved pets than to connect with each other on their behalf?

Barkswell is for the rainy days, the sunny days, the potty training days and the mastering tricks days. We are also everything in between. Our blog articles are simple:

•    We Care are health and nutrition related;
•    We Recall are all the lovely stories in memory of pets we have loved and lost;
•    We Love are personal or rescue stories;
•    We Learn are all the tips and tricks or how-to’s that help us be better dog parents!

My long-term goal is to create a brick-and-mortar location that meets all of our dog-parenting needs: Safe play spaces, retail goodies, grooming, and maybe, just maybe, a good cup of coffee too!

Join our growing community of local and international posters by submitting your story – we would love to hear from you.

I am so proud of Barkswell, of our authors, and of our pups-thanks for sharing in this crazy adventure by helping us build the Barkswell community!

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Lauren
Barkswell Founder

Meet the Trainer

About our trainer, Marie Aymard:

Marie Aymard is a Bay Area Native, and she has been an enthusiastic animal lover since birth. Her passion for dog behavior and training began back in 2003 when she participated in the SF SPCA’s inaugural junior volunteer program. She evaluated and worked with the shelter dogs and assisted in group classes. She also fell in love with her first dog, Oliver, a border collie mix, who’s extreme intelligence propelled her into dog training.

In college, Marie studied psychology, and she obtained her B.A. in psychology and her M.A. in clinical counseling. Her love for helping humans and working with dogs brought her into the animal assisted therapy, and she completed her internships with this as her primary focus. While completing her studies, Marie also rescued her second dog, a shy little pitbull named Phoenix. It was during this time that she began to realize the training style she had studied and learned about was not going to benefit this dog. Phoenix and Marie began a journey together to find other methods of dog training that would work for her.

After working with many other styles of training, Marie found a love in ‘balanced training’. It incorporated not only the reward style she was used to, but also focused heavily on relationship building and laying out clear communication to help the dogs understand boundaries and expectations. She decided to pull out of the doctoral program she had enrolled in, bought her first Belgian Malinois, Kyon, and co-founded the Bay Area K9 Association.

Currently, Marie works full time as a trainer and actively trains in various dog sports, including French Ring Sport, dock diving, and barn hunt. She has trained hundreds of family companions, competitive sport dogs, service dogs, and working K9s. She utilizes her knowledge of human behavior and psychology in her training programs to actively help owners to achieve a working relationship and bond with their dog that is so crucial to any dog and handler team.

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Author may keep updating old posts on a regular basis and is not bound to explicitly state all corrections made.

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*This blog does not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my employer. It is solely my opinion. Feel free to challenge me, disagree with me, or tell me I’m completely nuts in the comments section of each blog entry, but I reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason whatsoever (abusive, profane, rude, or anonymous comments) – so keep it polite, please.

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