Leah Cook
Founder, Dog Aggression Specialist

If you are like me, your dog is more than just a dog, he is a part of your family and you want what's best for him. The longer you share your life with dogs, and the deeper you dive into the dog community, you start to realize that selecting a dog trainer or behavior consultant isn't a decision to be taken lightly. Because of this, I created this very in-depth about page to hopefully give you the information you need to develop a true sense for who I am, and what my team and business stand for.

Turning Pain Into Purpose

I grew up in Greer, South Carolina, and married my high school sweetheart. Not long after getting married, we moved to Jacksonville, North Carolina because he was stationed at Camp Lejeune. During our time in North Carolina I went to college and earned my associates degree in electronics engineering so I could work on the tank simulators on base, but all I really wanted to do was get home and spend time with my dog. After all, Boaz was the only constant companion I had. If you are familiar with military life you know what I mean by that, but if you aren't familiar with military life, just know that I was the wife of an infantry Marine during war time, so my husband was only home for a few months here and there, and I was seven hours away from any family or friends. Needless to say, Boaz and I became best friends.

During my husband's first deployment, Boaz and I were attacked by a German Shepherd while we were walking in our neighborhood. This dog relentlessly pounded on the front door of the house he was in, until he busted the door open. Once there was nothing holding this dog back, he charged across the yard and into the road where he attacked us. The dog attacked me first, knocking me to the ground. Once I was down, he started to bite Boaz all over his face and neck.

​Something inside of me changed the day we were attacked, and I've never looked back. While that was a terrible thing that happened to us, God has used it for good. Since that day, it has been my mission to become the best behavior consultant I can be, to help others that have endured the same trauma, and to do what I can to prevent that from happening to anyone else! ​

If you would like to learn more about best practices for loose dog encounters, please feel free to watch the recording of a presentation I gave to Lake Conestee Nature Preserve patrons and the Kidding Around Greenville online community.

A Word on Professional Certifications

​In my pursuit of education and professional development, I earned the designations as a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers in 2015, as a fully Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants in 2017, and as a Certified Behavior Consultant Canine (CBCC-KA) through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers in the fall of 2021.

But time and experience have changed me and my views, and the organizations I was a part of evolved as well.

In February of 2021, I voluntarily revoked my membership and certification through the IAABC due to an addendum to their ethics policy which would require all members to work to completely eliminate the use of electronic training collars from their practice. I refuse to do that for many reasons, but the main reason is public safety. ​Leaving the IAABC was not a decision that I wanted to make, but all we have at the end of the day is our integrity, so withdrawing from this organization was the right thing for me to do.  In August of 2023, I chose to leave the CCPDT for similar reasons. 

While I no longer hold those certifications, that in no way shape or form impacts my level of competency, integrity, or commitment to learning— if anything it should demonstrate my commitment to my convictions rather than being comfortable. Since leaving these organizations I have completed the Masters of Aggression Program taught by Michael Shikashio (past president of the IAABC, and many other internationally respected behavior consultants), Suzanne Clothiers introduction to CARAT program, and Kim Brophey's LEGS Applied Ethology Family Dog Mediation Professional Course. 

We Are a Team of Ethical Dog Trainers

Clearly, I believe in transparency, so the next common question I want to go ahead and answer for you is how my team and I navigate doing what is needed for the dog in front of us to have clarity and to be treated as fairly as possible, while also achieving measurable outcomes that are reasonable for each individual dog. Every choice we make, especially the difficult ones, is because we want people and dogs to have safe, successful partnerships. Without safety and reliability, people and dogs cannot lead full, happy lives together, and that is truly what we want for our clients. So let’s get into it. 

Although our professional and moral goal is to teach dog owners how to expertly execute positive reinforcement training techniques, we will not exclude entire quadrants of operant conditioning, or training tools such as pinch collars and ecollars, because animal rights activists think its abusive to correct an animal for anything or because “research” shows us that using corrections might cause problems. We need to understand what those risks are in order to mitigate the potential adverse side effects of using corrections in training, but failing to effectively address behavior problems will cause problems. Every week I deal with dogs who are exhibiting dangerous or life threatening behaviors, and I think it would be grossly negligent not to interrupt and reduce the problematic behaviors that could lead to inappropriate punishment, abandonment, or euthanasia of these animals. 
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The progressives in the dog training industry want you to believe that any form of discipline is synonymous with abuse. I can’t speak for any other team who incorporates aversive strategies in their work, but I know that I spend thousands of dollars on education every year so my team can learn about new research, protocols, and strategies that promote choice and reduce stress in the learner. We try very hard to structure all of our training so that the dogs think that doing what we want is the best, easiest, and most fun way to get what they want. This makes for a very cooperative and happy relationship between us. But on the same coin, if our clients are doing everything they need to do on the management and reward based training side of things, and the dog is still choosing to do a behavior that, if unresolved, would continue robbing my clients and their dog of a good life, we are going to use what we feel is ethical and necessary to effectively deal with that behavior. In some cases, management is the only option people have because punishment based methods would likely make their problem worse, but if there is a chance that the thoughtful application of aversive consequences will increase the overall welfare and quality of life for the dog and their family, we are going to do that.

​Dogs don’t understand that this world is run by human rules and laws, but we do. We know there are some things our dogs simply cannot do. While it may not seem fair to enforce certain rules and boundaries because they don’t understand what’s at stake if they don’t cooperate, we still have to act in their best interest. We strive to be effective reward based trainers because we love dogs, but we will also discipline dogs because we love them.

​If what I am saying doesn’t align with your beliefs that is fine of course, but we are not the team for you.
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Volunteering & Community Service

Once my husband finished his service in the Marine Corps, I sought my own way to serve my community outside of work. As someone who had been competing and teaching nosework for several years, it didn't take me long to decide that K9 Search and Rescue was the best way I could blend my skill set for training dogs and scent detection to help others. 

In the fall of 2017 I was accepted as a K9 handler by the South Carolina Search And Rescue Dog Association, and went on to help establish the K9 unit for Spartanburg County Search and Rescue Team (SCSAR) in the fall of 2018. From 2018 to 2022, I was a K9 unit leader, trainer, and handler for SCSAR. While on SCSAR, I oversaw team documentation, as well as training and internal evaluations for aggression, off leash reliability, and live wilderness area search. I am certified as a SARTECH II, and as a K9 search team, my dog Mina and I were internally certified in both live and large cadaver searches, and earned our level II national certification in live wilderness area search through the National Search Dog Alliance.