Service Dog Initial Consultation

This Consultation is an evaluation of your dog’s current skill set for public access and for the actual service provided by the dog. Providing a plan to refine those skills and prepare the dog to perform as a service dog in private and public.

No matter what job your service dog performs for you, traveling requires a behavior skill set that your dog might not really have. I can help your dog acquire those skills so you can be sure that you are both confident and stress-free when you travel.

I will help you train your dog until I feel comfortable attesting to the fact that your dog can travel with you and can reliably behave in public.

Your dog needs to be:

Fully House trained
Able to settle on the floor next to you even with major distractions
Show no aggression towards other dogs or humans
No jumping up on strangers
No barking
No begging for food

Please note: In order to qualify as a Psychiatric Service Dog your dog needs to be prescribed by a mental health professional, regardless of how well trained they might be. I can only fulfill the airlines’ and Department of Transportation’s (DOT) requirement that the dog is safe in public and well behaved.

Related Services

Service Dog Follow up Lessons

My Services

Wellness + Enrichment

Mental and physical well-being are strongly connected. My primary objective is to design a program that suits your dog and ensures that you and your dog can spend as many fun-filled and healthy years together as possible.

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Behavior Training & Modification

Designed to provide maximum support and guidance for first-time dog guardians and/or to address behavior problems such as excessive barking, separation anxiety, resource guarding, adult house soiling or a variety of fear and fear aggression issues.

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Psychiatric Service Dog Training

I can teach your dog to perform tasks that help mitigate your stressful or anxious moments. Together we determine which behaviors your dog should be trained to recognize and then perform these tasks.

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Puppy Training

The focus for this training is on reinforcing house training, establishing polite manners and building confidence in your puppy while educating guardians in the practical application of positive reinforcement

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Elisabeth is amazing. She sees things most vets and trainers don’t see. I’m looking forward to working with her to…

Elisabeth is amazing. She sees things most vets and trainers don’t see. I’m looking forward to working with her to train my 5mo old puppy to be a therapy dog.

Niseema Dayan Diemer

Last week my dog’s behavior and my reaction to it prompted me to call a professional trainer. What an amazing…

Last week my dog’s behavior and my reaction to it prompted me to call a professional trainer. What an amazing experience. Elisabeth came to our home and gently guided the three of us through the training process. She was tough and patient through Max’s barking, and showed us how we could be too. The training technique is subtle and I wasn’t sure I’d get it, but one day in and Max is looking to me and his daddy for cues and his anxiety level is way down. Couldn’t have asked for a better experience and outcome. Now it’s up to us to keep up the training, but it’s really a joy.

Andrea Jalickee

Elisabeth gets great results quickly. The lessons are a happy, fun experience for the dog and the rest of the…

Elisabeth gets great results quickly. The lessons are a happy, fun experience for the dog and the rest of the family.

Our dog (Max) is always really delighted to see her and has learned so much in a very short time.

Elisabeth is a fount of information about training and other topics such as diet, health care, grooming and even travel tips.

Jann Wenner

Co-Founder and Publisher of Rolling Stone Magazine and Chairman of Wenner Media

Rolling Stone

Elisabeth Weiss is a gifted trainer and a true animal lover. When I adopted my adorable and lovable cock-a-poo from…

The lessons for my dog were so much fun that my smart cat started to participate in the dog’s lessons. I then asked Elisabeth to set aside some time to train the cat as well!

Both dog and cat training have been huge successes! We all look forward to their lessons every week!

Eileen Robert

My 11 year old lab Alex’s arthritis was catching up with him. It became very difficult for him to move…

My 11 year old lab Alex’s arthritis was catching up with him. It became very difficult for him to move around and sometimes he would fall. After a terrible fall down a set of stairs Elisabeth guided me to a great neurologist and after Alex’s surgery started an in home physical rehabilitation program. Alex walked again, enjoyed his walks through the neighborhood, learned to ring poochie bells and loved it. The care Elisabeth gave her contributed a lot to his quality of life.

Ben Ellenbogen

Elisabeth Weiss is a gifted trainer and a true animal lover. When I adopted my adorable and lovable cock-a-poo from…

Elisabeth Weiss is a gifted trainer and a true animal lover. When I adopted my adorable and lovable cock-a-poo from the AC&C he came with a host of challenging behavior issues. Elisabeth has successfully helped me resolve his problems. What I liked most was that she made it easy for me.
The lessons for my dog were so much fun that my smart cat started to participate in the dog’s lessons. I then asked Elisabeth to set aside some time to train the cat as well!
Both dog and cat training have been huge successes! We all look forward to their lessons every week!

Eileen Robert

As you can see from the picture the feedings are going a lot better now that they are doing sit…

As you can see from the picture the feedings are going a lot better now that they are doing sit and stay before their meals. I can even put them next to each other, no problem………..a million thank you’s. Bella is so much more confident, coming out to greet customers and showing much more affection. We noticed this after 2 days. Amazing!

Karen Callahan

Working with Elisabeth is the best decision I’ve made to help transition into life with a new puppy. She is…

Working with Elisabeth is the best decision I’ve made to help transition into life with a new puppy. She is incredibly helpful, responsive, and made an impact in my puppy’s behavior immediately. Elisabeth has been an incredible support as I’ve managed being a brand new dog-mom–I don’t know what I would do without her! Cannot recommend her enough for new puppy parents or any dog owners alike.

Kendra Huffman

Dear Elisabeth, David and I read your wonderful and enlightening letter. We cannot thank you enough for taking the time…

Dear Elisabeth,
David and I read your wonderful and enlightening letter. We cannot thank you enough for taking the time to care and relate your experience and wisdom to our problem.
When you said “Fear Aggression” the biggest lightbulb went off. We always thought that Zeus was over protective of David, but I think you absolutely have nailed it. Now we have an entirely different perspective.
We also are thankful for you excellent description of Schutzhund training and why that would not be a good option for Zeus. And most of all in one simple sentence, you have explained to us the importance of the positive reinforcement training. When you said that it is much better to do something because you want to do it, than worrying about some terrible thing happening if you don’t, again the sky actually parted for us. I never knew that was the reason for that kind of training. When we worked with the folks at Santa Fe Tails previously, no one ever said that. We just thought it was a newer, more modern way to train dogs. And we worried that they gave far too many treats. And finally your wonderful explanation of deferential behavior gives us such hope for Zeus’s future. I could not bear the thought of living a life of constant fear about him and for him and you actually have lifted a terrible and ominous weight off of the situation. Our only challenge now, is can these folks train us to understand and work in this way with Zeus?
Could I ask you to recommend a book or DVD that would be appropriate for us to learn to work with Zeus in this manner?
I am ever grateful to Freddie and Myrna for discussing our problem with you and I am ever grateful to you for your amazing expertise and for being so generous in sharing this with us.
Warm regards,
Roberta Remy and David Shields

Roberta Remy and David Shields

My ex-wife and I have a now 11 year-old Border Collie named Oreo. In late September, 2013 she completely tore…

My ex-wife and I have a now 11 year-old Border Collie named Oreo. In late September, 2013 she completely tore her ACL and partially tore the medial meniscus on her left hind leg. Needless to say, we were besides ourselves. She had surgery the next day, and did well in the post-op period. One thing the vet made clear from the beginning was the importance of good physical therapy and rehab starting a few weeks post-op. We did some research, and ended up with two referrals: the physical therapist in the animal hospital, and Elisabeth Weiss of DogRelations. We had Oreo see both, to figure out which one we liked better. Elisabeth started off with a comprehensive evaluation of Oreo and her needs from a very holistic approach. She gave recommendations about Oreo’s feeding and her weight, her general behavior, and her rehab plans. After a few sessions with Elisabeth, we dropped the other PT like a hot potato. What can I say about Elisabeth? She’s phenomenal! She has a great rapport with our dog and is constantly giving Oreo praise and TLC. Oreo responded to her right from the get-go. Over the past three months, Oreo is a changed dog! She’s running around, dancing sideways and is clearly more agile now then she was before the injury. Elisabeth has gone from focusing primarily on the injury, to working on Oreo’s arthritis and even working on some of her “bad” behaviors. Oreo loves to see Elisabeth and is always exhausted after her workouts. Quite simply, Elisabeth is great. You can tell that she truly loves dogs, and is working with a great deal of knowledge in the field. Parenthetically, she’s extremely professional, reliable, and trustworthy. Thanks, Elisabeth for everything that you’ve done for Oreo!!

Ramon Solhkhah

M.D.