About me
Hello I'm Karen, In 2020 I started Pawsitive Dog Care and Training and provide 1 on 1 Dog Training, Dog Daycare and Dog sitting services to the local Cairns community.
In my spare time I am a volunteer trainer at the Cairns City Kennel Club for the past 5 years and have gained my competitive Dog Agility Judges License.
I have had over 16 years experience Dog Training and currently compete in Dog Sports such as Agility, Obedience, Rally, Scent works, Tricks and more around FNQ.
My Plans for this year is to grow awareness for a modern positive reinforcement based training in Cairns and introduce socialisation group classes. I also am keen to start on Agility foundations for those who would like to give it a try.
Meet My Girls
Rebelmoon GD SPD aka Luna
I welcomed Luna to the pack in 2020 after she displayed behaviours not suitable around children she could no longer stay at her first home. I knew Luna through Agility training and became close with her mum through trying to train her to accept the new baby in the house. We ultimately both decided it was best that she came to stay with me permanently.
Cleopatra JDM ADM SDM SPDM SDM GDX ADO JDO2 CCD CD RE RAE TKS aka Cleo
Cleo is a chocolate Labrador that most people think is a Kelpie because of her physical fitness. Born in 2014 I started competing with her at 2 years old. All the letters after her name are titles she has earned in different sports like Agility, Jumping, Games, Obedience, Rally, and Tricks. We are starting to learn Tracking and Scent works for future competitions when I retire her from Agility. Cleo is every bodies friend and My BFF. Her favourite trick is to beg :)
R.I.P. 6/4/2006 - 28/03/2022
MissDarlingGirl JD GD SD CCD RA JDO aka Darla
MissD is my first competition Dog. Darla is the reason I fell in love with dog training and dog sports. She was such a pleasure to train and always gave me 100%. Within 3 months of starting her training as a puppy the Alice Springs Dog Club asked if I would be interested in learning how to become an instructor. In 2008 I began officially competing in sports and instructing classes. I Retired Darla from sports in 2010.
Karen was an excellent trainer. Very informative and worked really well with our boy Milo. My partner learnt more about dog training in five minutes with Karen than watching three months of YouTube videos on puppy training. Would definitely recommend.
Lauren D.
Dog Training - Sep 18, 2020
Karen is straight-to-the-point, professional, highly-experienced and so obviously passionate about what she does. Her approach is not universal, it is absolutely tailored to the dog, and she got Frankie to a T. You will not meet many businesses or staff willing to put in the work and extra care Karen does in her daycare and training. We are so impressed with her commitment and how involved she is in the progression of our boy. I’m convinced I would not have the same results anywhere else (we’ve tried multiple daycare's in Cairns and nothing comes close to Karen’s service). Karen has given both myself and Frankie confidence with her techniques and we have such a better bond because of it. She’s not just improved our relationship with Frankie, but also his quality of life, getting him in the car after daycare is a mission, he hates leaving Karen’s beautiful dogs!
Anna B.
Dog Training - Jan 1, 2022
Karen has helped me out so much with my beautifully stubborn and cheeky Staffy x Mastiff, Wilbur.
Have only had three training sessions with Karen and Wilbur as come such a long way!
Our favorite game to play is the ‘choices’ game. He’s gotten so good at it we can get a treat to sit on each of his paws and not touch it!
With all the support we have gotten from Karen, I can’t wait what the future has install for Wilbur and myself.
Ellen O
Dog training - Sept 27, 2021
Reviews
I've tried a few different trainers for our dog and I cannot recommend Karen highly enough. A truly personalized approach to dog training. We learnt so much in our first session alone. Thank you
truly personalized approach to dog training. We learnt so much in our first session alone. Thank you
Angelo S.
Dog Training - Sep 10, 2020
We have known Karen for a little while now, as she has looked after our fur baby Arlo. Today was our first training session for our new pup, and we were so amazed by how knowledgeable Karen is. She makes training fun and easy. Our favourite game/tip was learning how crucial it is to give our dogs the opportunity to make their own choices. We learnt a valuable lesson that we need to teach our dogs that we expect a certain behaviour from them. And also that time out is essential to the dogs development but also our sanity.
Carole G
Dog Training - Sept 27, 2021
Our boy started going to Karen for daycare, first off the daycare is amazing socialisation. We found him picking up good traits from Karen’s dogs which aided him being more domesticated and easy around the house! He would always come home buggered and sleeps like a baby. We then started doing one-on-one training with Karen to help him with his re-activeness. Not only did we see a drastic change in his behaviour, but the training also taught us so much as owners. Overall we highly recommend Karen and PAWsitive DC&T as service. It’s changed our lives and brings our baby boy joy!
Jaxon O.
Dog Training - Jan 3, 2022