Meet Kerri Clifford-Mahon

I believe there are two individuals in every human and dog relationship, and I work with both of you.

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My path to dog training is a little different. Before my work centered on dogs, I studied people. I hold master's degrees in Marriage & Family Therapy and Art Therapy, and for more than a decade, I've worked professionally with dogs and the people who love them. Today, I bring those experiences together in my work as a positive reinforcement dog trainer in Olympia, WA.

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My background in Marriage & Family Therapy taught me to think about relationships, communication, patterns, and change. Art Therapy taught me how to listen to communication that happens without words. Together, those perspectives have shaped the way I work with dogs and their people. There is a person on one end of the leash and a dog on the other, each bringing their own experiences, emotions, and ways of communicating.

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My role is to help you make sense of what is happening, understand what matters to your dog, and find a path forward that works for both of you. Living together involves negotiation. Both sides bring priorities, limitations, and preferences to that relationship. My job is to help find solutions that are workable for both.

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That is what being In Sync means to me. Not asking one side of the relationship to disappear, but finding ways for dogs and humans to understand one another and build a life that works for both.

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