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Marla has always been a dog lover. She spent her free time as a child returning lost dogs home or rehabilitating them so they could be adopted. She spent many hours experimenting with different training techniques and observing many species of animals in the wild. From this observation and experimentation, she became convinced that most behavioral problems in dogs are really training problems and it is the owner of the dog who really needs the education.

Marla’s training method is based on what she’s learned by studying with a variety of the world’s top animal trainers and competitors. She was considerably influenced by the work of Jean Donaldson, Bob Bailey and Karen Pryor. Marla thanks Jean Donaldson for being a compassionate advocate for dogs and a revolutionary in the world of dog training. She recommends Jean Donaldson's book, "The Culture Clash" to all her students. She thanks Bob Bailey for all the scientific work he has done in the world of operant conditioning and helping her understand how to apply the work of B.F. Skinner and his followers to dog training. She thanks Karen Pryor for educating dog trainers in how to apply clicker training, which was formerly used in marine mammal training, to dog training. Marla has taken all the various techniques from the world's top trainers and competitors and put them together into a comprehensive training program.

She has an M.A. and B.A. in Communications and also graduated from wild animal training school, where she worked with wolves, lions and tigers. She has been a National Agility Finalist with her golden retriever, ADCH MACH 3 Roxy, who is in the Agility Dog Hall of Fame and is the only rescue dog in the Golden Retriever Hall of Fame. Her border collie, ADCH Sage, is a nationally competitive agility dog who won the 2007 Palm Classic Speed Challenge in Del Mar. Marla is currently training her young border collie, Spritz (imported from Germany), who is a repeat breeding of the 2005 World Cup of Agility Winner.

Marla has been training dogs all her life and has personally been owned by and trained many breeds of dogs, including a Cocker Spaniel, an Australian Cattle Dog, Golden Retrievers, a Malinois, a Doberman Pinscher, a German Shepherd, a Shetland Sheepdog, an Australian Shepherd, a Chihuahua and Border Collies. Many of these dogs were rescue dogs and she is well aware of the need for humane ways to deal with both older dogs with “behavior problems” and young puppies who don’t know “the rules” yet.

Marla is the owner of Dog Sports Video, where she produces the world’s premiere line of dog training videos.

“Those who say it cannot be done
should not interrupt the person doing it.”

Red Dawn Blue Sage (BC) - MAD, TM-Gold, MX, MXJ, MXF
2007 Palm Classic $1,000 Dog Agility Speed Challenge Winner

ADCH Red Dawn Blue Sage (BC) - TM-Platinum, MX, MXJ, MXF
2007 Palm Classic $1,000 Dog Agility Speed Challenge Winner

Imp. Floss Granting Pleasure, CGC “Spritz” (BC puppy)

Sunny (Chihuahua) – Professional Lap Warmer

In my heart:
Sugar (cocker), Sasha (cattle dog x), Shawn (golden), Shana (malinois x), Pandora (sheltie), Pegasus (GSD x), Simone (dobie), Murphy (bc)