About Me – Paw In Hand

Mel lives in Dubuque, IA with her family, both two-legged and four-legged. Among her family is her husband and three boys. They currently have two dogs- Zelda, a Golden mutt and Carrot, a pitbull mix- as well as a shorthair tabby Maine Coon mix named Friendly.

Mel Heber began professionally training in 2007 while working with the Dubuque Regional Humane Society. There she was able to work with a variety of people as well as dogs and cats. She began to see patterns in the troubles new adopters encountered after bringing home a new family member, many of which were fairly easily solved or prevented with the proper instruction.

Mel has years of experience creating and leading obedience classes, as well as meeting with people one-on-one to help them solve behavior problems. Over the years, her expertise has helped dogs plagued by fearfulness and reactivity, as well as simple over-exuberence and impulse control problems. She has consulted on numerous litterbox issues and new-pet stress with cats, helping new adopters to make it easier for their pets to adjust to a new family member.

Mel always loves a challenge, and especially loves transforming a troublesome pet into a much-loved companion with a harmonious relationship with its family. To do this, she realizes it is just as important to teach the family as it is to train the pet. She places a lot of emphasis on patience and communication by body-language, as well as methods such as classical and operant conditioning to get the desired result al while keeping stress as low as possible for both family and the dog.

She places a lot of emphasis on fulfilling dog’s need for mental enrichment and stimulation, and loves teaching her dogs tricks to keep them busy and to fulfill their love of learning. Both of her cats also learned basic tricks such as sit, high-five, and come. She’s trained her own dogs in various activities like:

area searches (like drug detection dogs)
soft mouth retrieval
trailing (sniffing out where another pet went by following the scent leftover in the air)
draftwork (pulling a wagon or cart)
obedience

Quick Info on Mel:

Training since: 2007, initially working at the Dubuque Regional Humane Society

Training on own since: 2011

Species she’s worked with/trained: dogs, cats, a lungfish, amphibians (African clawed frogs and dwarf African clawed frogs), and reptiles (iguanas, geckos, skinks, and turtles)

Memberships and Affiliations:

November 2015 to current — IACP (International Association of Canine Professionals)

2012 to current — evaluator for K9to5 National Therapy Dog Registry

2010 to 2022 (lapsed) — AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) evaluator

2011 to 2020 (lapsed during Covid) — ABC Mentor Trainer

Fall 2011 to 2014 — certified as a CPDT-KA (Certified Professional Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed)

2009-2015 — APDT member

A sampling of her Continuing Education attendance:

2008 — Missing Pet Partnership‘s Missing Animal Response Technician course

November 2012 — Pack to Basics: Advanced Socialization Solutions for Difficult Dogs workshop

June to July 2014 — SATS Perception Modification class (06-16-14 to 07-07-14)

2026 — attending weekly SATS Q&As