Our Trainer

Ash Rose, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA

They/them, she/her

Qualifications, Education, and Experience

Dog Rescue and Foster, Various Organizations, Detroit 2011-2014, 2017-present

Founder of Puppin' Around - Detroit Dog Walkers and Trainers Collective, Detroit 2012-2020

Dog Training Apprenticeship, On the Wings of Angels Rescue, Odessa FL 2014

Dog Trainer, On the Wings of Angels Rescue, Odessa FL 2014-2017

Certified Professional Dog Trainer - Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA), Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers, 2017

Animal Behavior College Dog Trainer (ABCDT), Animal Behavior College, 2017

Dog Trainer, Fido Personal Dog Training, Ferndale MI 2018-2020

Dog Trainer, My Sidekick Dog Training, Detroit MI 2017-present

Certificate of Completion - Aggression in Dogs Master Course, Michael Shikashio, 2020

Certified Behavior Consultant Canine - Knowledge Assessed (CBCC-KA), Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers, 2023

Founder and Executive Director, Humane Training Alliance, 2024

Certificate of Completion - Canine Assessment of Risk (CARS) Educational Program, Shelter Playgroup Alliance, 2024

With my background in electric, prong, and choke collar training and the ideology that comes with it, I can confidently affirm that modern, ethical training is absolutely the most effective approach. My experience as a “crossover trainer” allows me to understand and empathize with those who are using traditional dog training methods. My work in rescue and sheltering gives me a well rounded and realistic understanding. My learning journey has been long and will never end. I constantly pursue continuing education through courses, conferences, workshops, books, and mentorship to ensure that the individualized training plans I create use the latest scientifically proven methods.

Dogs are my life, but I also enjoy nature, music, working on my home in Detroit, fighting for social justice, building queer community, and spending time with my partners, friends and family. I am proudly neurodivergent, and the continuous effort I make to manage my depression, anxiety, and ADHD helps me also work to be better able to accommodate the needs of my neurodivergent clients. I foster dogs and I volunteer with several shelters and rescues, as well as animal welfare outreach programs for the community. I have a passion for education and offer free apprenticeship programs for BIPOC aspiring dog trainers, just asking that in exchange they volunteer at the shelter. I have two personal dogs; Parker, an 10 year old American Pit Bull Terrier, and Lily, a 4 year old Pit Bull mix.

Ash’s Dogs

Clark

I was visiting friends in Philadelphia and came across a dog tied up in Clark Park. A park resident said she had been there for three days, so I took this happy young dog back to Detroit with the intention of finding someone to adopt her. It quickly became apparent that she had some serious behavior problems: resource guarding, dog aggression, handling sensitivity, and anxiety. With few options other than behavioral euthanasia, I kept her. We went through a lot of trainers and training methods—scolding, extreme exercise, dominance rolls, prong, choke, and electric collars. It took me a long time to be steered towards reward-based training. I was led to believe that aggression needed to be met with intimidation and a heavy hand. I now know how effective it is to set dogs up for success and modify behavior using positive reinforcement. But I was doing the best I could for her with what I was presented at the time.

As part of trying to make up for what I put Clark through, and working to prevent others from having to go through the same things, I founded the Humane Training Alliance to help connect dog guardians with credentialed trainers who prioritize modern and ethical approaches.

Clark was the love of my life, my best friend, my sidekick, my hero. Incredibly intelligent, emotional, loyal, and adventurous. People who met her in her later years didn’t believe that she had been really aggressive. She loved me unconditionally. She changed my life completely. She set me on a mission to help dogs like her.

Clark died in March of 2022 of hemangiosarcoma. The grief still comes in waves, but the waves are softer now. I'm so grateful she came into my life. I know her impact will spread for many years to come.

Parker (AKA Sharky)

Parker came in as a stray to the county shelter where I volunteered in Florida. He was quickly put on the euthanasia list for behavior. I pulled him along with many other dogs who I fostered, trained and adopted out. Parker got incredibly few adoption inquiries, and they were never a good fit for such a strong, high arousal dog. I still hadn’t found him a home by the time I was moving back to Detroit, so I brought him along to continue searching for his perfect forever home. After two years, I realized I was in love and couldn’t bear to part with him. He makes me laugh every day and fills my heart with joy and love. He’s got an amazing overbite. Parker helped me a lot on my journey crossing over from old school compulsion training. I started him on a choke collar, but he helped me learn how much more fun, kind, and effective it is to train without aversives. He went from being on a shelter euthanasia list for dog reactivity, to being an awesome reactivity helper dog. He loves practicing obedience and tricks, but mostly he just plays with his toys and woowooowoooooos at me. He’s an old man now and I love him very much.

Lily

Lily came into a shelter as an owner surrender. The very next day, Lily gave birth to a litter of puppies. Lily was very aggressive and was going to be euthanized so I stepped up to foster her and the pups. It took a significant amount of training to deal with her reactivity. When someone was finally able to be in close proximity to her, Lily started showing appeasement behavior. Appeasement can be a very dangerous behavior, because the dog can “quickly flip” from appearing friendly and affectionate (to people who haven’t studied dog body language) to using aggression. After fostering her for a year and assessing the risk of adopting her out, I decided to keep her. Thanks to Lil, I now have a huge passion for spreading awareness about appeasement behavior. Lily and her litter also gave me valuable first hand experience with the heritability of fear and aggression. Despite socialization efforts, the majority of the puppies she produced ended up having pretty severe genetic behavior issues. I’m so glad that I decided to adopt Lily. She’s so adorable and loves to carry around and show off her stuffed animals. She provides me with a tremendous amount of emotional support in a way that no other dog ever has.