Cerena with friends at the adolescent dog play group

Please note, effective until Spring 2012, I will be working a limited schedule. Due to my current case load and accompanying time commitments, working with new clients will be limited to puppy and "normal" training issues. If you are seeking help for a dog that has exhibited aggressive or compulsive behavior or has separation anxiety, please email me and I will refer you to other training help. Also, http://www.aspcabehavior.org/ is an excellent resource for helping understand and resolve behavior problems.

Cerena West Zutis, BS., UC Berkeley
Trainer and Certified Behavior Counselor for Dogs

Positive Reinforcement Approach

Cerena Zutis is a Certified Behavior Counselor and teacher. As a dog trainer, she strongly believes that the canine-human bond is an extraordinary and wonderful interspecies relationship that should be nurtured. She employs positive reinforcement methods and focuses on the individual strengths of each dog and human to bring into play techniques that work best for each individual team.

Dog Training Experience

Cerena offers puppy training & dog training. She has taught well over a thousand training classes including, but not limited to puppy training & socialization, basic through advanced obedience dog training for adolescent and adult dogs, clicker training, dog training with play and games, tricks, dancing (canine freestyle), tracking, competition obedience training and Canine Good Citizen classes – she was one of the first 500 Canine Good Citizen Evaluators in the U.S.. Cerena was also one of, if not the the first trainer, to offer field trip "Real World" classes for fearful & "reactive" dogs to help owners learn how to work with them in the real world and have the benefits of peer support. For her regular students, these RW classes quickly expanded to include Good Manners in the Real World 1 & 2, Loose-leash Walking and Reliable Recalls. Cerena was an early promoter of puppy classes geared towards socialization, and one of the first to offer play group for adolescent dogs.

Being progressive (or just easily bored?), Cerena started doing many dog activites years before they became popular. Just for fun, she began carting her dogs back in 1990 and they have excelled at it. During December for the past 20 years, Cerena's Red Rider wagon is turned into a sleigh and one of her dogs into a reindeer! Since the 1970's, Cerena has taught all her dogs to do doggie dancing" with her to music. In 1988, Cerena created an extremely successful pet therapy program at the private hospital where she worked. Many dogs participated, but only her own well mannered dogs had free roam of the hospital, (with never an objection from any accreditation official). And for years, Cerena with her dogs and pet pig made weekly visits to the units at Belmont Hills Psychiatric Hospital. Cerena's new dog, Little Guy was terrified of children at first, but now he happily joins house mate, Mariah on frequent visits to nursery school. All Cerena's dogs have become adept swimmers and "dock divers". Her newest pup, Little Guy loves to swim and dive, but at first he loathed water and even evaded getting his feet wet!

Now many years later, Canine Good Citizen programs, field trip classes, Drafting (carting), Canine Freestyle (doggie dancing), Dock Diving and socialization classes are wide-spread activities for pups and dogs! Happily, so is pet-assisted therapy (which has a really interesting history - please see the links page)

Private Dog Training

In addition to dog training classes which are currently offered in Redwood City and Los Altos, Cerena’s provides private dog training instruction and behavior counseling for specific dog training difficulties and for dogs with behavior problems. She successfully treats a myriad of issues from the routine such as not coming when called, house training puppies and destructive chewing to the more problematic including: Fear of people, dogs, thunderstorms and other phobias; aggression toward strangers, children, guests, family members, dogs, cats and other household pets; guarding of self, food, territory and other resources; compulsive behaviors and separation anxiety. Other specialties include how to prepare and train dogs for a new baby, teaching swimming with “pool proofing” to prevent drowning, dock diving to water phobia dogs and working through competition training problems

Cerena is also an excellent lecturer and presenter on a variety of dog training and behavioral topics. Her audience includes trainers, members of animal welfare groups, dog club members and pet health professionals.

San Francisco Dog Training Academy and Continuing Education

In 2000 Cerena graduated with Honors from the San Francisco Dog Training Academy's Behavioral Counseling Certification Program. Her ongoing schooling includes continuing education at lectures, seminars, classes and workshops across the nation. A small sampling of the topics are competition obedience training, advanced clicker training, learning theory and application, ethology, canine communication, puppy development, class planning, specialty classes, temperament testing, physiology and treatment of fear and aggression, Animal Assisted Therapy and training Service Dogs. The presenters have included eminent names in the fields of behavior and training.

Volunteer Work and Affiliations

Since teen-age, Cerena has been volunteering for numerous animal welfare groups and has been a member and contributor to animal based organizations including pet-assisted therapy and the fostering, training and “rehabilitation” of rescued dogs. Cerena works with the special needs department at the Humane Society of Silicon Valley and until their recent move (further away), she was also teaching a weekly class for fostered dogs and their fosterers. Other recent memberships include San Francisco Bay Area German Shepherd Rescue, The United Schutzhund Club of America, The Association of Pet Dog Trainers and Bay Area Trainers, an organization of modern dog trainers in the San Francisco Bay Area which she started in 2002.

Cerena's Dogs

With her own dogs, Cerena has participated in animal-assisted activities/therapy, AKC and Mixed Breed competitive obedience, Rally-O, Rally, Canine Freestyle, Schutzhund, tracking, dock diving, drafting and Search & Rescue. Currently, she is focusing on agility with her young Border Collie/terrier X, Little Guy and some "just for fun" tracking with her German Shepherd Dog, Mariah. In competition Cerena has earned multiple placements including High in Trial and is a 2004 Clicker Challenge Champion. Mariah was retired quite young due to a spine injury, but earned a CGC, CDX, SchH1, TR2, NDD and she has been an Activity and a Therapy Dog for 12 years. Mariah was also invited to the Late Show with David Letterman as was Cerena’s new pup, Little Guy. Click to view their stupid pet trick! Note: The "stupid pet trick" is actually the last bit of a skit. The Late Show folks decided to only use the bit that you see - it actually makes sense if you see the whole skit! Please click here on "notboxed" to view some of her dog's (less stupid) tricks on youtube. Please note that Cerena's dogs enjoy working and are really well paid!

K9 Essentials Referrals

Cerena’s business, K9 Esssentials is enhanced by referrals from her peers, current and former clients, breeders, breed and dog training club members, service dog handlers, veterinarians and other pet professionals. Referrals are also from members of rescue and welfare organizations including, but not limited to German Shepherd Rescue, the San Francisco SPCA, San Francisco Animal Care & Control, the ASPCA, Peninsula Humane Society and Humane Society of Silicon Valley.

Supporting Education and Experience

Cerena always wanted to be a veterinarian. With that in mind, she worked as a veterinary assistant. Her duties included assisting in treatment, surgery and radiology. She loved working with the animals and what she learned was priceless. Unfortunately, circumstances changed her plans. Instead, Cerena earned a Batchelor of Science degree in Nutrition and Clinical Dietetics at the University of California, Berkeley. She spent 11 years as a department head and even more years counseling patients and their families. This training and experience greatly contributes to her teaching and counseling skills. Her strong background in physiology, anatomy, psychology and pharmacology are hugely beneficial in her quest for understanding and resolving behavior problems as well as training challenges.

Lastly, Cerena is an inventor and patent holder. Her "DreamWalker" no-pull harness is humane, yet the most effective harness on the market to prevent dogs from pulling on leash.

Cerena Zutis www.k9essentials.com
Mail Address: 1773 Lake St., San Mateo, CA 94403     Email: cerena.gooddog@gmail.com
Training classes in Redwood City
Site Designed by: Lucille Design