Daša Lipovšek

Daša Lipovšek has been helping others train their dogs for over twenty-five years. A veteran of numerous dog-training classes and workshops herself, she has observed first hand the glacially slow progress many pet owners make in a large class, as well as how quickly behaviors learned in a quiet environment fall apart in presence of other playful dogs.

Training Philosophy

Daša uses positive reinforcement exclusively. In particular, she is a strong proponent of clicker training, which opens the clearest communication channel with the learner animal. She specializes in starting such positive training at the earliest possible age, before the puppy has learned undesirable behavior by accident. Finally, Daša is aware that people, too, learn best when taught incrementally and with positive feedback. She strives to create a safe, supportive, and stimulating learning environment for both species.

Services

The Puppy Project offers a variety of services, including:

• Puppy Preschool
• Foundation Skills
• Advanced Skills Workshop: Relax on the Mat
• Introductory Private Coaching
• First Private Coaching Package
• Continuing Private Coaching Package
• Train your Litter of Puppies
• Pre-puppy Consultation
• Online Courses: Civilizing Games for Puppies

Certifications

Daša is a graduate of the British Institute of Professional Dog Trainers, a graduate and Certified Training Partner of the Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training and Behavior, a Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer, and a certified instructor for Puppy Start Right socialization classes. She is a Professional Member of The Pet Professional Guild.

Specializations

Puppy training, socialization, clicker training, separation anxiety training

Training Methods

Positive reinforcement, clicker training

Customer Reviews

Sheree Norquist, Coby’s human - I am so thankful to have found Dasa and The Puppy Project. Dasa is an outstanding puppy coach! Thanks to her, our puppy Coby is making great progress in becoming a well-behaved and obedient pup. Dasa uses state-of-the-art and evidence-based training methods. Through her virtual instruction, video reviews, and numerous resource recommendations, I have learned so much! Moreover, Dasa’s frequent, encouraging communication with me and quick responses to my needs have helped me to have confidence in my ability to complete the training exercises with Coby and do them well. No problem that has arisen in training my energetic Jack Russell Terrier has been too big or too small for Dasa to both address and solve! Coby and I have enjoyed fun sequenced training activities that are constantly reinforced as they build on each other, and I am seeing real, lasting results. I highly recommend Dasa to those looking for a highly skilled puppy trainer who really cares and goes above and beyond to help you achieve the goal of your pup becoming a well-trained, happy and delightful dog.
Carly Veseskis, Journey’s human - Remote training really works! We are a first-time dog family who adopted our puppy, Journey, the week before the COVID-19 shutdown began. We were thrilled to have our new puppy, but we were also a bit panicked. How would we be able to socialize him? How would we teach him to be the well-behaved dog we envisioned? Along came The Puppy Project. Through remote training, Dasa has helped us raise a respectful and friendly puppy. Her kind, step-by-step, science-based training methods have taught us how puppies respond to their humans and to their environment. Thanks to The Puppy Project, Journey is well on his way to being a happy and well-behaved member of the family.
Fiona Sinclair, Eddie’s human - I’m so grateful that I was introduced to Daša and the Puppy Project. My terrier-mix rescue dog, Eddie, was already 2 years old and had already had an extremely difficult life by the time I got him. He had major trust issues and anxiety. A lot of people said he was hopeless. I refused to give up on him and because of Daša, Eddie is now a happy and thriving dog. She taught me how to understand him and communicate with him. I no longer give him mixed signals and he responds to instruction easily. Eddie is now a proud and happy dog, no longer insecure and anxious. I cannot say enough about how grateful I am to the Puppy Project. Daša has turned both of our lives around.
Julie and Jim Olivier, Cubbie’s family - We didn’t think it was possible to train a puppy virtually – but, with Dasha’s remote-coaching program, we feel as if she is training our puppy in person. Dasha brilliantly uses technology for puppy training – using Zoom, instructional videos, video review, and even an interactive cloud notebook where we can post questions and get answers. Dasha is incredibly responsive, dedicated, and encouraging. She has answers to every question and is an excellent resource, instructor and coach.
We have a very energetic, spirited puppy, and knew early on that, without professional puppy training, we had the potential for behavior issues. We started our on-line training with Dasha when Cubbie was 9 weeks old. After only two months of Dasha’s help, our puppy is becoming well-behaved and less anxious. Dasha has helped coach us through all sorts of challenges – jumping, biting, barking – and has helped us with crate training and puppy socialization. Clicker training and positive reinforcement of good behavior have worked well in all these areas.
Dasha has been by our side every step of the way in our puppy’s development, providing us with a roadmap to achieve our goal of having a wonderful, well behaved canine member of our family. We feel so lucky to have found Dasha and The Puppy Project. Our experience shows that you can successfully train your puppy with virtual coaching.

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