Sarah Giammarino

RocketDog Training is run by me -  Sarah Giammarino. I have trained dogs in Vancouver since 2003 and worked with approximately 2000 students. I am passionate about working with pet dogs, and love helping people develop strong relationships with their family dogs.

I am also passionate about dog sports like Agility, Rally-Obedience, Urban Agility, and more. My dog Vegas and I placed  4th nationally in the 2015 Canadian Agility Championships. We also compete at the highest level in the Canadian Association of Rally Obedience’s “Versatility” level.
My rescue Pit Bull Dolly, is learning Top Dog sport, will begin competing in agility in 2022, is working on her first Urban Agility and Rally Obedience titles and knows a lot of tricks from teaching the Tricks! online class for 2020-2021. I’ve put a lot of work into rehabbing her dog reactivity while training her to play the above sports, so I’m excited for it to come together for us in this upcoming year.

I have a lifetime of experience with animals and I integrate this into my work with dogs, including 10 years of equestrian riding and experience with Parelli horse training. I believe dogs need to work well for everyone in urban environments and I've spent volunteer time running classes for the rescue Bully Buddies, the Vancouver Animal Shelter, and Doodle meet ups. I spent time participating in the the Dogs, Parks and People strategy that the Vancouver Park Board implemented. It gathered information on how to better share park space with dog and non-dog users. (To my surprise, I found dog professionals and non-dog users had a lot of agreement points). I'd really like to build an urban agility park in Vancouver.

A broad and varied education has supported my growth as a trainer. Some of the lectures, working seminars and conferences I've seen include:

• Dr. Ian Dunbar

• Dr. Patricia McConnell

• Trish King

• Pia Silvani

• Brenda Aloff

• CAPPDT 2003 and 2005 Annual Conferences

• The 2007 American Psychological Association’s Convention in San Francisco

• Karen Pryor’s ClickerExpo

• Nichole Wilde on the topic of separation anxiety

• Various courses from the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy

You might have seen me on TV or heard me on the radio:

• CBC’s Almanac with Marc Forsythe

• Breakfast Television (on several occasions)

• TV show, Living Vancouver

I live with my husband and homeschool my two boys in Coquitlam. 

The RocketDogs!

Dog trainers learn a lot from training their own dogs. Mine have taught me so much and I'm very grateful.

Poco (born March 2023. Male Australian Cattle Dog.)

Dolly (9 year old female "Pit Bull" mix)

Dolly was adopted from the rescue group, PB&Chi who rescued her from Los Angeles. I got her at approximately 1 year of age. She was born in 2015.

I chose a "pit bull" type dog because I wanted to rescue a dog and there are many Pit bull type dogs to choose from. I looked for a 1 year old dog that was good with my kids and dog, could stay in a crate home alone, and had a good enough body conformation to play dog sports with me.
Dolly had two knee surgeries in 2022 and is teaching me how to do ‘dog physio’ which is like strength training.
Its unlikely she will return to agility on a full-sized course, but she’s back to playing recreationally at the small training venue I rent on the weekends. I just about have her back to competing in rally obedience. (Sit is abundant in rally and its hard for her still).
I'm having a wonderful time training her and she fits into our family so well.

TOONIE (FEMALE PORTUGUESE WATER DOG)

Toonie lived with me and my husband for the last 2 years of her life but I trained her for her elderly mom since she was a 3 month old puppy. 
She was a wonderfully smart, energetic, yet frantic animal. As a puppy, she chewed holes in the walls, barked in her crate and leaped around madly when she saw another person far away in the distance. I remember taking her to a puppy class and burning through 30+ treats in the first five minutes trying to keep her under control!
I was paid to train her and I applied new methods of positive dog training I was learning. I was (very) patient and positive and she blossomed into a wonderful dog. Toonie sadly died of cancer when she was only 5 years of age. She was full of love, was wicked smart, and could go anywhere off leash.

Rocket (Male Lhasa Apso)

Rocket wasn't my first family dog, but he was the first dog I trained. I brought him home from my great aunt's miniature horse farm (where I was learning to care for and drive these horses) when I was 12 years old. 
My friends and I worked on obedience and agility. I was taught how to use a choke collar to teach heeling. Rocket gradually became aggressive towards other dogs and I abandoned the choke collar for treat training as my dog liked it more and I got better results. 

I was able to take him to many dog events including summers working as a camp counselor for the SPCA's daycamp program.

Rocket, my company's namesake, taught me about shaping, training methods, aggression, and we had a blast spending many summer days together working with kids. The dog you get when you are a teen can shape so much.