Sarah Giammarino

RocketDog Training is run by me -  Sarah Giammarino. I have trained dogs in Vancouver since 2003 and worked with thousands of students. I am passionate about working with pet dogs, beginners to the sport of agility, children and their dogs, and dogs with emotional issues. I love helping people develop strong relationships with their family dog.

I have played a lot of dog sports with my own dogs with a special interest in Agility, Rally-Obedience and Urban Agility. My dog Vegas and I placed 4th nationally in the 2015 Canadian Agility Championships. We also competed at the highest level in the Canadian Association of Rally Obedience’s “Versatility” level.
My current dog, Poco is already titled in agility and rally and we are having a wonderful time!

I have a lifetime of experience with children and other animals including working as a counselor with children at a horse riding facility, several years as a counselor at the SPCA summer camps, running my own ‘animal club’ both in person and online, and 10 years of horseback riding and experience with Parelli horse training when I was a teen. (I’ve also trained my own small pets to do tricks including hamsters, rats, and budgies!)

My most recent education has been focused on conditioning, rally obedience, and agility:

• Online agility courses with Shape Up Agility

• In person rehab with Dolly with Aquapaws

• Various online lessons and book reading on dog conditioning and rehab

• In person workshops and lessons with DogWorks and Run as One Training on working and rally obedience

• Online judges workshops for working dog and rally put on by the Canadian Association of Rally Obedience membership

• Various courses from the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy including 2025 ones: “Ring Confidence” and “Short Sequences to Perfect Handling” and next up is “Bye Bye Cookie, Hello Delayed Reinforcement”

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

• Pam Collins on Dog’s Line in Agility 2024

• Shauna Oliver on advanced agility 2025

I have dabbled in other dog sports:

• top dog (wall climb, lure coursing, and slat mill racing)

• nosework

• sprint racing (like lure coursing but on a straight away)

• sheep herding (Poco is from a sheep farm in Port Coquitlam)

• dock diving

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 two teenaged two boys in Port Moody. 

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 (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 and passed due to cancer in July 2025.

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, other dog, and could stay in a crate home alone.
Dolly learned agility, rally, and we completed a Dog Parkour title together, but due to her excitement around other dogs and my time constraints (my children were homeschooled at the time), we were unable to get to a competitive level.
In 2022, Dolly had two knee surgeries followed by a groin pull. We learned a lot about ‘dog physio’ which is like strength training and rehab.
During the repair of her injuries, Dolly and I created the online course, Mini Dog Agility, that you play at home in your living room. We also taught live, online classes in rally obedience. She absolutely loved doing any type of training for treats indoors.
She returned to playing recreational agility on a miniatured scale and completed her Rally Obedience Novice title. She was also keen for swimming and adored Poco.

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.