About the Owner

Sue Skiff has been caring for animals since she was a young child, and working professionally with both wild and domestic animals for over 20 years. In college, she learned much about animal behavior while earning degrees in Zoology and Biological Ecology at U.C. Davis.

Ms. Skiff first learned about dog behavior and psychology in 1994 while taking private lessons in these areas from C. W. Meisterfeld, who has specialized in solving dog behavior issues since the 1950’s. Dr. Meisterfeld taught her that often aggression and dominance issues in dogs can be attributed to the dominant training methods that became popular in the mid-20th century. He asserted that aggression in large breeds, such as rottweillers, was often related to the use of the alpha-wolf rollover. In all of his years of working with dogs, his successes in rehabilitating dogs with behavior problems came from building dogs’ trust and respect through positive reinforcement training methods.

Since learning from Dr. Meisterfeld, Ms. Skiff has studied other positive reinforcement methods, such as clicker training and Canine Aggression Therapy, by attending workshops, conferences, and seminars. Ms. Skiff is a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, and of Pet Sitters International, and attends their conferences when they are in California.

Ms. Skiff first taught dog obedience for a local school district Adult Education program from 1995-1998. In addition, she worked as a behaviorist at a Veterinary Hospital in Walnut Creek from 2000-2005. For several years, she taught obedience classes on her own, renting spaces to hold the classes from city governments and non-profit agencies. She has been doing in-home consultation work with dogs and their humans on a part-time basis since 1995.

In addition, Ms. Skiff has spent over 10 years doing pet-sitting work, and has done volunteer work caring for wild animals at the U.C. Davis Raptor Center, and at Lindsay Wildlife Museum. She has been a part-time staff member in Lindsay Wildlife Museum’s educational department since 1995.