Our Mission
At Southcoast Dog Training & Care, our first priority is ensuring your pup stays with you in your loving home and doesn’t end up in a shelter. The best way for us to do this is to provide quality training to you and your pup so that you have a great life together.
About Sandy
Sandy McConnell is the owner and a Professional Dog Trainer at Southcoast Dog Training & Care, Inc. Sandy develops customized puppy and dog training programs based on the needs of your dog. She provides private training and also facilitates group classes.
Prior to starting Southcoast Dog Training & Care, Inc., Sandy had been training people for more than twenty years in the military as well as in the corporate setting. Her main areas of expertise were instructional design and training. Sandy's varied background in instructional design provided the perfect foundation to become a dog trainer. Her ability to teach people based on their learning style helps facilitate the learning process which makes learning easier and more memorable.
Sandy attended
CATCH Canine Trainers Academy
in Little Falls, NJ, where she studied a variety of dog training topics such as, obedience, dog body language, dog training equipment, and solving behavioral problems. She has also attended workops in Professional Dog Training Skills and Body Language, Behavior, and Problems Solving Skills held at at
St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center
in Madison, NJ. In addition to her schooling, Sandy shadowed a professional dog trainer for two years who has over 30 years of dog training experience.
Sandy got her start in dog training by volunteering as a puppy raiser for a service dog organization based in Princeton, MA. She helped raise puppies to become ADI accredited service dogs. In addition to training pet dogs, she now assists owners in training their own dogs as service dogs and therapy dogs.
Sandy is a Veteran and was a member of the Army National Guard and a Military Police Officer for fifteen years. She was deployed with the 119th Military Police Company from Rhode Island and served as the Tactical Operations NCO for the Bosnian Peacekeeping Mission, Operation Joint Forge in 2000-2001.
Why we are different
When I am training dogs, I am also training you. During our training sessions, I will show you how train your dog by explaining what the command looks like, demonstrate it, then I let you do several repetitions to make sure you are doing it properly. I keep my lessons fun, light, and stress free.
Our group classes allow your dogs to socialize as well as to learn to behave properly and obey commands even with distractions.
