Rachel Friedman

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Rachel Friedman has worked with both people and animals since very early childhood. A childhood rich in dog, horse and small critter experiences, Rachel carved an interesting and somewhat meandering but nevertheless meaningful route towards her career in the world of dogs. She has a B.A. in Social Sciences from The University of Michigan, a Master's Degree in Social Work from The University of Pennsylvania, and remains an independently licensed social worker (LISW) in the great State of Ohio. 

Combining her passion for and long experience in working with animals with her extensive social work training and work experience, Rachel became a full time dog trainer in 1999 and founded her company, A Better Pet LLC. Her background makes her uniquely qualified to help clients learn how best to teach their dogs, and thus how best to create a harmonious household. She also consults with social service organizations interested in incorporating animals into their programming and provides that overlapping in the Venn Diagram between Dog Training/Behavior and Social Services.

Her passion and commitment to providing the best training possible -- for all dogs -- resulted in the invention and patented Har-Vest, the first and only combined no pull harness and vest/backpack on the market today. Har-Vest helps bring out the best qualities in dogs -- calms overbearing dogs, instills confidence in overwhelmed dogs -- a 3-in-1 Backpack for Dogs (and there's a version for cats coming soon!).

Rachel currently lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio with her three teenage daughters and an eclectic menagerie of pets and usually a service dog project underfoot. Hard at work on finishing her multi media opus, The Six Pillars of Dog Training Wisdom, Rachel is quite accessible and can best be reached by email: [email protected].

Blog posts by Rachel Friedman

Puppy pooping in snow

Puppy Raising in Winter - Pros and Cons

Rachel Friedman  |  Fri, 01/28/2011 - 21:47

Perhaps there is a vestige pioneer spirit from my ancestral line (Siberia anyone?) that compels me to agree to puppy raise in what is arguably the most daunting time of year here in Cleveland, Ohio (and this particular winter, in many other regions as well!).

 

Puppy coming in Winter; batten down the hatches.

Rachel Friedman  |  Tue, 01/18/2011 - 09:54

While there have been a rasher of visiting dogs living alongside my own pair off and on, mostly on, for the past six months, all were serendipitous additions of various breed types and ages and issues and who came with no real warning. Nor were they selected by me for any characteristics -- they just came. First there was Dolly, a rescue bichon, who went to a wonderful home to provide both companionship, service and therapy roles for her new owner, Wanda. Then Kiba/Kody came along and although he didn't live under foot for long, his presence stirred up quite bit of action. Happy to report he is thriving like gangbusters in his new home in Erie, PA. Bosco the border collie, another victim of PTSD, was here for a good few months. A great training project, trauma rehab patient and video prodigy. But again, not a dog I picked. Bosco also found a wonderful well matched home with a great family.

 

Interactive Product Review 1: Quado

Rachel Friedman  |  Tue, 12/21/2010 - 14:54

PRODUCT REVIEW GUIDE

 

Shameless Plug - Cleveland - You Gotta Be Tough

Rachel Friedman  |  Fri, 12/17/2010 - 15:54

The near blizzard of earlier this week forced a slow down, bringing to the surface with an ice cold punch the kind of awareness weather can have on limiting outdoor time for some of us in humid continental climates. Yet the active mind of the canine who might not be getting as much outdoor walking or frolicking when the bitter cold stings still needs challenging -- even in the well behaved pair that inhabit my abode peacefully since Bosco found his new home last week.

 

Dog Days of Winter

Rachel Friedman  |  Wed, 12/01/2010 - 18:27

Days are shortening, Thanksgiving is behind us, we began the festival of lights — Hanukah — tonight at sundown! Speaking of sundown, we in the northern hemisphere are on that trajectory to get shorter and shorter days for the next 3 weeks before the solstice and only then, in what is often an excruciating slowness, a steady increase back to light. Strong evidence winter is on the way as the calendar flipped to December — whipping breezes in the wind tunnel of my driveway, hardening of the muddy dirt in the backyard along with some dusting of snow, and a realization that warm weather is for the most part gone from these here parts of Cleveland for at least another 3 months. No more running outside barefoot to grab the paper in the morning unless I want to risk great discomfort or masochism!

 

Capture the Flag

Rachel Friedman  |  Tue, 11/23/2010 - 16:15

I've been having a lot of childhood memories lately. Triggered by my mother's death 11 days ago after an almost unprecedented 21 year battle with Alzheimer's. Her death set off a myriad of events which turned into a nurturing soul cleansing of mourning. In my experience, the loss of my mom, this involved amazing support from family and friends -- far and near, from a variety of times in a life long lived, traditions of eulogy and burial and then, omg, the food. I always thought unfrosted blueberry poptarts, lightly toasted, was the creme de la creme of comfort foods for me.

 

Tag Team Fetch During Indian Summer DIP

Rachel Friedman  |  Wed, 11/10/2010 - 15:57

DIPs have proven to be such an amazing experience since launching them back in the beginning of the summer. Not only have I had the pleasure to watch dogs learn social skills or get their mojo back, but it's been a great exposure to more and more nuanced awareness of dog/dog social skills that endlessly fascinate me. This week has been a glorious burst of Indian Summer after a surprising couple of inches of heavy, wet snow just four days ago. Today at DIP we had 9 dogs, nearly a full house -- Trip and Bean, Bosco My Training Project, visiting boarding guests Zin and Jackie, and visiting dogs Bella & Tango, Rio and Poker. All but Bosco are adult dogs ranging from 1 to 10 years old. Medium to XL, males and females, sporty and spicy!

 

A New Twist on Halloween Costumes for Dogs

Rachel Friedman  |  Tue, 10/26/2010 - 20:22

It's gettin' to be that spookin' time of year. On walks I hear the crunch crunching of the fallen deadened leaves; the Hunter's Moon was just upon us and I can almost hear the werewolves howling off in the distance.

It seemed appropriate to play around with some of the options for Bosco to figure out his Halloween Costume this year. Last week I had him wear what I call the "lumpy pumpkin" and he seemed to like it -- certainly more than Trip!

 
Bosco makes eye contact -- the first sign of trust

The Six Pillars in Action with new project, Bosco

Rachel Friedman  |  Thu, 09/30/2010 - 16:25

He's been here just a little over 24 hours and he's already got his first video posted! Meet Bosco. Like Flick, my banner model who graces the top of A Better Pet's web presence, this border collie mix is very smart. Unlike Flick, he is a little less manic (a LITTLE) and he's come with no apparent major baggage despite his having been rescued by my cousin Paula and her family three nights ago when he turned up in her headlights scared yet got in her car and poof, 36 hours later he arrived here and poof, six hours after that he had settled in enough to have a little lesson.

 

Continued Saga of The Six Pillars Path

Rachel Friedman  |  Wed, 09/29/2010 - 08:59

Taking a proactive role in one's life -- setting up for success [versus waiting to be disappointed by perceived failure of various proportions yet reacting with negativity without having realized it's YOUR FAULT because you failed to figure out what you want at any given time] permeates well beyond the dog training exploits that wend their ways in various forms into the The Six Pillars Approach to Dog Training.

I guess I'm just relieved I finally got The Book up online for a beta group of clients for fine tuning before making it available for sale.

 

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