The Cooperative Dog

Vera has been absolutely the best resource and guide for me and my 1.5 year old, active monkey head mini aussie, Pluto. She is not a regular dog trainer, above all she will train and teach you how to grow and live with a happy confident dog. No matter how old or reactive your dog is, she has a solution for YOU to handle every situation. If necessary, she will come to your house to assess the living environment and guide you along the way. I witnessed my neighbor's highly reactive dog turned into a more sociable dog handling stressful situations with her guidance, hence, I tried to get into her schedule the moment I brought Pluto home as a puppy, and we are in training since then. Sometimes you might need to contact her a few times but once you are in, never let go. She has a class for ever

Vera is the best dog trainer I've ever worked with, and I've known several. She is incredibly observant, knowledgeable, patient, and supportive - everything you need in someone who is training both your dog and you to handle any scenario life throws at you. She truly has a way with dogs and you can tell she understands them at a deep level. I highly recommend her classes - they're extremely well thought out and the perfect mix of a controlled environment with plenty of distractions for your dog to practice with. And of course, our dog absolutely loves being there! Thanks to Vera, our dog has passed the CGC and we are continually working on his obedience and socialization skills with the tools we learned from her!

We love Vera’s approach to dog training. We brought our golden retriever puppy to Vera’s puppy class at the Wellesley Rec Department, and we followed up with Vera’s dog obedience class. Vera was a life saver in helping us navigate the behavior development of our puppy, and she made a point during each class to check in with everyone to see what was going well and what we were struggling with. Her training techniques felt very natural to incorporate in our daily lives, and we’re very happy with how our puppy has developed over the last 6 months. Thank you Vera!

We can’t thank Vera enough! When our rescued retired lab dog first came home, we contacted Vera to help us train our dog to become a CGC, more importantly, to be more comfortable with the world outside of the lab. After few group classes, we saw significant improvement on his separation anxiety issue, and he has become much more disciplined and confident! Vera offers both indoor and outdoor classes, which I think it is very helpful, they are also reasonably priced. Vera had a consultation with us before signing up and would always give enough attention and instruction to every single dog in class, and chat with the parents to see if there is any question. Highly recommend!

My girlfriend and I brought home our mini goldendoodle puppy about 10 months ago, and we reached out to Vera for an at-home visit just a week later—and we’ve been working with her ever since! From the start, she’s been incredibly supportive and accessible, always just a call or text away for any questions we have. We’ve done a mix of at-home lessons and group puppy classes, and every session leaves us with practical advice and training tools that make a real difference. The puppy classes have been such a great experience—not only are they a fun and safe way for our pup to get socialized, but they also offer the perfect environment to train with real-life distractions. Our dog genuinely looks forward to going each week! What sets Vera apart is that she doesn’t just train your dog—she trai