Phyllis does amazing work! She pulled a very shy, uncertain dog from my shelter and turned her into a confident and highly adoptable dog in no time at all! She also quickly found her the perfect home!
April 2014: “This poor dog had experienced unimaginable horror when she came into rescue. Phyllis fostered her and in a short two months, brought her to an amazing level of trust where she could become part of our forever family, and transported her across country to get her to us! Thanks to Phyllis’ hard work and belief that this dog was courageous enough to continue to grow in love and trust of humans, we had the privilege of learning just how special the heart of a grateful, timid, shy rescue dog can be.”
“As an empty nester… I was looking to get another dog. Phyllis knew of just the right match for me and my family. We fell head over heels in love with this little girl from day one. Phyllis knew that we needed a smart and loveable puppy and did a fantastic job imprinting her with good habits during the first several weeks, which meant I had much less work to do on puppy training! She is a sweet dog who fills my heart with joy and fun every day, she learns new tricks really fast, loves to follow me around the house, and is a champion snuggler!
February 2019: “These two dogs are sisters. We adopted the one on the right as a young puppy and the tri-color on the left was re-homed to us as an adult dog when her human mother passed away.” I have learned so much about what my dogs need and want from my conversations with Phyllis over the years. She not only understands the mind of the dog, but also has the ability to communicate with them that I do not, and has done all of this communication work remotely! What I really appreciate is her calm, non-judgmental approach when I have needed to consult with her on food tips, behavioral, or non-medical approaches to issues that have come up over the lifetime of our dogs. Her goal is always to help an animal tell the owner what they need. And I have watched her also bring several other dogs out of being in a state of fear into joyfulness as well! She most recently helped us to know when it was time to say goodbye to our dog, a very emotional and difficult decision. Her compassionate and gentle questions helped us to know and decide what our dog needed, not just what we wanted. This approach was the right one and is what brought us back to Phyllis now that we are facing similar decisions with her sister”
January 2009: “Phyllis suggested this little girl to us when her owner passed, although we were not sure we were ready for a new and smaller dog. However, Phyllis had been fostering her, and felt she’d be a good fit with us and our other dog and she was right. Getting this young dog to us involved a significant number of adjustments and a LOT of re-training for everyone – from a long airplane ride, to arriving in a new house, having to potty in the snow for the first time ever, and sharing an active family with another dog. Phyllis was there to help via phone whenever we needed a consultation, and is still a favorite of this healthy and happy gal 10 years later. Thanks to Phyllis’ persistence in guiding us to take her on, she is a loving, patient, fun dog that is great with adults and children of all ages”.
June 2019: “This spectacular and sweet dog was taken involuntarily from her home of 9 years when her mom suddenly became ill and was hospitalized. She was traumatized by the loss of her family and lifestyle, so needed re-training before she could be adopted, with her mother’s permission, when the continued illness meant she could no longer take care of her beloved companion dog. Phyllis did an amazing job taking her from a stressed, reactive, scared dog to one who loves calm leash walks and is enjoying her new life with us – we are super happy to have her as part of our family!” July 2019 UPDATE: “This gal is rapidly adapting to her new life, thanks to Phyllis’ hard work to help her overcome severe separation anxiety from her humans. The transition to our home and lifestyle has been incredibly smooth, much easier than we expected because Phyllis prepared her, prepared a 5 page ‘human instruction book’ for us, and has coached daily for the first two weeks. We had never had a rescue dog before, and Phyllis made it super-easy from the get-go!”
August 2016: ” Our family was devastated after losing our family dog to cancer. When we were ready to once again consider adding a new fur baby to our family, Phyllis was there to help us consider both breeder and rescue puppies, remaining focused on what would fit our lifestyle moving to a beach home, as well as one that would enjoy car travel to visit family. We decided to pursue a rescue, and Phyllis helped guide us through the process to find and apply to adopt our 8 week old puppy, who was a perfect fit! Phyllis has coached us through puppyhood, young adulthood, and now 3 years later, we have all gained confidence as a family and really appreciate that none of our questions or concerns were too silly. We are grateful for her coaching, suggestions and continued availability to advise us as we move through new phases of our lives with our wonderful pup!
We were referred to Phyllis by a mutual friend who knew our hearts were broken after losing our best friend, a senior miniature poodle, one of many poodle pups we had adopted over the years. Knowing that we wanted another puppy, but this time wanted a smaller dog. Phyllis helped us apply with a wonderful poodle rescue organization; however, they did advise Phyllis that they rarely had the type of puppies we wanted. Phyllis asked us to be patient and spend time healing first, which was good advice on her part, and was confident the right puppy would be ready for us when we were ready for him! Within a few short weeks, we were told that she was going to foster a 12-week old female rescue puppy. It was not exactly the combination of breeds nor the sex we wanted; however, she wanted us to have a choice between rescue and breeder while learning more about what we needed. We viewed the puppy’s videos on Sunday; slept on it, and by early Monday morning, made the decision that this was not the pup for us. That SAME AFTERNOON, Phyllis called to say that she had found out about a breeder in a nearby state who had two of the exact characteristics we wanted – there were only two left and a deposit had to be put down immediately! She told us on the call that she had decided on our behalf to put a deposit down to reserve one of them for us; that she had gotten the breeder to agree we could choose either one of the two, that she was making the drive that week to visit the breeder to be sure this was a legitimate operation, and she personally drove over 100 miles and arranged to do a video call with the pups, mom, dad, breeder, and ourselves so we could see these beautiful babies that were exactly what we wanted! She then coordinated the details of our trip to meet our pup less than 4 weeks later! Needless to say, one of those two pups is our new forever dog and we are so thrilled with how Phyllis was able to advise us! We have never before experienced this level of caring by a dog expert to ensure just the right match, help us explore all options, and make sure her foster puppy and our puppy found the perfect homes! We would have never been able to sort through all the options and considerations without her help!
Our family specifically wanted a Boston Terrier puppy and had looked for several years with breeders and rescue organizations without success – either puppies were all on long waiting lists and expensive, or not the right match for our household with active young children. We had pretty much given up hope of ever finding our dream dog, honestly. I had shared with Phyllis our trials and frustrations in finding a young puppy, as I knew she had helped other people successfully find just the right dog for their families, but nothing came along that would work. A year later, and out of the blue one weekend, Phyllis called me. She said, “are you still interested in a Boston Puppy?” I was shocked but definitely interested in hearing about one she had stumbled across right in her own town, that was 8 weeks old and available if we acted fast! My husband and I talked it over; said YES and decided to surprise the kids with our decision! Phyllis made all the arrangements with the owner for us to get the dog while my husband jumped in the car and drove 12 hours to pick up our new pup! Phyllis met him at the owner’s home, got everything finalized, made sure my husband had some transition food and a soft blanket for the car, and in another 12 hours, my husband made it back home in time to get the pup settled in the kitchen in the early morning before the kids were up for the day. I will never forget the look on my daughter’s face when she sleepily stumbled into the kitchen that morning and saw that sweet little puppy in his bed – she could not figure out how he just appeared out of thin air and was overjoyed with him! He has been a great addition to our home, and any time I have needed advice on his care, food, issues, etc., all I had to do was call Phyllis to get all the advice and encouragement needed!
This young pup just followed me home when day when I was out on a run with another dog and I couldn’t say no! My living circumstances included many transitions over the next 5 years from houses to apartments to new roommates to different animals living with us, and I didn’t realize how unsettling that was for him because he never got consistent positive reinforcement or corrected in a consistent manner. When my roommate and I split up, he took the dog with him; however 2 years later, his circumstances changed and he called me to say he couldn’t keep him any longer and thought his only alternative would be to euthanize him. Even though by this time, I had two other dogs and three cats in my household, I did not want to see this boy get put down, so I agreed to take him in as a foster and find him a home. This is where I have to say my past lack of understanding what he needed came back to haunt me. He struggled to fit in with our other animals, and in particular, was way too focused on the cats! And then….one day while walking all three dogs, his collar got twisted and pinched him and he reacted by biting a complete stranger who happened to walk by him at that moment! Even though it was totally unintentional, he still had to be placed in “house arrest” for a quarantine period and we were required to get behavioral training as part of his rehabilitation, and of course no rescue organization was interested in placing him after this. My mom knew about Phyllis and her ability to work with both dogs and humans to accomplish the behavior changes required and I called her. She devoted countless hours and support to myself and my roommate for over 8 weeks, while we trained ourselves to re-train him. And all of it was done virtually using phone/video and other means of sharing information to help us be successful. We honestly struggled in the beginning and she kept us going with her encouragement to see the possibility of him being adoptable with time and she was honest about how much work it would take, too! We began to see him start to change and it gave us hope that we would succeed, with her help and support – and she was right! He was recently adopted to a wonderful family who met every one of our criteria for the perfect match, which Phyllis helped us to see he deserved and which he now has!
Phyllis does amazing work! She pulled a very shy, uncertain dog from my shelter and turned her into a confident and highly adoptable dog in no time at all! She also quickly found her the perfect home!
Phyllis helped save the lives of my 2 dogs when I was no longer able to give them a home. She worked tirelessly getting them into a foster home and then getting them transported to new homes. She worked with my one baby to help her turn into the best dog for a couple from Georgia to adopt. I couldn’t be more grateful to her. She will do the very best for both dogs and the humans who love them. I trusted her with the 2 lives I loved most in this world and she was brilliant. I will be forever grateful to Phyllis for her love of the dogs.
Phyllis acted in the capacity of an animal communicator when my dog Berkeley had to undergo a serious medical procedure. We had some challenging decisions to make with how to proceed and after we understood our options from multiple surgeons and specialists, I wanted to learn if Berkeley had preferences on the best course of action, particularly because of her older age. Phyllis was able to connect with Berkeley, not only to understand what her wishes were, but also to explain to Berkeley what was happening to her when she had to stay overnight at the vet. Phyllis showed incredible compassion towards both Berkeley and me in a very stressful situation. I believe that Berkeley got better medical care, experienced significantly less stress, and is healing more quickly with Phyllis acting as a collaborator and guide in the process. I am so grateful!