Michael Shikashio

Veronica Sanchez

Veronica Sanchez M.Ed, CABC, CPDT-KA is the founder of the Cooperative Paws Service Dog Coach™, an educational certification program for professional trainers in service dog training. Veronica also offers a variety of online courses on service dog training and often speaks and writes on service dogs for professional associations. She is the author of the book, Service Dog Coaching: A Guide for Pet Dog Trainers.

Veronica has a masters’ in education and a bachelors’ in psychology from George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia. She also has a certificate in brain research in education from the University of Washington. She has supported owner-trainers training service dogs for mobility, hearing, mental illness, neurological problems and dual guide-mobility work.

Veronica’s interest in service dogs is both personal and professional. She has a disability herself, a neurological condition called generalized dystonia, and she has trained her own dogs to assist as service dogs.

Alexandra Santos

Alexandra Santos is a professional canine behavior consultant and trainer. She obtained her formal education through The Animal Care College in the U.K. where she graduated with honors for the diploma of advanced canine psychology, and through The Companion Animal Sciences Institute where she graduated with distinction for the diploma of advanced dog training.

She is the author of the books Puppy Problems, Puppy Training: How to housetrain your puppy effectively, How to leash train your dog and enjoy walking him, O meu cão e eu, Cão educado, dono feliz (published in Portugal), and has also authored and co-authored several scientific articles for the Journal of Applied Companion Animal Behavior and the International Institute for Applied Companion Animal Behavior. Alexandra lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal, as a guest professor at Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias and provides individual coaching for dogs and their people. She has been a presenter at several seminars in Portugal and Brazil on positive reinforcement-based training and regularly presents webinars for PPG.

Dr. Kersti Seksel