Grisha Stewart, MA, CPDT, CTP

Voted as Seattle’s Top Dog Trainer by the readers of CityDog Magazine, Grisha Stewart is the owner and founder of Ahimsa Dog Training in Seattle, WA. Grisha is a Certified Training Partner from the Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training & Behavior, a Certified Pet Dog Trainer and since 2002, an active member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers. She attends several training and behavior workshops each year and is a certified Pet First Aid attendant and evaluator for the Canine Good Citizen program.

With a master’s degree in theoretical mathematics from Bryn Mawr College, Grisha’s problem solving and critical thinking skills serve her well as a dog behaviour counselor, where every dog presents a unique set of challenges.

She volunteers at the Humane Society for Seattle/King County where she trains numerous shelter dogs, assists with dog training classes, helps with fundraisers like Tuxes and Tails, and is a regular a foster parent of animals that need a little extra attention.

An advocate of clicker training, in 2004 Grisha was invited to present a half-day workshop on training and behavior to the volunteers at Pasado’s Safe Haven. She brazenly claimed that any animal on the premises could be trained using clicker training and to prove it, she successfully trained one of the goats! Since then, no species is safe from her clicker training and several cats, a chicken, and an alpaca have been added to her list of successes.
Although she was a tenure track math faculty member at the time, Grisha founded Ahimsa Dog Training in the summer of 2003. Why switch from teaching to working with dogs and their humans? Because training dogs and puppies gives meaning, enriches and even saves lives. Within a household, ff the dogs and humans cannot communicate, it is always the dog the one that loses.
Grisha is not a permissive trainer, just a positive one! She refuses to use force, yelling, squirt bottles, or shake cans to get rid of a behaviour problem, because, among other reasons, of the other unwanted behaviors that pops up in their place. Instead, she uses our main tool – the human brain – to finds ways to prevent the dog from practicing the behavior and rewarding itself, while teaching him something else he can do. Because the dog-human relationship is vital, force is simply not part of Grisha’s dog training toolbox.
Grisha uses clicker training in her classes because it is effective without force. Dogs think it is a wonderful game, so you can ‘play’ at training any time you want.
“It is something to do with your dog, not to him,” she explains. “You put the dog in the driver’s seat; he gets to feel like he has some control over his environment.”
Brain research in humans shows that we learn faster when we perceive that we have control of the learning situation. Dogs are not so different.

For more information on Grisha and Ahimsa Dog Training in the Seattle, Washington area, visit www.ahimsadogtraining.com.

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