Jennen Herbst

I am a trainer in Columbia, MO. I do offer training for different types of things. I have started to expand more into reactive training which is the reason I originally wanted to go into training. I do like working with younger dogs as well to try to avoid these types of issues as they get older.
In college, I was actually pre-med. After I graduated with my bachelor's degree in "Medicinal Chemistry", I got a job in the healthcare field when I ended up working for about 8 years. However, around the time I started that job, I also adopted my first dog. I had no intention of adopting her and actually said I would foster her, get her adopted, and then get a black lab like I had wanted. Instead, this completely white pit bull mix and I just celebrated her 10th Gotcha Day and she is my best friend and 4 legged assistant. She was a handful in her younger years so the basic manners and skills program is named after her. Training her and the dog I adopted a little less than a year later made me realize this is the path I actually wanted to take.
The second dog I adopted was not the happy go lucky dog like my first girl Margot. I quickly realized she had some behavior issues. I originally thought she was aggressive but soon learned a lot of her behaviors came out of reacting more in a situation due to her being anxious. I had no idea what to do so went to work with some trainers. They used different methods that I do not use now because they made me feel uncomfortable with the training process. I then started to research alternative methods which is when I found the information on positive based/force free training. From there, using those methods, my Meia and I build a very strong bond and she became an amazing dogs. She never had a lot of friends but she could go out in public to a lot of places with me.
From there, I decided to dabble in training and got into it even more. Meia passed on Halloween of 2019. When this happened, I made the decision to go into training full time and let her legacy live on. The pet store I was working at part time was actually building a new location with a training room in which made it seems like the stars had aligned. She had a program named after her to help reactive dogs (Managing Exciting Interactions Appropriately).
I then adopted a dog almost 2 years ago who came to me nervous of life. This helped me work some of the training methods into a confidence building program which has made me learn even more and I am really enjoying it.
I also graduated with a Masters in Public Health (animal focused) last year. In that program, I designed multiple education program that I hope to find ways to incorporate in areas around me. The one I am most proud of is a program for kids to help them learn how to interact with dogs to avoid bites.