New puppy owners are barraged with conflicting information from friends, neighbors, breeders, veterinarians and even books! It's overwhelming to try to make sense of it all. Here is a book, written by a professional trainer and veterinary technician with over 30 years' experience, for one of the largest and most respected animal hospitals in the country. With input and proofreading by most of the 23 full time veterinarians on the staff, Trish's book is a refreshing and easy to use handbook of all things puppy.

Trish Wamsat is a native Californian who grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. She was born an animal lover. She took horseback riding lessons, walked neighbors’ dogs, and, as a 9 year old, received a cockapoo puppy named Princess. In later years, she was asked to present her pet snakes, crickets, and rats in various elementary school class rooms to teach the other kids about them.

Trish has an extraordinary love of books (animal books) and quickly exhausted her school libraries’ supplies of horse and dog stories. In high school, she joined Future Farmers of America and raised rabbits, cattle and sheep, learning animal husbandry and public speaking. It was then that Trish took her first dog trainer’s course and was hired by the company as a regional manager upon graduating the course.

While still in high school, she got a job at a wildlife/marine park where she learned more about animals and training. During the "off" season, she was soon hired as an assistant at a police dog training kennel, where ground-breaking training was taking place with Beagles learning to detect termites.

Since then, Trish has spent much of the past 30 years conducting dog training classes and providing private consultations. She has worked as a veterinary technician and is currently employed by Adobe Animal Hospital in Los Altos, California, where she continues to refine and redefine her training skills. Trish participates in frequent continuing education with various trainers and behaviorists and is consulted in most of the behavior cases handled by the 23 full time vets at Adobe.

Trish has spent a lot of time fostering rescued dogs and placing them in great homes. Her family, including her son, Ashton, and niece, Grace (pictured above with the author) support Trish in all of her endeavors!