Maggie Pearson graduated from the Karen Pryor Academy for dog trainers, ( KPA-CTP) has her certification as a Separation Anxiety Trainer, and her Fear Free Certification. She is an Accredited Dog Trainer with IAABC, a Canine Good Citizen Evaluator for AKC, and an AKC CGC and Fit Dog instructor. She is also a Controlled unleashed certified trainer as well as a Certified family dog mediator.

To Maggie, it feels like she has never not been a trainer. She’s always been fascinated by training. As a child, she had Guinea pigs, rabbits, gerbils, hamsters, salamanders, frogs, and dogs—everything under the sun. She went on to get a degree in psychology to feed her fascination with learning theory and how animals learn.

Her passion never wavered, and she kept taking classes. It happened naturally that she started teaching group classes at her local kennel club. After a few years of doing that, she decided she should get more education. This is a theme for Maggie, a lifelong learner.

She met Lisa when she applied for Malena DeMartini’s Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer (CSAT) program, which Lisa was working for at the time. In 2021, she was delighted to join the Cold Nose team as a trainer and licensee. She says of Cold Nose, “I think it’s a great, great group of fantastic trainers who just want to help people.” She particularly enjoys the many learning and collaboration opportunities.

After Maggie got her separation anxiety credential, those cases quickly became her favorite. She has had a dog with separation anxiety and is familiar not only with the panic disorder itself but also with the stress it can put on a dog guardian. She loves helping dogs overcome their separation anxiety and giving pet parents the ability to leave their dogs without guilt and worry, hence giving the entire household some relief.

Maggie has a background in human resources, which helped her learn to advocate for people and to communicate. She is versatile and flexible in her interactions with people. She’s a superb listener and works to understand where clients are coming from and what their goals are with their dogs. Then she helps them bridge that gap.

She enjoys explaining dog behavior and helping people understand that often, what their dog is doing is normal. She can then help them find out an outlet for the dog to do “dog things” in ways that better fit in their human lives.

You can see Maggie’s practicality in the educational offerings she has created for local clients, including “Office Dog,” a program for business owners who want to provide their employees with the unique benefit of bringing their dogs to work and do so safely. It’s one of her most popular offerings.

Maggie provides her skills to her community. Along with search and rescue work with her dogs Ruger, RLo and Arson, she does therapy work with her dog Gracie. She is active in her local kennel club. She volunteers with fostering dogs in the Sioux Falls area.

Maggie Pearson is on a mission to positively impact lives, one dog at a time.