Karma Dog Training, established in 2004, has the sole intention to teach our clients how to come from the highest, most enlightened perspective when raising their dogs utilizing 100% positive-based, science-based methods endorsed by the AHA, HSUS, SPCA, ASPCA and most Schools of Veterinary Medicine.

Featured on NBC, CBS, ABC and countless other news outlets, Karma Dog Training is a Veterinarian endorsed dog training company and professional member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT # 77541), an organization which prides itself with a mission toward enhancing the human-canine relationship through education and dog-friendly training.

JEFFREY LIEBOWITZ
FOUNDER/OWNER

Known for his inimitable ability to clearly see through to a dog's soul and become aware of the root of all behavioral issues, Jeffrey Liebowitz's intention is to teach people how to come from the highest, most enlightened perspective when raising their dogs.

He is the founder of the not-for-profit, The Gratitude Foundation, an organization which was created to find innovative ways to improve the lives of people and their animals everywhere and is responsible for creating the Empowered Warriors Program where Veterans are taught how to care for and train canines for companionship through positive reinforcement training methods.

In addition, Jeff is the creator of the Dogs in Recovery program, which is a 12-step program/support group for dog parents with aggression issues. Not only that, Jeff has developed a Zen-like application for teaching called the Karma Dog Training Method, that is considered by Karma Dog's Veterinarian clients to be the most gentle, effective and enlightened approach to puppy/dog training available.

His new book entitled, Karma Dog - The New Language of Successful Communication with our Dogs, will be on sale by the end of the year.

Meet the Karma Dog Directors

Alyssa Carlson
Executive Admin Team, Financial Dept. and Karma Dog Teacher

Growing up in a family that shared a common love and admiration for all animals around them, from a young age Alyssa was taught how to care for, train, and love animals of all shapes and sizes. Her very first best friend as a young girl was her ferret, who she potty trained and spent all of her time working on tricks or playing with. While in her early teens she moved to training the family dogs with their own fun commands. As a teenager she helped birth the family dog’s puppies and loved caring for them and teaching them the early building blocks of potty training and basic commands to set them up for success for their future furever homes.

Alyssa always wished for a future that revolved around animals, but after working around sick animals for a while she was unsure she would be able to deal with the loss that it involved. This led Alyssa to pursue a different type of future that would involve interacting with animals. Alyssa graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a Major in Psychology and a Minor in Sociology. During her years there she focused on behavioral sciences to be able to use what she learned to help as many dog and dog parents with science backed training.

In 2020 Alyssa moved to Austin Texas, and began training for Karma Dog Training. Using her knowledge of different behavioral training techniques and having the support of Karma’s 100% positive reinforcement training philosophies, Alyssa has flourished by helping all of her pupparents with fun and insightful ways to train their new furbabies. In her off time she enjoys spending time going on hikes with her basset hound, Tracker, or furthering his scent training for an enjoyable and tiring way of spending their time together.

Emily Ozrey
Director of Education

Emily Ozrey is the Director of Education at Karma Dog Training. She assists in evaluating potential candidates by serving as a mentor for on-going support to over 150 trainers. In developing and monitoring teacher profiles, Emily also aids administration with client matching. She believes that cultivating empathy while adopting a solution-oriented mindset are not only fundamental to dog training but are the building blocks to strengthening employee’s decision-making skills. Through proactive management, Emily’s mission is to foster a supportive company culture that aligns with Karma’s values and puts transparency and communication first.

In addition to teaching training classes for 3 years, Emily recently graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California and holds a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Acting for the Stage, Screen, and New Media. As a classically trained, professional actress, she understands the true value of the “ensemble”, connecting to others, and the use of highly imaginative solutions to address challenges as opportunities for growth.

At the heart of what she does, Emily believes that “teaching and understanding is how we build trust with humans and furry friends alike”. She hopes through her passion of learning and helping others to continue uplifting and inspiring Karma team members to do the same.

“We do our job well so you can do yours better!”

BROOKE LEE
TRAINING DIRECTOR

Brooke Lee believes she has been put on the Earth for two reasons; to be the best mom she can be, raising her children with the highest form of love, and to help dogs and their humans in the highest and best possible ways.

For Brooke, being a dog trainer means being a translator between humans and their canine children; to help each species have better communication with each other and to create a cohesive bond in one another's lives. Brooke believes there are many paths one could take to get a desired result, however, she often finds that stepping back and looking outside the box can inspire creative, efficient and successful ways to communicate with a dog that bring about results that are beneficial to both humans and dogs.

Brooke became a part of the Karma Dog Training Team as a Lead Trainer in 2015, but with her ability and creativity to train dogs as well as her intense work ethic, she quickly moved her way up in the company becoming Senior Training Director. She was the first trainer at Karma Dog Training to take part in what we call our "Rockstar" Reverse Board & Train program and trains new dog trainers to start working in every program Karma Dog Training offers. Brooke takes her job to the next level by not only being 100% available to our clients but also to our trainers. She has a very positive outlook on life and is among our most motivated and successful team members.

Brooke started her journey in learning Animal Behavior when she was only 12 years old. Instead of going and playing with friends, she was at the library reading everything she could get her hands on about dogs and their ways of communication and thinking. She has always believed that most dogs would not be at the Humane Society if they could be better understood by their human friends. Today, she is determined to do everything in her power to help keep dogs out of shelters and has successfully rescued, rehabilitated and re-homed an abundance of dogs since she first began working at Karma Dog Training. Brooke absolutely adores teaching dogs and helping in her community. This calling is not a job to her - it is her dream, soul purpose and her passion in life.

ALLISON WELLER
TRAINING DIRECTOR

Allison has always had a kind and compassionate heart, especially when it came to animals. Anytime there was any sort of animal around, you knew she was somewhere close by. She grew up with several different breeds of dogs, and now has an adorable Australian Shepherd puppy of her own. When she isn’t busy working with and training other dogs, you can find her out exploring beautiful Colorado with her puppy or creating a piece of art. Drawing and painting are some of her favorite creative hobbies.

When she was in school, she was very fascinated by psychology, and studying behavior. She learned about positive reinforcement, operant conditioning, and other fundamentals that she still uses in her sessions every day. This fascination, as well as her passion for dogs is what led her to pursue a career in the dog training industry. She worked professionally with dogs, studying their behaviors, and eventually found herself working at Karma Dog. Here she quickly learned that her career also happened to be her purpose. She saw how beautiful and rewarding training dogs could be, and she knew she could never turn back.

Seeing the smiles on her client’s faces as they build a closer and more harmonious relationship with their dog is all she needs to be fulfilled. Allison views herself as a bridge to help connect humans and dogs to create an everlasting bond, strengthen their teamwork and develop a sense of harmony between the 2 souls. She recognizes that each pup is an individual. Each with their own personality, interests, motives, and of course learning styles. She excels in quickly picking up how each dog learns best, and what motivates them, so that she can implement that important information into a very customized training plan for your pup. She loves getting to know each individual pup and their families, and watching them grow and learn together as they build an environment that everyone can thrive in.

Allison is one of our enlightened dog teachers, however she firmly believes that our canine companions are some of the best teachers out there. She realizes that we can learn so much more than you could ever imagine from them, once we first learn how to understand them.

KATE SHERMAN
TRAINING DIRECTOR

Born and raised in the dog friendly city of Austin Texas, Kate has always been what you would call a “dog person”. She is most passionate about strengthening the bond between pet and parent and is a strong believer in spiritual karma, and of course, the Karma Dog Training philosophy. With this knowledge in her heart, and a strong background in Customer Service, Kate truly enjoys speaking to pet parents regarding their concerns, triumphs and goals for their fur babies. Having 2 dogs of her own, both rescues, she believes that true respect, love, and empathy are the best way to handle any case.

Kate’s love of animals began when she joined the Girl Scouts of Central Texas at the age of 6. During her 12 years as a Girl Scout she worked closely with Texas Parks and Wildlife as well as the Austin Humane Society and Austin Pets Alive. She continued her journey into adulthood and became a Foster partner out of a desire to help dogs who had lived most of their lives in shelters or on the streets. One particular dog came to her having recently been severely injured, and lost a limb as a result. Kate worked with this dog everyday, rehabilitating her and eventually teaching her to walk again. Kate decided on the first day that this dog would not be returned to the shelter and this is the story of her first “Foster Fail”. Peach is now a loving member of Kate’s growing family! It was Peach who fostered Kate’s passion to start her career over, with Karma Dog Training. Coming from a Retail management background, Kate took her knowledge of training and teamwork, and applied it to her duties as a Karma Dog Admin Director.

Kate currently still resides in the beautiful Austin Texas with her husband Leo, her dogs Nox and Peach, her tuxedo cat Alfred.

JENNIFER-MONIQUE STURGEON
TRAINING DIRECTOR

From a very young age, Jennifer-Monique Sturgeon has had an awareness of the energy of all living things. With such keen sensitivity, she was able to discern that despite outward appearances between species, there were more similarities that we shared, rather than differences. Such commonality was one of the soul, and the contrariety being only whether it was a human or animal experience.

As a Lead Trainer and a Canine Behavioral Therapist, Jennifer-Monique believes it is important to guide your pup through the process of socialization by applying what she calls “Mindfulness Training” by focusing and reinforcing desired behaviors in each moment as they arise. Throughout the ten years of her profession, she has found that Positive Reinforcement methods facilitate healing in both human and animals alike. More often than not her clients exclaim epiphanic “Aha!” moments as she explains the parallelism in human and dog psychology through the visual language that we share. She believes that expanded awareness of such similarities emboldens the bond between human and dog and can ultimately even lead to a better understanding of oneself and the world.

In session, Jennifer-Monique utilizes a combination of prevention and management as well as the process of adding and subtracting stimulus to modify behavior. When problem solving, she believes that repetition, consistency and building momentum are the three key elements to a successful training outcome. Jennifer-Monique believes that having an awareness of the context in which behaviors occur as well as utilizing process of elimination to determine the root of the problem are foundational in training. She is passionately committed to guiding along the human and animal experience through conscious connection and empowered communication.

SKYLER MOOREFIELD
TRAINING DIRECTOR

Love, peace, kindness, communication, connection, balance & harmony are the steps Skyler enjoys to live by in life & in training. A graduate from Animal Behavioral College and a Healing Touch For Animals practitioner, she was a young age when she knew that there was a joyful interconnection between her and dogs. "Our companions have so much to teach us when it comes to living in harmony with nature and having a healthy balance in life."

Growing up, Skyler wanted to be a Veterinarian but she soon realized that she didn't know how to come to terms with putting animals peacefully to rest when it came time. An inspiration hit her when she was a host at a restaurant and saw a young woman and her canine pup at a table patiently waiting to be greeted. She walked up and respectively asked for more information on her pup. The woman had stated that it was her service dog in training. It was then that a light bulb went off. It was at that moment when Skyler knew her ultimate passion in life was to become a dog teacher.

"Human beings can be really challenging when dealing with our emotions." And that's why Skyler is full force on helping others to achieve a relaxed mindset. Dogs 3 main communication systems are energy, body language, & vocalization (along with pheromones scents & taste). Whatever we project they reflect. Communication is a huge key on how we can relate to our dogs and others. This is why Skyler believes it's so important to tune in to their body language and other signals to receive what our pups are truly relaying to us. Creating positive reinforcement techniques not only teaches us how to respond and react to our pups hiccup moments, but also transfer those qualities on how we react to obstacles of our own in life.

ASHLEIGH LOPEZ
KARMA DOG DIRECTOR

Ashleigh was born in London, England and moved to Brooklyn, New York to live with her mother and 6 cats in their small studio apartment. It was here where she was raised to love all animals. Ashleigh's aunt also had 8 cats of her own and was constantly helping orphaned animals in the neighborhood, nursing them back to health in her backyard. Her grandmother was similar in nature having a consistent array of animals around and gifting Ashleigh books about dog breeds and animal encyclopedias. Ashleigh soon decided that it was just simply a part of her nature to be surrounded by animals in need. She felt, from a very young age, that it was her purpose to help animals in anyway she could.

By 8 years old Ashleigh decided she was going to become a Veterinarian. Throughout the next ten years Ashleigh volunteered with various dog adoption organizations as well as help raise and find homes for many of the abandoned cats in her neighborhood. When she was a senior in high school she began a year long internship at an emergency veterinary hospital. She was so moved by her experience and excited to further her pursuit that she graduated and began studying to become a veterinary technician in college. After two years of study she sadly decided that euthanasia was not a topic she could manage. Nevertheless, the amount of knowledge she acquired during her years of education was immeasurable.

In 2009 Ashleigh moved to San Francisco, California where she pursued a different teaching approach and turned her attention to working with children. The chance to work with humans as well as animals has always been equally as important to Ashleigh. Through her work with young children she was able to recognize the similarities between dogs and children with how they interpret and handle life’s scenarios. Ashleigh feels a strong urge to show children how to interact properly with dogs and would like to create a project in the future where we are able to teach children how to train dogs themselves using only positive reinforcement.

In 2015 Ashleigh moved to Los Angeles and soon after adopted a German Shorthaired Pointer mix puppy. After a very traumatic first experience at the vet Ashleigh was advised to "get the puppy proper training." Leaving very disgruntled, her first instinct was to hire a trainer, so she began her research. Karma Dog Training was her number one choice for training. Yet, instead of hiring a trainer she felt inspired to continue learning on her own through Karma's training approach of positive reinforcement.

She continued to explore sites such as APDT.com and CCPDT.com. She watched a plethora of videos, and read books written by positive reinforcement trainers, all the while training her puppy in the process. About a month after adopting her puppy everything sort of "clicked" for Ashleigh and she had an "a-ha!" moment where she realized "she was supposed to be the trainer all along!" Soon she began taking an online "Dog Trainer Foundations" course by Karen Pryor. Once completing the 3 month program she then found a CCPDT certified trainer in her area and began apprenticing beneath him in aims to become certified.

Ashleigh likes to keeps her training knowledge up to date by reading books by trainers such as Ian Dunbar, Karen Pryor, Victoria Stilwell and the like. She also enjoys attending seminars/webinars and lectures as well as continuing her education through various online courses/material.

Ashleigh currently lives in Los Angeles and has an Australian Cattle Dog, a small Chihuahua, and two cats. She believes that a positive approach to training is the key to creating a symbiotic relationship with your dog and all animals. Ashleigh's focus is to help people see that we as humans have a responsibility and duty to our dogs to show them how to coexist with us. She believes that a truly harmonious relationship is possible and wants to help facilitate that between man and dog.

TAWIN BLACKWELL
KARMA DOG DIRECTOR

Starting as young as six years old, Tawni was always asking her parents for their permission to take in as many of the dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, and even horses, as possible, that needed a loving and caring home; her unconditional love and passion for animals was evident. By age twelve, she had multiple dogs, cats, horses, chickens, guinea pigs, and rabbits but always had the deepest bonds and connections with her dogs as well as any other dog she met.

As soon as she turned sixteen, she got a part-time job at a dog grooming salon as a dog bather as well as volunteering for the local shelter. Tawni excelled at her job and as a shelter volunteer due to her loving and gentle approach to each and every animal she encountered. Due to her approach and her ability to connect with each individual animal, she quickly became one of the only ones at her local shelter to be able to take out the dogs that had been labeled as having behavioral issues.

Tawni’s experience with all of her own animals, her part-time job bathing dogs, and from her hours of volunteering led her to getting a position at a dog training, boarding, and day camp facility as a Day Camp Supervisor at just eighteen years old. Shortly after, she found a series of online courses that specialize in Dog Training and Animal Health and Behavior. Just a year into working as a Day Camp Supervisor and taking the online courses, she had been promoted to the training department at that same facility.

During her time training there, she received the full hands-on experience of the positive reinforcement only method of training and got the opportunity to use that method to train many different breeds of dogs, dogs from all backgrounds, and a countless amount of rescue dogs who needed someone who could understand them, connect with them, and work at their pace to get the best results possible. After a total of two years working at this facility, Tawni had realized that the dogs were learning best when in an actual home rather than at the training facility and soon after, she came across Karma Dog Training.

Tawni had seen how Karma Dog Training’s methods completely aligned with her methods - all positive reinforcement only, trained out of trainers’ own homes or in the dog’s own home and environment, and most importantly, consciously understanding the needs of each individual dog while always putting their best interest first and she immediately knew that is where she needed to be training. She applied that same day that she found Karma Dog Training and joined the team within the next week.

Tawni became one of Karma Dog Training’s Dog Behavioral Specialists, Puppy Kindergarten Lead Teacher at the Chatsworth location, and became one of the Board and Train Program Specialists. Tawni has now been a part of the Karma Dog Family for nearly five years. She is a valued member of this team and continues to focus on her passion for animals.

Meet the Amazing Karma Dog Teachers