Cara Deckert has loved dogs ever since she can remember. She is a professional educator who holds a California Single Subject Teaching Credential in English and a Master’s Degree in Education. She has been teaching middle school students for 10 years. Her teaching skills are evident and have laid a strong foundation for her to be able to communicate well and help people and their dogs.

In 2018, Cara adopted her dog, River, when he was a year and four months old since his owners were unable to keep him. He really challenged her to step up as an owner and leader. She started training River just a week after adopting him in dog obedience group classes with Wendi Okabayashi. In 2019, Cara also started dog agility training with River at Jumpin' K-9's, Inc. in Temecula and she continues to train and compete in the sport. As a team, Cara and River have earned titles in TDAA (Teacup Dogs Agility Association.) and trick titles through Do More With Your Dog! During these training classes and while training at home for practice, Cara found her true passion for dog training. After she completed basic through advanced training with River she was hooked and did not want to stop learning about dog behavior and training. She continued to learn more while she trained River during private lessons with Wendi Okabayashi. After that she volunteered with Wendi any chance she could to train dogs, to help frustrated owners to communicate with their dogs in a language the dog understands, and to learn more about dog behavior.

In 2019, Cara started as a dog trainer and helped Wendi Okabayashi at group classes during the week and weekends as well as private lessons working with a variety of dogs with many different training needs. Anywhere from training puppies on potty training, walking loose leash, and house manners to working with aggressive dogs. Cara is a believer in “Anything is Pawsible” with seeing how her leadership changed her dogs behavior as well as the hundreds of owners and dogs she’s helped train through her three year mentorship with Wendi Okabayashi.