P.O. Box 46253

Rio Rancho, NM 87174

505.999.1201
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Meet Our Trainers
Heather and Rick Dillender

Heather and Rick Dillender started their journey into becoming Canine Behavioral Specialists by adopting three out of control border collies. Despite what they were told by others, they refused to accept that Kita, Hoshi and Jackson were a lost cause with the only options being seclusion or euthanasia. Driven by the overwhelming need for peace and sanity in their lives they researched every training method they could find with limited success. After exploring all of the information available they took the helpful pieces, discarded the detrimental and useless advice and then developed their own unique training method that actually resolved the problems. Rejuvenated by their success and new-found knowledge, the Dillenders started volunteering at the Benton-Franklin Humane Society in Washington state. Soon they found themselves being referred for private in-home training and A Fresh Perspective Dog Training was born. Thousands of dogs later they are known across the country for their work and have proven that every dog can be rehabilitated when handled in the right way with effective, gentle communication. Rick and Heather strongly stand behind the motto "never give up on your dog".


The Dillenders found Canine Behavioral Rehabilitation to be highly rewarding by helping owners understand their dogs' perspective and bringing peace to both dog and human a like. After several years of this work, they decided to expand their training techniques to include service animals for people with disabilities. Due to their own disabilities (seizure disorders, Post-Traumatic Stress and a Traumatic Brain Injury [TBI]) they had already trained their three border collies to be Service Dogs and so with this new vision they turned their attention to transforming unwanted, abandoned dogs in local shelters into cherished assistance animals. Rick and Heather take a unique approach to Service Dog training by teaching owners to train their own service dog. While the Dillenders train the humans, Kita, Hoshi and Jackson lead by example through social learning between the dogs so the untrained shelter dog has a role model to follow. This has proven to be highly effective and creates a relationship in the Service Team that is exceptional. Their approach has been formalized as The Dillender Method and has been recognized nationally as the premier approach for addressing a wide range of cognitive and physical disabilities. The Dillender Method deals with all disabilities with the exceptions of seeing eye dogs. Paws and Stripes, a Rio Rancho-based veterans' organization that provides service dogs for wounded Vets with PTSD and/or TBI, was designed with The Dillender Method and use their approach exclusively. The Dillenders have an active Train-the-Trainer program to educate others in how to use The Dillender Method for service dog training, and are gearing up for national expansion.

Stephanie D. Barger

 

Having suffered a severe back injury in 1993 and developing significant anxiety because of her limitations, Stephanie “learned to live” with her disabilities by avoiding the public as much as possible and rarely going anywhere alone unless it could not be avoided.  After years of restricting her activities to accommodate her physical limitations and control her anxiety, she took advantage of the Service Dog program offered by the Dillenders and trained her first Service Dog, Cura, beginning in 2009.  In keeping with the philosophy behind the Dillender Service Dog program, Cura was a rescue dog from a local shelter and was considered unadoptable and untrainable.  She has since developed into an exceptional partner thanks, in part, to Stephanie’s dedication to the Dillender Method.  Both Stephanie and Cura are prime examples of the success that can be achieved by the program and how it can drastically improve the lives of both person and dog.


 

Toward the end of their Service Dog program, Stephanie and Cura began assisting at the weekly training classes acting as a mentor and junior trainer for the other Service Dog Teams in the program.  It was during this period that she met Jim and Lindsey Stanek and learned about the ambitious concept that has become Paws & Stripes. Since the beginning, Stephanie supported the program with periodic donations, spreading the word, and helping the original Veterans in the program during training. 


 

After graduating from the Dillender’s program, Stephanie continued assisting them at their Dog Training classes.  She dedicated herself to learning how to present the Dillender Method to others and improving her ability to handle a variety of dogs with various behaviors.  She is the first person to go through the structured training intended to produce individuals that are able to teach the Dillender Method, assisting in the program’s development.  In February of 2011, she started Constant Companions Dog Training with the Dillender’s blessing.  Since then, she has achieved a high level of efficiency working with the Veterans in the Paws & Stripes program.  Because of this, she was recommended and accepted as the first additional trainer for Paws & Stripes apart from the developers of the Dillender Method, Rick and Heather Dillender and is now a permanent trainer on staff for the program.  In addition to working with Veterans with PTSD and TBI, she is particularly skilled at working with service clients that have mobility issues. 


 

Stephanie combines her personal experiences of her own disabilities with the skills she has acquired while working in customer service, office management, and eight years of teaching and developing courses at the college level.  She also draws on her experiences as a member of a “military family” having lived all over the United States and in areas of Europe, her teacher education, volunteer activities, and hobbies to find ways of connecting with the Veterans in the program. This provides an excellent basis from which to assist both members of the Service Team to become a strong partnership, giving both the disabled person and the dog a “new leash on life”.  She is dedicated to supporting our military men and women by helping them to develop additional tools that they can use to move forward and live full and productive lives after sacrificing so much to serve their country and its citizens.