Kindred Spirits Canine Education Center

Liz Palika, dog trainer and author Liz Palika has been teaching dogs and their owners in North County for almost 25 years. Her training is based on an understanding of dogs and what makes them ‘tick.’ There is no funny stuff but lots of common sense.

Liz is also the author of over 58 books and her dog training book, All Dogs Need Some Training was listed by Pet Life magazine as one of the ten best dog training books available to dog owners. Her book, The KISS Guide to Raising a Puppy has received rave reviews. Liz’s books have been honored with several awards from Dog Writers Association of America, Cat Writers Association, ASPCA, Purina and San Diego Book Writers. Liz was honored by San Diego Channel 10’s Leadership Award; she was also a North County Woman of Merit. In Feb 2005, she was awarded a Distinguished Service award from Dog Writers Association of America.

Liz is a charter member of the International Association of Canine Professionals, and is a Certified Dog Trainer (CDT) through this organization. She is also an AKC CGC (Canine Good Citizen) Evaluator #4182, and a Certified Behavioral Consultant.

Petra Burke has been working with Liz for over fifteen years. She teaches classes, has served as co-chair of the Pet Care Center at the San Diego County Fair and is also active in the therapy dog program. She does many school visits, teaching kids about dogs and working with a dog bite prevention program. She has also done private training for many years and has a special interest in training deaf, disabled, three-legged or blind dogs. Her 6-year-old Australian Shepherd, Kona, is totally blind but still does deomonstrations for the classes. Petra is also an AKC CGC (Canine Good Citizen) Evaluator #28916.

Kate Abbott has been training dogs and their owners for many years, through a security company, as a veterinary technician, and with Kindred Spirits Dog Training. Kate does all of Kindred Spirits' private, one-on-one training, and teaches our puppy and trick-training classes. She and her dog Walter are very active in the Love On A Leash Therapy Dog program, where Kate presently serves as Presiden of the North County chapter.

Cayla Horn is Kate’s assistant trainer for all the puppy classes. Although just a teenager, Cayla has grown up in the classes and is a very capable young instructor. She is in the process of training her Australian Shepherd, Logan, and German Shepherd, Teddy, to work as service dogs for her and to demonstrate service dog skills.

Cayla is very active in the Vista High School FFA program. She has shown her Boer goat at the Del Mar Fair and trained her inh agility and cartying.

Maggie Moore is an up and coming trainer. She is presently assisting in puppy, basic and therapy dog classes. Maggie trained her Airedale, Quimby, and Quimby was Kindred Spirits first service dog to become certified in our new program. Quimby now goes to school with Maggie on a daily basis.

Mary Moore assists us in more ways than we can thank her for. When not assisting with classes, she helps behind the scenes and make things easier for all of us. Mary trained her two Standard Poodles, Chante and Sailor, both of who are wonderful therapy dogs, and both of whom are great carting dogs. Sailor is also serving as a service dog.

Katie Silva has trained several dogs, including her present dogs, Sasha, a Rottweiler and Jasper and Lily, Jack Russell Terriers. Katie assists with our basic classes. Several of Katy's dog have served as therapy dogs.

In the media:

Liz's puppy class was filmed by a Discovery channel film crew for inclusion in a series on dogs called "A Dog's Life." It originally aired on Feb 14th, 2000 but look for it again on the Discovery or Animal Planet channels!

Kindred Spirits was also filmed by the Doctors Foster & Smith TV program "Faithful Friends."

"Good Morning America" sent a film crew to Vista to interview Liz about the dog food recalls in 2007.

Responsible Dog Ownership Day

Sat Oct 4: Noon to 3pm

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