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ABOUT US
Rebecca Golian
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B.A. Degree in Psychology
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15+ years dog training experience
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Qualified Guide Dog Mobility Instructor
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Professional Service Dog Trainer
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Canine Behavior Specialist
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Member of the IACP
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Pet CPR/First Aid Certified
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Licensed, certified, and insured
QUALIFICATIONS
Founder & Executive Director
Rebecca grew up in Frederick County, Maryland and found her passion for working with animals at a young age. At the age of five, Rebecca began riding horses and joined the United States Pony Clubs (USPC). Rebecca trained and competed horses, taught private lessons and conducted clinics throughout high school. Rebecca also grew up working with dogs and volunteered at local rescues and shelters.
During college, Rebecca continued to compete in the equestrian sport of Three-Day Eventing, working under some of the best trainers and equestrian athletes in the world. She started her own equestrian business in 2009, offering training, competition, sport horse sales and private riding instruction in Maryland and Northern Virginia.
Rebecca also continued to work with dogs throughout college. While attending the University of Maryland, Rebecca offered private in-home training, group obedience classes, puppy development classes, and board & train programs for dogs with severe behavioral problems in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Rebecca also raised and trained German Shepherds for The Seeing Eye, a Guide Dog school based in Morristown, NJ.
In 2013, Rebecca decided to pursue working with dogs full time and moved to New York City to start a professional dog training and behavior modification business. Rebecca offered basic to advanced on and off-leash obedience, puppy development and socialization, service/therapy dog training and certification, and behavior modification for dogs with severe behavioral problems.
In 2015, Rebecca was offered a rare opportunity to complete a three year apprenticeship program to become a Qualified Guide Dog Mobility Instructor (GDMI) at Guide Dogs for the Blind. A GDMI trains guide dogs for people who are blind or visually impaired, matches trained guide dogs with clients, conducts client training, and offers follow up services for clients throughout the United States and Canada.
In 2019, Rebecca decided to move back to the east coast to be closer to friends and family. She moved to Charlotte, North Carolina and started Love in the Lead Canine Training, LLC. Rebecca continues to train and place guide dogs for various east coast based schools, and is training and placing other types of service dogs including mobility assistance, seizure response, and psychiatric service dogs. In 2020 she founded Healing Canines, Inc. in an effort to provide service dogs free of charge to residents of North & South Carolina.
Outside of running her business and the non-profit, Rebecca enjoys spending time with her personal dog Benji, spending time with her family and friends, and participating in outdoor activities such as hiking, backpacking, paddle boarding, horseback riding, and skiing.
OUR FACILITY
Situated on almost 4 acres, our home facility offers a peaceful, safe training environment. One of the unique aspects of our program is the type of environment that we provide the dogs during their training. Instead of a noisy and stressful kennel environment, the dogs stay in a quiet, tranquil home environment.
The dogs are housed in a large section of the home, equipped with large wire crates, crate pads, and individual water pails. The area is temperature controlled, with air filtration, and is cleaned daily. We play relaxing music, and create a calm and welcoming environment.
Due to our home training environment, we are able to simulate more “real world” training scenarios. All the things that a service dog would experience in their future home, we simulate in our home facility.
We utilize the entire property for training; we have over a half acre of fenced in grass areas which we utilize for play time as well. The dogs receive individual and group training sessions throughout the day, and plenty of off-leash play time!
