Mel Heber began professionally training in 2007 while working with the Dubuque Regional Humane Society. There she was able to work with a variety of people as well as dogs and cats. She began to see patterns in the troubles new adopters might have after bringing home a new family member, many of which were fairly easily solved or prevented with the proper instruction. Mel has experience creating and leading classes aimed toward obedience and behavior solutions. She also has experience meeting with people one-on-one to help them solve issues ranging from separation anxiety to obedience to aggression toward visitors, and more. Mel has worked helping dogs plagued by fearfulness, reactivity, or simple over-exuberence and impulse control problems. She has consulted on numerous litterbox issues and new-pet stress with cats, helping new adopters to make it easier for their pets to adjust to a new family member.

Mel is a member of the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) and is certified as a CPDT-KA (Certified Professional Dog Trainer - Knowledge Assessed). She is also an ABC Mentor Trainer, an AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) evaluator, an evaluator for K9to5 National Therapy Dog Registry, and an evaluator for the APDT's new C.L.A.S.S. (Canine Life and Social Skills) program. Her business, Paw In Hand LLC, is fully licensed and insured. 

Mel lives in Dubuque, IA with her family, both two-legged and four-legged. Among her family is her husband and her two wonderful little boys. She also has a Lab mix named Daboo who is a certified Canine Good Citizen and has experience working as a therapy dog, educational dog, and demo dog helping in group obedience and behavior modification classes. While working at the shelter, she also added a mixed breed Saint Bernard mutt named Lennier who had basically grown up in the shelter. After bringing him home shortly after the birth of her first son in 2009, Mel found that Lennier was a reactive dog with a deep-seated fear of other dogs and kids. Intensive socialization and desensitization as well as behavior modification has produced a dog who is able to work as a demo dog and is a wonderful family companion. She also added two cats from the shelter- first a shorthair orange tiger named ZugZug who came home with her in 2007, and then a shorthair tabby cat named Friendly who arrived in 2010, first as a foster cat, and then as a permanent member of the family after repeated fostering due to illness. 

Mel has a lot of experience with fostering both dogs and cats in her home through the Dubuque Humane Society, and has cared for over 35 adult dogs, puppies, mama cats with kittens, and litters of kittens to get them ready for adoption.

Mel enjoys training her dogs in area searches (like drug detection dogs) and trailing (sniffing out where another pet went by following the scent leftover in the air) as well as carting (pulling a wagon or cart) and obedience. She loves teaching her dogs tricks to keep them busy and to fulfill their love of learning. Both of her cats also know basic tricks such as sit and high-five. 

Beyond cats and dogs, Mel has also worked with training fish, amphibians, and reptiles. She always loves a challenge, and especially loves transforming a troublesome pet into a much-loved companion with a harmonious relationship with its family. To do this, she realizes it is just as important to teach the family as it is to train the pet. Mel places a lot of emphasis on patience and communication by body-language, as well as methods such as classical and operant conditioning to get the desired result.