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Frankie Jackson

Certified Dog Trainer & Behavior Consultant

Frankie Jackson is the owner and behavior specialist at Canine Counseling. Frankie's love of animals started when she was just 1 year old, when her  family welcomed their first puppy into the home. Over the next 15 years, the family would care for two dogs, three cats, and multiple guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters and rats.

After leaving home at 18, she studied Zoology at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in northern England. There she discovered a passion for ethology, the study of animal behavior, as well as a keen interest in medicine, nutrition and healthcare.

After graduating she immediately began working as a veterinary assistant and over the following 5 years she gained certification as a registered Veterinary Nurse with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

Frankie continued to work as a Veterinary Nurse for the next decade, working in various environments including general practice, emergency & critical care, wildlife rescue and referral hospitals. She continued to study canine ethology in her spare time and began to offer behavioral consultations alongside her nursing duties. In 2019 she gained a postgraduate certification in Animal Behavior (Canine & Feline) and another in 2020 in Puppy Development & Behavior

In 2015, during her years as a nurse, Frankie adopted her dog Rook at 10 weeks old. Finding the training process both fascinating and challenging, she took a great interest in puppy coaching, which was quite different from the problem-solving that behavior modification required.

Due to a number of attacks by off-leash dogs, Rook had developed severe reactivity by the age of 3, forcing Frankie to shift her focus to fear, stress and anxiety-based behaviors.

A selfie of a woman (Frankie), a veterinary nurse in her 30s with brown hair wearing navy blue scrubs
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In 2021 Frankie (and Rook) moved from England to Atlanta, GA. Instead of re-certifying as a Vet Tech, she decided to fully commit to her passion for helping dogs (and their owners) overcome behavioral issues.

She started working at a local training company which specializes in force- and fear-free, positive reinforcement training.

 

During her time here, she honed her skills further and in 2022 earned CCPDT certification as a Canine Behavior Consultant, one of only 11 in the state of Georgia. This certification is reserved for trainers who have demonstrated broad technical expertise and a dedication to positive-reinforcement methods and scientific principles.

Frankie is LIMA certified, meaning she will never use force, fear or pain to 'correct' your dog, nor does she subscribe to the widely discredited 'alpha dog' or 'dominance' theories. Frankie continues to study the ever-changing subject of canine ethology and uses only kind, compassionate and science-backed training methods.

Frankie now lives in Smyrna with her husband, Greg, their dog, Rook and their rescue kitten, Newt. Rook is an eight-year-old mixed breed. His Embark DNA results tell us that he's a mix of mostly German Shepherd and Alaskan Malamute, with some Akita Inu, Dutch Shepherd and Siberian Husky thrown in!

Rook's favorite things to do depend on whichever persona is in charge that day. When in Malamute-Mode he tends to drift between sleeping spots, rousing only to eat, stretch and receive belly scritches. When he wakes up on the Akita side of the bed he picks fights with squirrels, bees and his nemesis, the robot vacuum. His GSD and Husky sides however, love drama more than anything else and will happily create it if it fails to present itself.

Frankie is a self-confessed dog dork and takes every opportunity she can to learn more about how their minds work. She also enjoys playing bass guitar in a cover band, listening to music, exploring the natural world, discovering local restaurants and watching Tottenham Hotspur FC play (and, most likely, lose).

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