About Us

Contact Us
Give us a call or email us if you would like to schedule a dog training class or an evaluation.

PO Box 1222
Capitola, CA 95010

(831) 476-9065
We look forward to talking with you! We spend most of our time out working with dogs. If we can't get to the phone to answer your call please read our Class Calendar for answers to frequently asked questions about dates, times, cost, locations, policies, training philosophy, and class descriptions.

Please include the class you are interested in, your name & phone.

Living with Dogs is owned by Sandi Pensinger, having been established in 2000 Living with Dogs provides training to hundreds of dogs every year in family manners, puppy preschool, agility, flyball, difficult dog, private lessons and workshops. Classes are mainly provided at the Field of Dreams Canine Training Center.

Click here to read more about our philosophy, techniques and our mission.

Sandi Pensinger
Sandi Pensinger was destined to work with dogs. She gained early experience working in her father's veterinary cardiology practice and Veterinary Post Graduate Institute for continuing education. Personally by training, trialing, showing and breeding - Retrievers, Shepherds, Terriers, Hounds and Mixed Breeds - throughout her life she has gained a deep appreciation for the diversity of canines and the human-canine relationship.

Formal Training
Sandi Pensinger continues to refine her study behavioral science, operant and classical conditioning. Graduating from the Canine Behavior Academy under Trish King at the Marin Humane Society, and from Bob Bailey's Operant Conditioning Seminars on Discrimination, Cueing & Criteria at Legacy Canine in Washington, Sandi has also studied Relationship Centered Training with Suzanne Clothier, paticipated in the annual Association for Pet Dog Trainers Conferences and Power Paws Agility Camps. She studied canine structure under Christine Zink and conformation handling under Tom Lambs. She has completed many workshops on various canine topics including competitive agility, flyball, aggression, clicker training, puppy training and TTouch. Sandi has trained under the head coach for the US Agility Team, Nancy Geyes and her husband, Jim Basic and has trained with the author of the Foundations Training for Agility DVD, Moe Strenfel. She has a Bachelor of Science with Honors as a Dean's Scholar at the School of Business at SJSU.

Keeping Dogs Happy at Home - One of Sandi’s goals most important goals is to help decrease animal surrenders by providing dog owners with positive reinforcement tools to solve dog behavior problems. Sandi believes that trust, communication and relationship are the foundation of positive dog training. She adopts a holistic approach to training based in behavioral science and by using the same techniques used extensively by marine mammal trainers.

In the Community - Sandi is one of the founders of the Field of Dreams Canine Training Center a community/business/school cooperative effort for the Veterinary Science Program at Soquel High School. As the president of the Coastal Dog Owners' Group (C-DOG www.capitoladogs.com) Sandi works extensivly on the Spring Dog Festival. She also organizes Terrier Play Days on the central coast to teach novice terriers and to raise money for canine genetic research.

Nationally - As the founder of the Jack Russell Terrier Research Foundation DNA Bank (www.jrt-research.com), Sandi coordinated the collection of over 1,100 DNA samples nationwide. She speaks on DNA Banking to national breed parent clubs about the benefits of DNA Banking and how to set up DNA Banks.

Education & Associations
Sandi graduated from San Jose State University with Distinction in 1980. She is a professional member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) and completed Canine Behavior Academy under nationally known trainer and author, Trish King at the Marin Humane Society.

In Competition - Sandi competes for fun with her River-Joy Jack Russell Terriers in agility, obedience, conformation, go-to-ground, lure coursing and racing.

Capi has his Elite Agility titles, won the prestigious California Cup in 2003 and has won many Agility High Point and Conformation Championships throughout the US. Tempe, has accomplished conformation, racing and go-to-ground championships and competes in agility. Up and coming Mackenzie is training and competing in agility. Piper Cub is busy with flyball and agility.

At Home - Sandi enjoys photography, gardening, camping, fishing and spending quality time with her family.

Ed Mabie
Ed is responsible for building, maintaining and running all of our agility, lure coursing, straight-line racing, flyball and training equipment. You'll see him at lure coursing running the lure motor or weekend mornings at the agility classes. He is a mechanical whiz with patience for problem solving. Sandi and Ed were married on a 50' sailing yacht with the family Golden Retreiver at their side. Ed also loves sailing and races his boat competitively out of the Santa Cruz Harbor. Ed graudated from Santa Clara University with an Bachelor's degree and Stanford University with a Master's degree in Engineering.