Meet Jane Glickman and Michelle Leone of Cape-Able Canines

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jane Glickman and Michelle Leone.

The company was founded by Aleita Downer, “Do What You Love and the Rest Will Follow.”

When Aleita’s son applied to CCI for a service dog for the disabled…and was put on a five year wait list, she was sure she could train a dog for him, one that could open his doors and turn on the lights and perform all the usual tasks.

She read books, watched videos, talked to people who were partnered with service dogs, and did an apprenticeship with an obedience trainer.  She joined the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, close to its’ inception, and attended conferences.  (Aleita says she was quite awed at meeting the big-name trainers in the field).  She stood in the back and trained her Golden Retriever, Summer.

Summer and Joel were eventually certified as a Service Dog Team by Canine Support Teams, and in recognition of Aeita’s accomplishments, CST offered her a training apprenticeship.  Later Aleita had the privilege of studying at the Assistance Dog Institute with Bonnie Bergen founder of CCI.  Aleita became CST’s Field Advisor and Puppy Raiser Liaison for San Diego County.

Aleita began offering classes – first only to puppy raisers, Service and Therapy dogs.  It wasn’t long before she realized that the dog and user-friendly techniques used to socialize and train working dogs could be used for the benefit of pet dogs as well.  So Cape-Able Canines was born.

It was an incredible stroke of luck that Dog Beach Dog Wash offered Aleita an opportunity to train at their facility, for which she says she will be forever grateful.  Later, at the invitation of veterinarian Dr. Miguel Espinosa, Aleita also trained at the Pet Hospital of La Mesa, and in 2004, finally found a facility to call her own, allowing Aleita, with the help of some incredible staff, to add services like day care and boarding.

Michelle and Megan, her chocolate Lab puppy, began as students at Cape-Able Canines with the typical complaints: my dog jumps up, drags me down the street on walks, and is destroying the house when left alone! Michelle was a great student and quickly learned how to channel Meg’s happy energy into appropriate exercise and good manners.

Impressed at the difference good training can make, Michelle (and Meg) took every class that we offered. They began volunteering to help in classes and, eventually, Michelle successfully graduated from the Cape-Able Canines Training-to-Train year-long apprenticeship program.

When Cape-Able Canines finally found a permanent home in La Mesa, Michelle put her talents to work! She left her job as a dental assistant, founded her business, 24/7, and began providing the luxury boarding services for us. Her business name is especially apropos, as Michelle lives at the facility and offers peace-of-mind to families by providing round-the-clock customized company, supervision and attention to the dogs in her care.

Michelle quickly became indispensable to Cape-Able Canines. Her deep sense of responsibility to the dogs at the facility, her expertise at accurately reading dog body-language and her commitment to dog-safety led Aleita to ask her to manage the Happy Camper’s Daycare services.

With Aleita’s retirement Michelle became the facility manager, and, in 2015, Michelle officially became the owner of Cape-Able Canines!

Before Jane completed the 18-month Cape-Able Canines apprenticeship, she earned a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from Teacher’s College, Colombia University.

With more than 26 years of elementary teaching experience. and almost 10 years as a dog training instructor, Jane is an expert at managing a classroom and multi-tasking. A little trade secret – positive reinforcement works on kids (and cats and spouses) as well as it does on dogs. So, most school teachers who train with Cape-Able Canines tell me privately that they use the same techniques in their classrooms… with great success.

Jane loves to “do the research” and she has pursued continuing dog-related education through books, videos, webinars and attending seminars with the likes of Ian Dunbar. Ian ’Dunbar is the guru of dog-and-people-friendly-training and the founder of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (Jane is a member in good standing).

Jane has certification as an AKC Star Puppy Trainer and as a Canine Good Citizen Evaluator. She is experienced in doing Pet Therapy Program Evaluations. She has trained breeds from Pomeranians to Mastiffs and has special expertise with training dogs with physical, visual and hearing challenges.

When Aleita Downer retired from professional dog training, she chose Jane as the trainer to replace her.

Has it been a smooth road?
As with any small business, we have experienced ups and downs. Opening our facility on Commercial Street in La Mesa was the accomplishment of a long standing dream. It enabled us to offer day care and boarding as well as training classes. Having an indoor (air conditioned) training room enabled us to offer classes in inclement weather.

Despite the challenges that came along with having a facility, our longevity and consistency in San Diego has enabled us to build a strong, women owned and operated small business.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Cape-Able Canines is conveniently located between the 8 and 94 freeways in La Mesa, CA. Cape-Able Canines offers doggy day care on 8100 square feet of natural grass, luxury dog boarding in an apartment setting with 24 hour supervision, and a wide variety of dog training classes.

Because Michelle, the owner, lives on the premises, our dog boarding is unlike any other boarding in the area. Dogs can sleep in a crate, on their own bed, on the sofa, or occasionally, with Michelle and her own dog, Meadow, in Michelle’s bed. Boarding dogs either participate in day care or day play sessions because a tired dog is a happy dog! Michelle is able to accommodate dogs with special diets, medications and special needs.

Unlike other doggy day cares in the area, we are not a drop in day care. We take care to test the dogs that attend day care and set play groups that match play styles. Our natural grass is a point of pride and is widely considered to be a safer play surface, similar to pro football stadiums that are eliminating artificial turf and replacing it with natural grass.

We offer AKC endorsed classes that are open to all breeds and mixes and dogs of all ages, such as STAR puppy classes and preparation for the Canine Good Citizen test as well as preparation for the Community Canine test. In addition, we offer classes in general and advanced obedience, fun (non-competitive) introduction to agility, rally and other classes.

Because of Aleita’s background with service and therapy dogs, we have a long standing commitment to helping to train well prepared therapy dog teams. We have a progression of classes that we recommend, and several therapy dog organizations that Jane is qualified to evaluate for. We have several high profile local therapy dogs that are graduates of our program that we are extremely proud of.

Cape-Able Canines puts on several special Open House events every year that are open to the public. We just had our annual Halloween carnival and costume contest, and are beginning to work on our annual Christmas event with photos with Santa. We also do an annual Easter egg hunt and several dog friendly movie nights in our parking lot every year.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
San Diego is an extremely dog friendly city. With the dog beaches, dog parks, dog friendly restaurants and rentals in our area, dogs are active members of people’s families. People in San Diego tend to want a well behaved dog, one that can be trusted with children and strangers as well as members of the immediate family. We are honored to offer people the tools they need to have a happy, well-adjusted dog.

Pricing:

• boarding $70 per night (day care or day play, medication included)
• day care $35 per day

Contact Info:

• Address: 8150 Commercial St
  La Mesa, CA 91942
• Website: www.cape-able-canines.com
• Phone: 619-463-DOGS (3647)
• Email: jane@cape-able-canines.com or michelle@cape-able-canines.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeAbleCanines/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/cape-able-canines-la-mesa

Image Credit:
Jane Glickman

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