Amy Leyva with her family and one of her dogs at a past Halloween event. Leyva is the owner of Leyva’s Dog Training, which is hosting a drawing to provide training to dogs at the Los Alamos County Animal Shelter. Courtesy photo
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
Los Alamos resident Amy Leyva, who operates Leyva’s Dog Training, has offered her services to the Los Alamos County Animal Shelter since April. Now, she is striving to do more for the shelter.
Leyva is holding a drawing the second week of September. Participants can donate $20 to sponsor a shelter dog. Each time they donate $20, that dog’s name will go into the drawing. Also, participants can give $200 to enter their own dog’s name into a drawing to win a one-month board and training package from Leyva. The package is worth $1,800. If more than $1,800 is raised, then the remainder will be donated to the shelter.
Interested participants can enter either by cash, check, Venmo, Zelle or Cashapp.
If people need more information, they can check out Leyva’s Facebook page or call her at 505.670.8008.
Leyva offers her services three hours a week to the shelter. She said she teaches the dogs leash manners and basic manners. She offers one-on-one sessions for shelter dogs. Right now, she is working with Lucky, the second longest resident at the shelter, and previously Leyva worked with Sadie, who was adopted.
Leyva explained she offers her services to the shelter because some dogs need more rehabilitation than others and shelter staff are not able to provide that. By working with these dogs on behavioral issues, Leyva said she hopes to make them more adoptable.
Shelter Manager Paul Sena said Leyva is invaluable to the shelter.
“She is a great asset to the shelter … she is able to come to the shelter and work with the dogs with behavioral issues,” he said.
“She is doing an excellent job,” Sena added. “We’re really happy to have her.”
Leyva is a newcomer to Los Alamos. She and her husband, Zekeil, and their young son moved to town in February. However, she operated her dog training business in Carlsbad for three years.
Leyva offers private lessons that offer socialization for reactive dogs and intermediate and obedience group classes.
She explained not only was it Zekeil’s idea to work with the shelter, but it was his suggestion to establish the business.
When they met, Leyva was in Albuquerque and her husband was in Carlsbad so when she moved to Carlsbad, Leyva said she wasn’t sure what she was going to do.
“He said, ‘You are great with dogs – you should be a dog trainer!’,” Leyva said.
Previously, Leyva worked with a service dog trainer, Nathaniel Lucas, for training one of her own dogs and he was able to give her a lot of advice and resources.
“I learned quite a bit from that,” she said.
In addition, Leyva said she learned a lot just from trial and error.
It is work she said she enjoys.
“Obviously, I love dogs,” Leyva said. “…taking a dog that is lunging at the leash or barking at other dogs and working with them and seeing the transformation …that’s my favorite part; just seeing the transformation.”
View a video of Leyva showcasing her dog training skills here.
