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Spotlight Puppy Academy

"where dogs and humans connect"

Behavior & Dog Training Support for dedicated caregivers in Scotts Valley, Felton, Ben Lomond and midtown Santa Cruz.

Dog Training Sots Valley, Ben Lomond, Felton

Dog Life Feeling Ruff?

Whether you're navigating the whirlwind of puppyhood, managing your adolescent dog's boundless energy, or helping your sensitive or newly adopted dog feel comfortable and safe—life with a canine companion is a beautiful journey, but can also feel overwhelming at times and your vision of joyful guardianship can quickly shift into chaos, confusion, or frustration.

If you’re feeling stretched thin, unsure what to do or what your dog might need, you’re not alone—and you’re in the right place.

Puppy Teeth, Big Feelings, and the journey in between

Meaningful and long lasting training begins with connection and understanding. Our work is rooted in kindness, ethics, and positive reinforcement—always tailored to your dog’s unique needs and your everyday life. It is our mission to see you both happy together!

Choose The Perfect Path for you & your canine companion

Every dog’s journey is different—and so is yours. Whether you're raising a puppy, managing adolescent chaos, welcoming a newly adopted dog, or caring for a sensitive soul, it’s easy to feel unsure or overwhelmed. We’re here to help you find clarity, confidence, and connection—together.

Puppies

Are you struggling with puppy biting, house training or seek help with Socialization? We’ll help you to connect the dots to navigate the path of puppyhood with calm, confidence, and kindness.

Get started!

Teen Dogs

Is your adolescent dog suddenly ignoring you and life feels full of chaos? We’re here to guide you through this important developmental adolescent phase with clarity and compassion.

Get on board!

Adopted Dogs

New family arrival? Settling into a new home isn’t always smooth. We’ll help your unique dog arrive, build trust, connection and routines—so your new companion can truly settle in and thrive.

Let's connect!

Sensitive Dogs

For some dogs the world can feel especially overwhelming. We offer individualized training support to help them feel safe, understood and more at ease in their environment.

Get in touch!

Puppy Classes

Get on Board and Learn all about our unique Puppy Classes

Explore Puppy Class details

Private Training

No matter what Age or Background - all Private Training starts with an Initial Consult

During our initial consult we learn from you & your dog first so that we can support you the best way possible! Understanding your and your dog's needs enables us to provide relief and to tailor training support with your unique canine friend and situation in mind!

Initial Consultation - $145 /90 min Consultation

The Spotlight Puppy Academy difference

What makes us a great choice for dedicated Santa Cruz County canine caregivers ?

Fun for both ends of the leash

We will never use intimidation, fear, or pain to train your dog - instead we will only use rewarding and scientifically proven, humane training methods

Certified & experienced

In an unregulated industry, we believe that our own education is the key to success in training your canine companion and earning your trust

Continued education

Learning never ends, not for your dog, not for you and not for us. We will always seek the most up-to-date education to make us better trainers

Tailored training

Our goal is to help your unique canine companion become the best version of themselves, and for you both to live in harmony as a team.

Individual attention

You and your dog deserve our full attention! We make sure everyone feels seen and heard by keeping even class sizes remarkably small & comfortable

Relationships matters

Learning takes place when needs are met and emotional safety is provided - a key element in our rewarding and relationship based training approach

Any questions? let 's connect!

Hi, I'm Simone!

Founder of SPA

I am a professional Dog Trainer certified through the CCPDT, a certified Family Dog Mediator and am currently aspiring my certification as an ACE (Animal Centered Education) Certified Trainer.

Helping humans and their canine companions connect to live happy, harmonious lives together is my passion, and lifelong continued education my dedication. All with the goal to support you & your canine friend best with a well-rounded training approach that creates long lasting change and considers dogs as a whole beings!

Check out my credentials & approach

What Clients Are Saying

Joel & Daisy

We can’t recommend Simone enough. We were at our wits ends and ready to give away our adorable puppy because she was so hard for us to understand when Simone walked through our door and showed us how to communicate with her. Over the next 6 months Simone was extremely attentive to our needs and very responsive. She is clearly passionate about what she does and it shows in her dedication.

Susan Cooper & Zoey

We highly recommend Simone as a trainer. She understands dog behavior [...] and gives pet owners lots of calm, always positive support and encouragement. We feel so fortunate to have her working with us and Zoey.

There really isn't much that would make training more helpful except we wish we could work with Simone more days in a week or for longer sessions. We enjoy our time with her so much.