Meet the Team

  • Lena Logan is the founder of Paws & Reward, and a professional dog trainer and behaviour consultant based in Blackwood, South Australia. Her mission is to help dedicated dog owners across Adelaide live more fulfilled and joyful lives with their furry companions. Lena is deeply committed to supporting her clients throughout their training journey and takes pride in seeing real, lasting results.

    Lena holds a double degree in Social Science and Psychological Science and a First-Class Honours degree in Animal Behaviour and Welfare from the University of Chester. She has worked with respected organisations such as the RSPCA, Guide Dogs, Adelaide Vet, and Pawly Understood, gaining experience in everything from basic manners to complex behaviour issues like reactivity, aggression, and anxiety.

    Lena is especially passionate about working with shy and fearful dogs, helping them build confidence and feel safe in the world around them. She also supports their guardians in understanding and responding to their dog’s needs with kindness and clarity.

    Lena is committed to ongoing professional development and staying at the forefront of best practices in force-free, science-based training. She regularly attends leading industry conferences and seminars, including the Aggression in Dogs Conference, the Resilience Rainbow Seminar, and the Border Collie Summit. In 2023, she completed Karen Pryor’s Snake Avoidance Course, became a certified Family Paws Parent Educator, and earned her certification through the Pet Professional Guild. She has also completed the Aggression in Dogs Master Course led by internationally recognised expert Michael Shikashio.

    As the founder of Paws & Reward, Lena is proud to lead a team that shares her commitment to improving the lives of pets and their families. Clients can trust they are receiving expert, compassionate guidance from a highly qualified professional who is genuinely invested in their success.

  • Lisa is a valued member of the Paws & Reward team, bringing extensive experience in both dog training and veterinary nursing. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from the University of Adelaide (2019) and a Certificate IV in Veterinary Nursing. With over five years of experience as a Vet Nurse, Lisa has developed a particular interest in dentistry and puppy owner education.

    Through running Puppy Pre-School classes, Lisa recognised the importance of equipping puppy parents with the right knowledge and skills to raise happy, well-rounded dogs. Her training focus includes appropriate socialisation, enrichment, cooperative care, and ongoing obedience.

    As a puppy parent to her American Staffordshire Terrier, Omen, Lisa understands the joys and challenges of dog ownership firsthand.

    Lisa leads all group classes at Paws & Reward, as well as private Puppy College Consultations and Basic Manners Consultations, ensuring dogs and their families receive expert guidance tailored to their needs.

  • Sophie has been passionate about dogs for as long as she can remember. Her lifelong love of animals led her to pursue a degree in Animal Science, completed in 2012, followed by a Certificate IV in Companion Animal Services from Delta Institute in 2015. Over the past decade, Sophie has dedicated herself to helping people and their dogs build strong, positive relationships that enable them to learn, grow, and thrive together.

    Sophie understands that successful training isn’t just about teaching cues — it’s about nurturing the unique bond between dog and owner. She focuses on making every session engaging, enjoyable, and practical, so that the skills learned easily translate into real-life situations. Her patient and positive approach helps clients feel confident while fostering a joyful experience for their dogs.

    Outside of work, Sophie finds joy in spending time outdoors with her two beloved dogs and her busy toddler, embracing the lively, rewarding chaos of family life. Her own experience juggling puppy energy and parenthood gives her additional empathy and insight when supporting clients navigating similar challenges.

Training Approach

Paws & Reward’s training philosophy begins with kindness to both people and animals.  No one will be punished for not knowing what to do or making mistakes. Our focus is on helping you understand what your dog or cat wants and needs, while also equipping your pet with the skills he or she needs to be comfortable and happy in your family. The goal is for you and your pet to enjoy fulfilled and enriched lives together.  

Our training focuses on three areas to achieve behaviour change: management, relationships and training.

  • Management: This involves short and long term strategies that will set your pet up for success. Importantly, management helps prevent problems from developing or getting worse over time.

  • Relationship: This refers to the pet-owner relationship being a partnership rather than being viewed as one party dominating another. We teach the animal the important rules for living in the household, and we teach guardians how animals communicate and learn. This helps to strengthen the human-animal relationship so that both parties can live happily together without fear and intimidation.

  • Training: We use positive reinforcement training because research has consistently shown it to be the most effective way to teach an animal the desired behaviours and learn new tasks. Positive reinforcement involves reinforcing desirable behaviours and preventing, redirecting, or ignoring undesirable behaviour. This training strategy makes any situation better because it fills in the gaps for your pet on what you do want her or him to do instead of what you don't want her or him to do. To achieve this, we use anything your individual pet would welcome more of (food, toys, attention, petting, etc.). Behaviour you like is matched with things your dog likes. Everyone wins!

We don’t have a use for choke chains, electric collars or any other equipment that requires the dog to fail in order to serve its purpose of “correcting”.

Testimonials

  • “I have just finished Lena's puppy college with my 6 month old pup Nina. Lena's advice and training was incredibly helpful. She was organised, patient and kind, answering all of our questions and still managing to get through a wealth of information. Each session we were provided with extensive notes that I have used to keep my husband up-to-date with the training, and can go back to to remind myself of the tips & tricks. Lena's positive training approach worked so well that even my 15-year-old reactive terrier has benefitted. Nina is now walking with a loose lead, has awesome recall at the park, and doesn't jump up on guests when they arrive (all things I wanted to improve on before I started the course). I have no hesitation in recommending Lena with five stars. Thank you so much.”

    -Lara and Nina

  • “We have had the pleasure of working with Lena across two entirely different circumstances – private classes for an anxious dog and puppy college with our newest addition. Lena’s depth of knowledge, experience and dedication to her craft is a cut above the rest. Lena’s guidance has helped me undo the common misconceptions about puppy and dog training and has seen me develop into a confident puppy/dog owner. I highly recommend Paws and Rewards and look forward to future courses, such as snake awareness training.”

    -Abby

  • We loved training with Lena. She is patient, kind and her lessons are well structured and explicit. She communicates clearly and explains the reasons behind dog behaviour, making it easy to understand. We gained a lot from her wealth of knowledge and experience. We would highly recommend.

    -Sarah and Cookie