🐾 Tricia 🐾

Playgroup Leader | Assistant Trainer
Fear Free Certified | First Aid Certified

For almost three years at The Dog Den—and a lifetime of loving and working with dogs—Tricia Frilling has been bringing patience, creativity, and joy to her role as Playgroup Leader and Assistant Trainer. She’s done a little bit of everything, always with a focus on Fear Free principles, and has a special passion for working with puppies, enrichment activities, and reactive dogs.

Her love for helping reactive dogs comes from her own experience with Chief, a German Shepherd she rescued and trained. That journey inspired her to support other owners in building confidence and communication with their dogs. She also loves trick training with her current dog, Astro, a three-year-old German Shepherd who is just as eager to learn as she is to teach.

Tricia’s training style is relationship-driven and science-based, with an emphasis on choice. She lets dogs explore their options, then guides them toward the best outcome—always focusing on connection and trust. Her favorite moments are watching a dog think through a problem, figure it out, and then proudly show off what they’ve learned. She also treasures hearing stories from owners about their dogs’ lives at home, which makes her feel even more connected to them, both at daycare and beyond.

Alongside Astro, Tricia shares her home with three goofy cats and two silly ferrets, affectionately referred to as “silly noodles.” Most of her free time is spent dog sitting for clients with Astro, often incorporating enrichment activities to keep visiting pups happy and engaged. Outside of that, she and Astro love hiking, paddle boarding, and camping together.

Tricia’s path to The Dog Den was deeply personal. After the loss of her fiancé, she decided to make a childhood dream come true—bringing home a purebred German Shepherd puppy. Searching for ways to raise a confident, well-balanced dog led her to the enrichment program at The Puppy Den, and eventually, to a career she loves.

At The Dog Den, Tricia can be found on the daycare floor leading playgroups, running enrichment activities, and assisting in training classes. She approaches each dog as if they were her own, saying:
“I see myself in the owners, dropping off their baby and hoping they have the best day. My goal is to make sure they do—and to send them home happy and tired.”