“Emily and Lizzy are patient, kind, thoroughly knowledgeable and adaptive to you and your pets' circumstances and needs.”
— MaryBeth L., Liberty, and Silas
Our Team
Emily Cassell
Emily earned her BS in Animal Science, with a specialization in Equine Science, from the University of Florida. Since 2010, she has been providing professional behavior assistance to pets and their people. She completed two internships, one at ZooTampa working primarily with Florida Manatees, and one at Clearwater Marine Aquarium, working with dolphins, otters, and pelicans. While in school, she worked with Class Act for Dogs, in Gainesville, Florida, under Dee Zurberg, an accomplished trainer who emphasized not only kindness to dogs, but kindness to their people as well. Since then, she has continued her career in the zoo field working with a variety of species including tigers, otters, Flying foxes, gibbons, and as well as various avian, aquatic, and reptile species. Her main focus, however, is caring for orangutans. While not working at the zoo, she has spent years working with dogs as a group class instructor and behavior consultant at Courteous Canine, Inc. This led her to create Small Animal Resources, a place for guardians of small pets to find accurate, reliable information and to highlight the behavioral needs of small mammals. She has published articles for the Pet Professional Guild and the International Association for Animal Behavior Consultants on various topics related to rabbit care and behavior. She has presented at various conferences, workshops, and webinars, for both the Pet Professional Guild, the Animal Behavior Management Alliance, and the Florida Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Lizzy Cassell
Lizzy Cassell is a board certified behavior analyst (BCBA). She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Florida, and master’s degree in Applied Behavior Analysis from the University of South Florida. She also completed a specialized certificate program in Positive Behavior Support at the University of South Florida. Lizzy has been working in the field of applied behavior analysis since 2012 providing behavior services in various settings. She has provided behavioral supports services to students in the school system, in the home setting to families with children with developmental disabilities, taught parenting classes, and worked with foster children in a residential group home setting. She is accredited in many levels of the Triple P Positive Parenting curriculum, and has experience teaching the TOOLS for Positive Parenting curriculum. Her experience includes supporting caregivers, teachers and group home staff in developing functional behavior assessments and function- based behavior intervention plans that are individualized for the person and setting. She is passionate about meeting people where they are at and providing coaching supports that allow them to learn skills easily and quickly. This coaching work has led her to her interest in working with animals and their people. She utilizes her coaching training to breakdown and design training skills that are easy and fun for people to use to set their animals up for success. She is passionate about empowering people through applied behavior analysis to be confident in working with their animals using positive, force free training strategies. She enjoys teaching people the science behind behavior and teaching them skills that will last a lifetime to empower themselves and their animals. Lizzy has presented at various conferences, webinars, and poster sessions at a variety of professional conferences.