Keep Your Pets Safe!

Learn Pet First Aid and CPR for your Animals!

Q: Pet First Aid!? What's that class like? Who teaches it?

This is a fun, interactive, video driven class to learn what to do when your adorable pet gets hurt. We focus on dogs and cats, but the skills you learn are applicable to similar sized animals. You will learn how to approach an injured animal, muscle and bone injuries, wound care, medical emergencies, dog and cat CPR and more. Call (619) 204-3838 to have us come to your community service group!

This ASHI Pet First Aid Training Program was reviewed by an American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) panel of nationally-renowned veterinarians, veterinary toxicologists, animal behaviorists and animal science specialists and has received the ASPCA Seal of Approval. ASHI and OptiWell proudly support the ASPCA mission to promote humane principles, prevent cruelty and alleviate fear, pain and suffering in animals.

Sue is our lead Pet First Aid instructor. She trained as a puppy raiser for Guide Dogs for the Blind and worked with them for 8 years. Sue has also taught Pet First Aid for the ARC since 1997. Don has always been around animals and has been teaching Pet First Aid since 2004.

Upcoming Pet First Aid Community Classes

Since 2005, Sue has taught hundreds of kids to be better pet owners in the Summer Pet Camps at the Escondido Humane Society. Contact your local southern California YMCA or Girl Scout troop for more info.

The Mission Valley YMCA in San Diego will host two of our Pet First Aid classes this summer: Saturday, June 28 from 9 AM to Noon or on Saturday, September 27 from 1 to 4 PM. Please visit MissionValley.YMCA.org directly to register for a class. Cost: $45 Member / $50 Non-Member.

If you have a group of kids and/or adults near San Diego County or in the San Francisco North Bay who would like this fun training, we'll come to you for $30/person, $200 minimum. Call (619) 204-3838 for more info.



Please leave your pet at home. We practice on stuffed animals.

Pet First Aid

Approaching an injured animal

ABCs for dog and cat CPR

Muscle, bone, and soft tissue injuries

Environmental emergencies

Common pet illnesses

Certificate, no exp.

OptiWell, Inc. was incorporated in San Diego, CA in April 2004 by Sue Lockhart and Don Ross to provide you with the Optimum in Wellness training! For many years, Sue and Don were the two most requested ARC Workplace CPR and Babysitting Instructors in San Diego County. Following the American dream, they've now gone into business together and have thus become a training center for the American Safety and Health Institute (ASHI).

Sue Lockhart has taught CPR, First Aid, and Child Care for the Red Cross since 1991. Her knowledge of CPR in the workplace and community is truly vast and as a working mom, she brings the subject home in a warm, friendly, down to earth manner. Sue was also honored by the Fire Dept when she received a Life Saving Citation from the City of San Diego after she used her CPR skills to save her two year old nephew who was a near drowning victim.

Don Ross began teaching as an HIV educator in 1991 and is now an expert in bloodborne pathogens. He ran programs and trained speakers for many agencies in northern and southern California. In 1998 he was hired by the Red Cross, cross-trained as a CPR and Child Care instructor, quickly becoming one of their most popular workplace instructors due to his unique use of humor to drive a point home. His classes are often compared by his students as the CPR equivalent to comedy driving school.

OptiWell, Inc. is an independent training center for the American Safety & Health Institute (ASHI). Graphics of the ASHI curriculum are used here with their kind permission.

An approved training center by the
Emergency Medical Services Authority for CA Child Care!
CPR and First Aid classes in Spanish available (see below).

We are also affiliated with Sharp Hospital's Cardiac Training Center to offer their BLS classes for Healthcare Providers and EMS workers.

OptiWell, Inc. HQ
PO Box 261004
San Diego, CA 92196

OptiWell Business Office
PO Box 339
Lower Lake, CA 95457

Independent ASHI Pet First Aid Training Centers

Alexandria, AL: IneedETA.com

Peoria, AZ: RealLifeEmergencyTraining.com

Glendale, AZ: ABCsofCPR.com

Mesa, AZ: CPRrescuers.com

Surprise, AZ: CrossLifelineET.com

Azusa, CA: EliteSafety.com

Bakersfield, CA: ValleySafetyTraining.com

Fullerton, CA: CPRtrainingCenter.net

Fullerton, CA: SSofSoCal.com

Los Angeles, CA: GodinezServices.com

Placerville, CA: SafetyQuestOnline.com

Riverside, CA: HealthcareEducation.org

San Diego, CA: Pet-First-Aid.com

Windsor, CT: Piszchala-Associates.com

Dover, DE: Home.comcast.net/~PositivePups

Newark, DE: Mywebpages.comcast.net/FSSS

West Palm Beach, FL: AlertTrainingSystems.com

Cantonment, FL: GCHHS.com

Miami, FL: CPRmiami.com

New Port Richey, FL: Life-ed.com

Port St. Lucie, FL: CannonConsulting.org

Buford, GA: AEDheartStart.com

Gainesville, GA: DavesSafetyService.com

Hazard, KY: SafteeSolutions.com

Morehead, KY: On-SiteEmergencyTraining.com

Reynolds Station, KY: DavisTrainingCenter.com

Gretna, LA: DiveAndRescue.org

New Orleans, LA: FirstResponseSvcs.com

St. Louis, MO: eMedTraining.com

Hawthorne, NJ: AmericanSafetyTraining.net

Metuchen, NJ: CommunitySafetyConsultants.com

Short Hills, NJ: LifeShotInc.com

South Orange, NJ: EMS-teaching.com

Amityville, NY: LICPRandSafety.com

Cambria Heights, NY: ForewardHealth.com

New Paltz, NY: NEASN.com

New Rochelle, NY: HandsToLife.com

London, OH: COHSTC.com

Mansfield, OH: WaterOpsTraining.com

Williamsburg, OH: HSTassoc.net

Allentown, PA: SafetyWatchinc.com

Soddy Daisy, TN: WeRcpr.com

Falls Church, VA: Safety1stCPR.com

Mukilteo, WA: SecondWindCPR.com