Hello again

first of all I don't think that Rachael is using colored gels. I have in my studio about 20 muslin backgrounds of varied colors and textures.
Next, my radio slaves are made by Quantum and there are other manufacturers. The transmitter slides onto your hotshoe of you camera and will transmit to any number of receivers that are connected to your strobes. They are not "line of sight" and will transmit thru walls. Cable releases attach to most shutter buttons (you might notice a small threaded hole on your shutter button) and come in different lenths so that you don't touch the camera and can stand away from it.
As far as the gels are concerned it could be that you don't have the right density. The more sheets of colored gets you add to the front of your flash, the darker the color becomes of cours that might mean you need to increase your lights intensity some.
By the way, your dog portraits are well done too. Good luck, Bob Swanson