About Me

I got involved in dog training way back in college, about 20 years ago now (wow, that long ago!) I found this book in the college book store about obedience training and when I read about the trials and titles they had, I wanted to get a dog and participate! I decided to get a sheltie since they were supposed to be easy to train and went out and bought the first one I found in the newspaper (for the huge price of $75!) I ended up with a shy, quite neurotic dog that was incredibly devoted to me and somehow learned in spite of my total inexperience. Tosh and I somehow made it all the way to a Utility title in obedience in spite of his temperament issues and my own cluelessness.

While I was attending college, I went with a friend of mine to an event at a nearby training center that included an introduction to this new sport called "agility". It was just becoming an organized sport, but no trials had really been held yet, so the club just built their own obstacles for us to try and maneuver through. Some of the things we encountered was a tunnel with aluminum pie pans hanging inside, a kiddie pool to walk through, a food bowl avoidance (ala Rally!) and a giant teeter that rose higher in the air than my head! It was quite an intro but Tosh being the trooper he was, he got through all the obstacles without a hitch, winning the event and I was totally sold on agility! 

Tosh and I traveled the eastern US competing in whatever agility events there were...back then, you might have to travel 10-12 hours to the one event that might be available in a month. Unfortunately poor Tosh was just over the 16" cutoff in USDAA and back then, the jumps for him were not only 24" high, but up to 24" wide as well! He simply was not physically capable of the size of jumps (the triple in particular was our nemesis) but he did eventually get his AD title and a couple legs on the AAD before I gave up and retired him. His agility career would have been so different had he been just an inch shorter, or had we had all the wonderful choices today's competitors have! But he did have the distinction of being the first dog to earn the USDAA VAD title (Veteran Agility Dog) before the program was dropped for the new Performance program.

Having realized Tosh would never be a great agility dog, I decided to get another sheltie and some years later hooked up with a breeder (Ann Silverman) who had a dog from a previous breeding that I really liked. When it came time to pick a puppy, I was told that another buyer wanted a show dog and so would get the first choice. Wouldn't you know, she ended up taking the puppy I liked the most! So I ended up with my second pick. That dog I decided to name Taz, and his training began the day he came home with me.

Taz was and is still my once-in-a-lifetime dog. He was so easy to train and loved to compete. By the time I got Taz I had become a far better trainer and the combination just clicked. There just seemed to be nothing we couldn't do! From the day we stepped into a Novice ring, he ran fast and consistent and just blew away the competition. And at home, he was a perfect gentleman, so well-behaved and easy to live with, everyone that met him wanted to know where they could find a dog like him!

Our career together is full of so many highlights, it's hard to even remember all of them (being a bad record keeper!) But we competed in quite a few national events, having some very close calls and great runs, winning our share of classes along the way. I always enjoyed competing in many sports and Taz competed in not only agility, but obedience, rally, herding, musical freestyle, flyball and herding. You can read more about our accomplishments on the Instructing page of this site.

Taz passed away very unexpectedly almost 2 years ago, it still pains me to think about it. You can read the story of his passing, and my tribute this amazing, special dog over on my blog. Today I just have one dog, a small sheltie named Boomer that is a joy to have and train, but due to fear issues with people, has not been able to do much showing as of yet. We still are working on that!

Today I spend most of my time at home working on my software, an ecommerce package for building online stores called CFWebstore. There are over a thousand stores using my software including Clean Run and DogGoneGood. My other hobbies include photography (of course!), advanced origami folding, digital scrapbooking, and cooking. I am also a dedicated Christian and ring handbells in the choir at my church and play the recorder and tin whistle. You'll see some of these interests reflected as you browse around my website.