Instructing

With over 20 years of dog training and showing, I bring a lot of experience to the table in teaching classes in various dog sports and activities. While there is much pride in seeing my own dogs do well and win in the ring, there is something special about seeing a student go out and achieve the goals they had for themselves and their dog.

Training Philosophy

My methods of training have changed considerably over the years. Today I take a strictly positive approach to training, I use a clicker typically for training new behaviors, and often for working out problems in training as well. I do not consider myself strictly a clicker trainer, switching to verbal markers once a behavior has been learned. My methods of fading out food rewards are highly successful in getting dogs that will work at a high level of enthusiasm in the ring when they are not available. I want to have a strong bond and working relationship with the dog, and my training is geared towards that end.

Education

I earned a B.S. in Biology from VA Tech and attended veterinary college for 2 years before deciding it was not the right career for me. I completed a minor in Education thinking I would be a science teacher, but instead ended up as a computer programmer! But I never lost my love of teaching and enjoy being able to have an outlet for those teaching skills.

Over the years, I've been able to take seminars and/or train with many highly skilled trainers and experts in their fields. Here are just some of the people I have worked with:

Obedience - Janet Lewis (Smart Dogs, Brilliant Trainers), Sue Sternberg (Inducive Retrieve), Charlie Chmura (OTCH handler in obedience)

Agility - Linda Mecklenburg, Bud Houston, Pati & Stuart Mah, Paulena Renee-Hope, Susan Garrett, Marq Cheek, Wendy Pape, Stacy Peardot-Goudy

Freestyle - Attila Szkukalek

Flyball - Spring Loaded seminar

Herding - I've attended several herding seminars with my dogs, but don't recall the instructors!

Previous Instructing Experience

I first starting teach agility classes for the Artful Dodgers Agility club in the early '90s. There were no formal agility classes available for newcomers to the sport, so when asked if I would be willing to teach the first one, I decided to take the plunge. I continued to teach classes , help run agility demos and trials, participated in flyball demos, etc.

In the late 90's I was approached about helping to start an agility program for the Capital DTC. As part of a 3-person team, we got this new program off the ground, where for over 5 years I instructed classes in agility, basic obedience, and flyball, participated as a board member, and conducted some beginner agility seminars. I also participated in agility, flyball and musical freestyle demos.

Since then I've done private and guest instructing off and on as I've moved around the east coast. I look forward to once again being a regular instructor at Teamworks!

Accomplishments

Sweet MacIntosh "Tosh"

My first sheltie, and my most challenging! Tosh was a backyard bred dog and was neurotic, shy and a terrible height for doing agility: 17" height meant he had to jump 24" high (and wide!) jumps in USDAA! But he also had the sheltie desire to please and so we were able to still have a career with some highlights in it. He was also amazing at gambles and would work at huge distances from me on an agility course.

Titles: AD, VAD in USDAA agility (first veteran dog title earned), AgI, AgII in NCDA/UKC agility, UD in obedience, PT in herding

Big Wins: Tosh was on the first team to win a DAM team event. He won a number of high-scoring sheltie, and class placements in obedience.

Encore's Jazz 'N Razzmatazz, "Taz"

Taz had an amazing career and continued to earn titles in new venues until he had to be retired due to arthritis in the elbows. He will always be my "once-in-a-lifetime " dog and I still miss him terribly almost two years after losing him abruptly. He was challenged with a handler that could not run very fast and often battled injuries and still managed to compensate and win many events and be competitive on a national scale.

Titles: Taz earned the three major agility championships: MACH (AKC), ADCH (USDAA) and NATCH (NADAC). To that he added the USDAA Performance championship (APD) and versatility and veteran championships in NADAC (V-NATCH, Vers-NATCH). He also earned the title considered the equivalent of a championship in flyball, the ONYX, making him to my knowledge the only sheltie to reach this level of accomplishment in both sports. Taz also earned the Bronze Lifetime achievement award in USDAA agility (along with various other titles in the individual classes that I didn't bother to track!) and 1000-point award in NADAC. Taz also earned a UD in obedience, W-FD in musical freestyle, RA in rally, and had a leg on his herding PT before retiring.

Big Wins: It's hard to pick out our biggest wins, but winning the USDAA SE Regional in 2001 and earning a bye into the finals of the Grand Prix was a highlight for me. Taz went on to take 5th place in the finals with a beautiful run. Taz won the first Steeplechase event at Fairhill and went on to take second place the following year (losing by only one second!) He won two local DAM team events (at one he was determined to be the highest scoring dog of every dog that participated at the event!) and an all-sheltie team with Taz took second place at the huge Lexington event put on by USDAA. In NADAC, Taz ran in two championships, taking second place overall in standard the first year, and returning at the age of 10 the next year, winning as a veteran and also winning the gamblers event, and taking second place over all ages in jumpers (due to his amazing gambling!) He earned many high scoring dog awards, as well as winning many individual runs. Taz competed twice in the ESPN Great Outdoor Games, taking the bronze medal the first year, missing on first place with a missed contact on the Aframe! Taz also was a finalist in the AKC Championship in Atlanta, having a spectacular run that would have won, but for a dropped jump bar!

In obedience and rally, Taz routinely won his classes. He qualified for the Dog World award for all 3 titles earned in a year, a particularly amazing accomplishment considering when I showed him in Novice I hadn't intended to go any further and had done no training in Utility at that point! Taz was the high scoring Open and Utility dog in the same year at our obedience club.

Other Kudos: Multiple Top Ten awards in USDAA, both in Championship and Performance classes. Taz was one of the pioneers in musical freestyle, competing in some of the first events in the highest level in both CFF and WCFO freestyle. He performed many unique moves at the time, such as doing a lateral sidepass while across the ring away from me. Taz also appeared numerous times on the Animal Planet TV show Pet Star, performing routines of very unique tricks, and was the subject of a special Pet Story episode that followed us while auditioning and appearing on Pet Star.

Other dogs

I've trained and shown a number of other dogs in obedience and agility, a few which were placed into other homes for a variety of reasons. Two of those dogs have gone on to top careers in their sports, earning titles like a MACH in agility and ONYX in flyball. I currently am training another sheltie with some fear and shyness issues that will hopefully be seen in the ring in the future.

Current Instructing Schedule

Here are the classes I am currently teaching. Agility privates available as well, typically on Saturday afternoons.You can sign up for my classes at the Teamworks website.