Authors (20)

Petra graduated from Rutgers School of Health Related Professions 17 years ago with a degree in physical therapy and has experience working with an extremely varied caseload including pediatric through geriatric clients with a vast range of diagnoses. Her areas of expertise included in-patient rehabilitation, orthopedics and neurology. Petra attended the Canine Rehabilitation Institute in 2007 and is a certified Canine Rehabilitation Therapist.

Petra trains and trials her Labrador Retrievers in obedience, agility and field. Her black Labrador Retriever, Tyler, has the distinction of being the 2008 and 2009 National Obedience Champion and First Runner Up in 2010. In 2012, Petra and Tyler became the first American team to win the Obedience World Cup (they placed second in 2010). Petra’s dogs have earned field titles (MH, QAA). Currently she is competing at the Master’s Level in agility with Zaidan and working towards qualifying for Nationals with her Obedience Trial Champion Zeal. Zayna, her newest competition dog, is training and competiting in obedience and agility.

Petra has written several articles on canine conditioning, canine injury prevention, competing with your dog and more. She has been published in a number of magazines including Clean Run, Front and Finish, and Whole Dog Journal.

Amelia Pizzi CPDT-KA is a full-time dog trainer in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. She focuses on teaching dog owners how to use positive reinforcement to train their dogs in all areas including puppy life skills, pet dog obedience and manners, agility training, scent work, and more.

Amelia has three rescue dogs and enjoys working with them each in different areas. Holly (11 year old German Shepherd mix) is a retired Therapy Dog as well as a helper for reactive dogs; Stark (9 year old Husky mix) is a retired Agility competitor with titles from NADAC and ASCA, as well as Trick Dog Titles from DMWYD; the newest addition, Nugget (2 year old Chihuahua mix) is an eager and smart little one who loves nothing more than a game of tug and is learning agility as well.

Learn more about Amelia on The Dog Classroom website at www.thedogclassroom.com and find her on Instagram and Facebook @thedogclassroom.

Deborah (Gross) Torraca, DPT, MSPT, Diplomat ABPTS, CCRP has been involved in the field of animal physical rehabilitation for over 17 years and currently owns a small animal rehabilitation practice in Connecticut called Wizard of Paws Physical Rehabilitation for Animals, LLC. She received her BS from Boston University, a Masters degree from Quinnipiac College, and her doctorate from the University of Tennessee. She has advanced certifications in her field. Dr. Torraca has lectured throughout the world on the topic of small animal rehabilitation for the past 12 years, and is one of the founders of the certificate program in canine rehabilitation from the University of Tennessee. She has published widely on both the professional level and to dog enthusiasts of many venues. Laser therapy has been an interest and passion of hers for over 10 years and she is very active in the development of treatment programs and education on laser therapy.

Kelly Daniel (She/her) is a learning and dog training addict. She has been training and competing with her dogs (of various shapes and forms) for around 15 years.

Kelly is normally a high school Science Teacher and Head of Department (Science) in the wonderful New Zealand, but is currently on parental leave with her tiny human Blake.

Since studying Zoology at University Kelly has had a keen interest in animals, and learning in all species. She's travelled to the US to learn, and become qualified in Canine Fitness Training, and since then has added a range of qualifications to her belt including FDSA Sports Foundation Trainer, Fear Free Trainer, Kinesthesiology Taping, Raw food certified, and is completing training in Canine Massage, and to be a Nosework judge.

Kelly is also very proud to have been a part of the TV show 'Dogs Almighty', titled multiple dogs to champion status in three different sports, and have founded started a NZ School Support dog program with her two spaniels. She competes in anything she can, but this is primarily agility and nosework.

In her training business (https://www.hybriddogtraining.com/) Kelly focuses on using smart reinforcement strategies, and acknowledging the impact of emotions and the body to training behavior's. Hybrid Training is all about developing happy and healthy dogs, and successful competitive teams.

Nancy is a certified trainer with the CCPDT, and a certified behaviour consultant with the IAABC.  She teaches seminars, webinars, and workshops on dog training, dog behaviour, and the business end of training throughout Canada, the US, and Europe.   She is also an instructor for Fenzi Dog Sports Academy and a regular article contributor to the Whole Dog Journal. She shares her home in Quebec, Canada with her husband Tom and their Border Terrier, Bennigan.

Nancy Gagliardi Little  has been training dogs since the early 1980's when she put an OTCH on her Novice A dog, a Labrador Retriever. Since then she has put many advanced obedience titles on her dogs, including 4 AKC OTCH titles, 6 UD titles, 3 UDX titles, and multiple championships in herding and agility.

Nancy is a retired obedience judge, having judged all obedience classes from 1986-2008. She enjoyed judging around the country and had the honor of judging 3 National obedience tournaments in Florida, Kentucky, and North Carolina. She retired from judging to spend more time training her own dogs and competing in obedience, herding, and agility.

Nancy draws from her experience training and competing in multiple sports, which has given her insight into innovative and creative ways of training and handling dogs. She finds that most trainers have no issues training the "big picture," but they tend to lose sight of some of the little details that are the building blocks to the communication and the relationship between them and their dogs. She loves working with very different challenges and trying to help people find a way to improve their communication with their partners.

Over the years, she has moved from a more traditional obedience training background towards reward based/positive methods in training dogs in all areas. As a result she understands the challenges faced by "crossover" trainers and dogs, and can help handlers find their way to newer and more positive training techniques.

Nancy's website is http://www.endzonedogsports.com.

Melissa is FDSA's resident marketing geek. She teaches two classes here at FDSA: Marketing for Pet Professionals & Building a Wordpress Website.

In addition to teaching, she hosts the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast, coordinates webinars, helps maintain the FDSA facebook page, runs the Ripple Effect group for dog trainers using Fenzi Principles, and other random odds and ends as needed. She is currently owned by a GSD with a championship in Treibball (and who is now learning obedience), a English Cocker Spaniel, and a small tuxedo kitty.

Melissa's full time job is helping dog trainers make more money by looking good online — she designs dog trainer websites and logos at Click and Repeat. 

Julie Daniels won her first award for writing in the fourth grade, and she was training dogs long before that. Today Julie Daniels is one of the foremost names in dog agility in the United States. She was one of the early champions of the sport and helped many clubs throughout the country get up and running. In 2015 Julie moved to Deerfield, NH, where she has opened a new business called Kool Kids Agility. Julie also owns White Mountain Agility, a 90-acre dog heaven in North Sandwich, NH. That school has operated since 1993, and Julie developed many theme camps there, including Wild Child, Speed-Em-Up, Novice Genius, Jumping Genius, and the world-renowned WMA Instructor Certification Course, which has honed the skills of hundreds of teachers and thousands of dogs worldwide. She is well known as a premier teacher at all levels of play, and she loves all kinds of dogs.

She has titled and won with all sorts of dogs through the years, including two Rottweilers, a springer spaniel, a cairn terrier, two corgis, and four border collies. She is the only person to make USDAA Grand Prix finals with a Rottie or a springer, and she did it two times each.

In IFCS international competition, Julie is a member of two gold-medal-winning teams. She is a two-time USDAA National Champion as well. She has won many televised events, including the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge and the ESPN Great Outdoor Games. Three of her border collies, Spring, Clark, and Sport, have made the Challenger’s Round at AKC National Championships. Julie and Spring are the only team to win the International Class three years in a row at Springfield, the largest agility trial in the US. Julie and Spring also made an appearance to promote agility on Good Morning America.

Julie’s current competition dog is MACH2 MAD Sport, who is a few legs from his ADCH in limited showing. He is a soft dogjdaniels2 who started off “slow and thoughtful.” Now he pumps himself up to run and shoots off the line like the champion he can be. Motivation is everything! Julie now has a young border collie, Koolaid, who is already a dynamic presence in several FDSA classes.

Julie is well known worldwide as the expert commentary voice of Cynosport agility, doing the livestream video broadcasts seen all around the world.

Julie is an expert in the art and science of operant training, and her approach works! She has always taught “dog’s choice” games as a way to develop agility partnerships. Her first agility book was published in 1991 and the “dog’s choice” games were actually controversial at that time! But she was nominated for a Dog Writer’s Award nonetheless and has never waivered in her philosophy. Julie is the author of three DVDs and four agility books, including an update of her award-winning foundation training book, Enjoying Dog Agility.

Sharon Carroll has been a professional animal trainer for 30 years. She has been both a presenter and trainer in a range of animal shows, and currently operates, a dog training and behaviour consulting business based in Newcastle, Australia.

Intent on really understanding animals better, Sharon completed a Bachelor of Applied Science, a Graduate Diploma (Captive Vertebrate Management – wildlife and exotics) and a Master of Animal Science. Sharon is currently completing a PhD in Veterinary Pharmacology,

Sharon is a fully certified behaviour consultant with the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) in both dogs (CDBC) and horses (CHBC), and is a certified professional dog trainer - CPDT-KA.

Sharon guest lectures to post graduate veterinarians and behaviourists at several universities and organisations, on the topics of animal behaviour, training, species-specific cognition, welfare and psychological trauma in animals. 

Nowadays Sharon’s primary focus is working with dogs displaying significant aggression (dog-to-human and dog-to-dog), and also cases where the animal is performing a range of behaviours associated with fear or anxiety. 

In all cases, Sharon’s primary aim is to help the humans to understand the underlying cause for their dog’s behaviour, and to use both management and behaviour-modifying training, to achieve a better outcome for the dog and their human family.

Further information is available at www.AvantiDogTraining.com.au

Karen Deeds, is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC). She is the co-owner of Canine Connection in Ft. Worth, TX with her husband, Bob Deeds, a retired Federal K9 Handler on Texas Task Force I. Karen started her business in 1994 after realizing the need for educating the public about dog training and behavior while volunteering for a local humane society. She worked in the Assistance Dog Field for 15 years and the vet profession for 9 years. She currently provides her expertise on behavior problems including fear, anxiety and aggression. She has consulted and worked with thousands of pet dog owners, various shelters and many rescue organizations, as well as has testified in dozens of court cases regarding dog bites. She currently teaches in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex focusing on Reactive Integration and also provides private consultations.

Karen has presented seminars to the general public, rescue groups, animal control officers, at various dog training clubs, dog training facilities, and various shelters throughout Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Ohio, and Tennessee. She has presented at the Dallas SPCA, Texas A&M Veterinary College Behavior Club, Texas Animal Control Association Conference, Missouri Animal Control Conference, the annual Texas Unites for Animals, and the IAABC conference. She is often called upon to help rescue groups make difficult decisions about behaviorally challenged dogs in their care. Her work with high drive working and sport dogs have helped develop more comprehensive behavior modification protocols that are dramatically impacting the success of her students.

Sue graduated from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, NY, in 1980.  After three years in private practice, she joined the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps.  While on active duty, she completed a 3 year residency in small animal surgery at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX and became board certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons.  She retired from the Army as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2004, after almost 21 year on active duty.  After working for a year on a horse farm in Idaho, she returned to Ithaca to join the staff at Colonial Veterinary Hospital as their second surgeon.  

Sue retired from Colonial in December 2009. (Her on-call schedule was interfering with her dog show weekends!)  The following month, she started working for Shelter Outreach Services, a high quality, high volume spay-neuter organization.  About the same time, Sue joined her colleague, a physical therapist/licensed veterinary technician, to start a canine sports medicine practice at the Animal Performance and Therapy Center, in Genoa, NY.  The practice is limited to performance dogs.  

Sue showed her first obedience dog, a beagle, Tristan, to a CDX in 1978. Her second beagle, Devon, earned a UD. Her third beagle, Charm, earned a VCD2, and was one of the most titled breed champion bitches in the history of the breed: CH Wilkeep Third Time's A Charm UD, RE, MX, MXJ, AXP, AJP, TD. Two golden retrievers, between the beagles, were great pets and therapy dogs. Sue currently is preparing her beagle, Ivy (CH MACH Wilkeep Ivy League, CDX, RN, TD) for the utility ring.

Stacy Barnett is a top nosework competitor and trainer, being the first handler to title multiple dogs with multiple Summit Level titles in the National Association of Canine Scent Work (NACSW), (Judd SMTx3, Brava SMTx2). Stacy has been a faculty member at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy since 2015 and is an international clinician for seminars around the world. She is a licensed Judge for for AKC Scent Work where she was also retained in an advisory position for the AKC Scent Work program for 2 years. Stacy is the author of the blog, Scentsabilities Nosework, and hosts weekly educational webinars. Stacy also co-hosts the popular Podcast, K9 Detection Collaborative.

Dr. Jessica Hekman is a postdoctoral associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where she researches how genetics affect behavior in pet and working dogs. Jessica received her Ph.D. in Animal Sciences (Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics) in 2017 from the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she studied canid behavioral genetics. Previously, Jessica graduated from the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 2012 with a dual DVM/MS degree.

Her Master's work was on the behavior and cortisol responses of healthy dogs to being hospitalized overnight. She also completed a shelter medicine veterinary internship at the University of Florida Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program. Jessica lives in Marlborough, MA with her husband and two dogs:

 Dashiell, an English Shepherd who does agility, parkour, and rally; and Jenny, a shy mixed breed dog who does parkour.

Website: www.dogzombie.com

Hannah Branigan has been training dogs and teaching people for more than 10 years. She is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) and a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner (KPA-CTP). Hannah is the owner of Wonderpups, LLC, and teaches workshops nationwide, as well as conducting behavior consultations, teaching private lessons, and conducting group classes on pet manners, rally, and competition obedience. She has titled her own dogs in conformation, obedience, rally, schutzhund, and agility.

Denise Fenzi has titled dogs in obedience (AKC and UKC), tracking (AKC and schutzhund), schutzhund (USA), mondioring (MRSA), herding (AKC), conformation (AKC), and agility (AKC). She has two AKC obedience champions, perfect scores in both schutzhund and Mondio ringsport obedience, and is well known for her flashy and precise obedience work.

While a successful competitor, Denise's real passion lies in training dogs and solving the problems that her own dogs and her student’s dogs present. She is a recognized expert in developing drive, motivation, and focus in competition dogs, and is known internationally as an engaging speaker and an expert in no force training for sport dogs. She has consistently demonstrated the ability to train and compete with dogs using motivational methods in sports where compulsion is the norm.

In addition to training and speaking, Denise is a prolific writer.  You can find her at www.denisefenzi.com where she maintains an active blog on all things related to dog training.  She is also an active writer on facebook; follow her there to learn more about her range of interests in addition to dog training. Denise and Deb Jones have recently finished a four book series, "Dog Sports Skills" which has recieved widespread acclain in the dog sports community.  In addition, she has written additional books on her own, including "Train the Dog in Front of You", "Beyond the Back Yard; Train Your Dog to Listen Anytime, Anywhere!" and, for the younger audience, "Blogger Dog, Brito!"  Several of these books have won Maxwell awards for Best Training and Behavior book from the Dog Writers of America.

Denise thoughtfully and persistently works to break down the barriers that prevent people from obtaining a truly interactive and mutually enjoyable sport relationship with their dogs.  Fenzi Academy is the culmination of her efforts as a forward step in providing progressive information to any trainer who wishes to learn.

Dog trainer, translator and traveler Chrissi is based in Antigua, Guatemala. She has been fond of dogs of all sizes, shapes and personalities for as long as she can think - especially the so-called difficult ones. After training the dachshund of her early teenage years in traditional ways at her local obedience club, she learned about clicker training and got hooked on force-free, motivational methods. Her work days are spent doing the things she loves most: thinking about languages, writing, and teaching pet dog manners and life skills to her clients and their dogs. Her (German-language) puppy book "Nur Mut!" was released in 2017 and her recall book "Komm zu mir!" in 2018. Chrissi loves working with people and dogs, and training, playing and hiking with her malinois Grit and Game.

Her pet dog school website is https://chrissisdogtraining.com and her dog training blog can be found on https://chrissisdogtraining.com/blog/.

My name is Eve and these are my dogs, Tsumo, Helé, Rina and Seph.  One Shiba Inu, two Border Collies and one Pembroke Welsh Corgi, ranging from 6 to 1 year old. I also had a husky mix as well as an Abyssinian and a Colourpoint Shorthair.  

I’m a professional dog trainer who trains dogs (and cats) of different breeds and ages. After teaching group classes for a few years, I relocated my growing four-legged family to northern Québec. Since then, I have been training online. 

With my dogs, I do harness dog sports, agility, disc, ratting sports, and obedience. I specialize in sensitive dogs, primitive and herding breeds, attention, recalls, and building motivation. I’m known for my sense of humour and compassion, and for always adapting my training to the dog and the student in front of me!

I have worked in retail for many years. Marketing and sales are something that fascinate me. When I’m not training, I enjoy writing. I do a lot of blog posts, copywriting and crazy newsletters.

Lisa Desatnik, CPDT-KA, CPBC, is a certified dog trainer-knowledge assessed; as well as a certified Fear Free trainer and certified dog bite prevention educator. Having studied Applied Behavior Analysis and training for more than 18 years, she uses and teaches the most positive approaches to preventing and solving dog and puppy behavior issues.

Lisa is based in Cincinnati, Ohio where she also is a pet behavior columnist for local magazines, is interviewed in the media and speaks in the community.  In addition to her in-person training, she now offers online coaching, classes and webinars for kids and adults. Through the International Association of Behavior Consultants, she is also a certified parrot behavior consultant although much of her work is with dogs.

Learn more by visiting www.SoMuchPETential.com.

Hélène got her first dog, a border collie named Jake, in 1989 and has been training dogs ever since. Over the years, she has dabbled in obedience, search and rescue, protection sports, rally, tricks, and freestyle, among others. She discovered agility in 2004, and herding in 2005. Herding quickly became her passion; she was so excited about it that she took lessons for a whole year without a dog!

In 2006, Hélène bought her first herding dog — a border collie named Hannah. Hannah was an amazing partner and teacher, and together they won the Ontario novice herding championship in their first year of competition. As a team, they went all the way to Open in USBCHA herding while simultaneously competing at the Masters level in agility.

Hélène has also been very active in rescue over the years, giving her the opportunity to work with a wide variety of dogs and challenges. It was through working with rescue dogs that she discovered and became committed to using positive reinforcement based training methods. She believes so strongly in this approach that she has been working hard to develop a positive reinforcement based method for herding. She is also deeply committed to natural rearing as a major component of dog training, believing that a clear, sound mind and a strong, healthy body are integral to a calm, confident, eager-to-learn animal partner.

Today, Hélène lives on a mixed livestock farm in rural eastern Ontario with her team of eight border collies, two Maremma guardian dogs, and a kelpie. A professional editor and writer, she teaches private and occasional group lessons, workshops, and online classes in herding and dog sport foundations.

Hélène’s personal website: www.helenelawler.com.

Andrea Harrison is passionate about all species, including dogs and humans! Having lived with dogs her whole life, Andrea was an early convert to positive training for people and dogs. She has taken this message to the media many times, including appearances on many TV shows and news programs, as well as print and radio.

Active as a foster home since 1994, Andrea has had many opportunities to work with dogs of all breeds, sizes, and temperament types. She has experience working with a wide variety of people as an educator and counsellor for over 20 years! She has worked with people of all ages on being successful and reducing anxiety and stress using her training in counselling, personality typing, and experiences. Differentiating learning experiences for her students has always been a priority for her.

Her competitive canine addiction is agility though she enjoys training and teaching nosework as well. Andrea and her dogs have many titles between them, with placements in Regional and National competitions with her rock star Brody (pictured with Andrea). Her super star dog Sally is the canine lead in the feature film “Saving Dinah" and Andrea was the animal talent coordinator for the film. She also has experience animal wrangling for television.

Andrea's personal site: andreaharrison.ca