Authors (9)

Kimbery Palermo is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer, a Certified Control Unleashed InstructoBlueDog founder and trainer Kim Palermo has been training dogs personally for 25 years and professionally for over 10 years. She is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer, a Certified Control Unleashed Instructor, a Level 1 TAGteacher, and an AKC Canine Good Citizen & S.T.A.R. Puppy evaluator. She has a bachelor’s degree in Zoology from the University of New Hampshire with a minor in Animal Behavior and Psychology.

Kim has only ever wanted to work with animals. She grew up surrounded by many pets of all different shapes and sizes, raised litters of puppies, competed in horse shows and dog shows, and has been working in the pet industry since she could get a job. In 2008, she followed her dream and started BlueDog as a solo dog walker. Very soon she became so busy that she began hiring employees to help her, and in 2011 she pursued her lifelong passion for training dogs by opening BlueDog’s very first training facility in Andover. Since then, Kim continues to grow and improve her business and expand her knowledge endlessly.

Kim is a Certified Control Unleashed Instructor and specializes in dogs that have big feelings about the world around them. She is the CU Teaching Assistant for a worldwide dog training school, Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, has taught CU in dog sports workshops, and presented in the Control Unleashed Conference. Her passion is helping other trainers pursue their dreams. She is a mentor for the Control Unleashed certification process, a CATCH Canine Trainers Academy mentor, and has mentored a number of local trainers directly through BlueDog who have gone on to have successful careers in their field.

Kim actively trains for and competes in Rally-Obedience and Obedience, also trains for Nose Work, Agility, and Herding with her two sports dogs, Jane her Collie and Walt her Miniature Poodle, and occasionally competes in a few other sports like FastCat and Barn Hunt. She owns three other dogs: two Collies named Reese and Lincoln and a Golden Retriever named Fern, as well as a clicker trained cat named Fig. She is the vice president of the Collie Club of New Hampshire, working towards building more opportunities for performance sports for Collies. During her free time she likes to escape to the woods to hike, is a beekeeper, raises a flock of chickens, ducks, turkeys, and guinea hens, and dreams of the day when she has a farm.

Tanya Mayer is a full-time electrical engineer, wife, mother of three humans, and hobby dog trainer with her two Great Danes: Derby (4.5 years) and Rumble (1 year, aka glorious giant adolescent).   

Tanya got her first Great Dane (Raven) in 2013 and began classes at FDSA in 2014 to explore how to work with this often sensitive breed.  Since then, Tanya and the Danes have taken courses in foundations, behavior, agility, scentwork, TEAM, rally, freestyle, disc, obedience, fitness, tracking, mental management, and even photography.   The outstanding quality of instructors, flexibility to fit practice into a busy schedule, and ability to learn at their own pace make FDSA classes the best bang for their buck.

Ann Smorado was a horse crazy teenager who started training dogs in 2006 when she got her first labrador retriever, Miles.  What started out as taking a puppy class to make sure she would have a well mannered dog, or at least a dog that didn’t destroy the house, quickly grew into a passion.  Miles earned his AKC Utility Dog (UD) within 5 years of that first puppy class and his Master Agility Champion (MACH) shortly thereafter. He also earned his RAE and the WCRL ARCHMX.    In 2012, Ann got her second labrador, Hartley. She soon found Fenzi Dog Sports Academy and has been taking classes with Hartley ever since. Ann has been teaching Obedience foundations at Canine Affair Center since 2014. She and Hartley actively compete in Agility, Obedience, Dock Diving and Rally.   Hartley has his MACH3, UDX, OM1, Junior Hunter and is working on his Agility Grand Champion. Hartley also has his TEAM 6. Ann was awarded the Fenzi Dog Sport Trainer Certificate for Obedience/Rally and Freestyle. Ann is also a TEAM judge.  Now Ann has a 3 month old puppy, Dare, who is just getting started.

Sarah Owings is a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner, and currently serves as faculty for ClickerExpo, an advisor to the Glendale Humane Society in Los Angeles, and an instructor for Cyber Scent Online. She specializes in the practical application of behavioral principles to help transform the lives of fearful, shut down, and over-the-top dogs. As the owner of Bridges Dog Training, an international speaker, and a regular contributor to online training forums, she is known for her innovative approaches to tough behavior problems, and her compassionate and insightful teaching. She has written for Clean Run Magazine on topics such as stimulus control, release cues, and toy-related cues, and has done webinars and podcasts for Animal Training Academy on how trainers can benefit from embracing what she calls “brave learning.” She is also an avid nose work competitor, currently competing at the Elite level with her dog, Tucker. She loves geeking out about the science of training, and all things dog, and can be reached on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sarah.owings.9

Christopher Tiller is an experienced developer passionate about dog training and behavior. He was first introduced to the dog training world when he adopted his reactive dog, Stanley, and became a massive dog training nerd. He enjoys working with his two pups, Stanley and Missile.

With a background in development, Christopher loves to identify pain points in dog training and develop solutions. He has been developing TailScribe, a tracking tool for dog trainers, and is committed to creating more tools to assist his fellow trainers.

When he’s not in his cave developing or playing games with the pups, he likes passing the time as a part-time information sponge or learning how to use his body in calisthenics.

Barbara had trained herding for over 30 years. She started with traditional training and later decided to learn positive reinforcement training and apply it to herding. After a decade of trial and error, she has developed a proven method for training herding. She starts dogs away from livestock, usually in her home and backyard. She then takes her dogs near penned stock and eventually to loose livestock. It is much easier for dogs to learn herding skills without the huge distraction of livestock in the picture and later add stock to the training.

Sally started herding with no prior herding experience but was an excellent positive dog trainer. She taught agility, tricks, and basic obedience to her dogs and in her classes. Sally worked with Barb over the internet and trained her Border Collie puppy, Renn, into the South African Sheepdog Association's National Reserve Junior Champion in 2016.

Leslie Eide, DVM, graduated from Colorado State University’s Veterinary School in 2006. She completed a rotating internship in small animal medicine in Albuquerque, NM. She continued her education by becoming certified in canine rehabilitation through the Canine Rehab Institute with a focus in sports medicine. She continues to learn more about rehabilitation, sports medicine and pain management through daily practice and continuing education seminars. She currently practices at Sound Veterinary Rehab Center in Seattle, WA.

In the agility world, Leslie has trained two dogs to their ADCH, one to ADCH Bronze, ATCH2, and MACH. Five of her dogs have qualified for the USDAA Nationals, with multiple Grand Prix Semi-final runs. She currently competes with 2 dogs in agility. Stig recently competed at the USA EO Tryouts and AKC NAC in 2018.

Leslie is a member of the AVMA, WSVMA and AARV.

Loretta Mohler has been involved in agility since 2003 with her first rescue dog, Ace. Since then she has earned ADCHs with 4 border collies — Zip (retired due to back injury), Klink, Gator (achieving his ADCH at the age of 2.5 years), Lynn and Gig. Lynn was 2013 Central Regional Grand Prix 22” Champion, as well as being a steeplechase and Grand Prix semi-finalist. Gig is just starting her career!

Loretta and her dogs are no strangers to the finals at USDAA World Championships. Since attending her first nationals in 2008, she has competed with one or both dogs in each of the subsequent finals. At the 2012 USDAA World Championships, she had two dogs in EACH of the 3 finals, Grand Prix, steeplechase and DAM tournament.

In addition to working with her border collies, Loretta was the trainer for the famous little Jack Russell terrier Crackers. Crackers has been on IFCS and WAO teams since he was 2 years old. Sadly he had to be retired due to an autoimmune issue.

In 2014, Loretta was chosen to be the assistant coach for the IFCS World Team, which competed in the Netherlands. The team was very successful in this competition with many medals won.

After their success, she was asked to be Head Coach of the WAO World Team (USA). She has been head coach now for the last 4 years. Again she has helped the team be successful, with many medals won.

Outside of agility, Loretta has trained dogs for USBCHA herding, competitive obedience, rally obedience, and service dog work. Today she runs Full Tilt Dog Training in Brainerd, MN, which she founded in 2007, and travels nationally and internationally giving handling seminars.

Loretta has an ability to work with all different breeds of dogs because she believes there is never a “one size fits all” method in training. She is very good at working with each dog and handler as an individual team to help them succeed. One of her specialties is building drive in dogs who otherwise might be a challenge. She has also helped a number of dog-handler teams overcome unwanted stress-based behaviors. She believes it isn’t just about the handling of the courses, but the entire picture that makes a great agility team!

Julie Flanery, CPDT-KA has been working professionally with dogs and their handlers since 1993. She focuses on the needs of the dog and helping people form a strong relationship, through clear communication, and positive reinforcement.

She has placed Obedience, Freestyle, Rally, Rally-FrEe, Agility, Trick Dog and Parkour titles on her dogs and has earned Championships in Freestyle, Heelwork-to-Music and a Grand Championship MCL in Rally-FrEe. She has achieved both High Technical Merit and High Artistic Merit in both Freestyle and Heelwork to Music several times over, including three prestigious Attila Challenge awards, as well as several “Top H.A.T.” awards for High Scoring Heelwork, Attention and Teamwork. In 2001 she was named "Trainer of the Year" by the World Canine Freestyle Organization and has been a competition freestyle judge since 2003.

In 2012, Julie developed the sport of Rally-FrEe to help freestylers increase the quality and precision of their performances. It has since become a stand-alone sport enjoyed by dog sport enthusiasts all over the world. Julie has been a workshop and seminar presenter both nationally and internationally. She currently trains and competes with her Tibetan terrier in both Musical Freestyle and Rally-FrEe.