Author of : The Rally Course Book, a Guide to AKC Rally Courses,  Janice lives near Colorado Springs, Colorado with her husband, Steve,  87 yr old mother, and 5 dogs on a 2 ½ acre lot with lots of room for all the dogs. Mrs. Dearth has exhibited in Obedience in AKC and ASCA for the past 20+ years. She has put 2 Utility titles on her Aussies, 2 Open titles, and 6 Novice titles, 2 of which are on one of her Smooth Fox Terriers, and a West Highland White Terrier. Janice has been involved with Rally since it began as a non regular class in AKC in 2001.  She has judged over 4000 teams in all classes from 2001 to present. She has judged many shows, and in many states, including Hawaii, over the past 5 years since Rally became an AKC titling event. UKC Rally became titling in January of 2010. ASCA (Australian Shepherd Club of America) became all breed Rally titling in June of this year. [Read more…]

Christina de Juan, Ph.D., PCT-A, CPDT-KA, CTDI, LSHC-S, owner and trainer at Luna Service Dogs Inc., has always had her roots in science, grounded by logic and reason.

Christina studied both Philosophy and Computer Science, earning a B.A. in Philosophy and a Ph.D. in Computer Science. She worked in the animated film industry for over ten years, which included studying the mechanics of structure and motion, and a deep understanding of anatomy for a variety of animals and characters. Christina developed her observation skills and a keen eye for detail while working with a variety of animated human and animal characters. She uses those observation skills daily in her work with clients and their dogs . Becoming skilled observers, helps her clients understand how dogs communicate through body language.

Christina’s family had several dogs while she was growing up, however they were primarily her mother’s dogs, and while she enjoyed playing with them, none were strongly or exclusively bonded with her. Christina launched her journey into the dog world in May 2008. She selected Luna, a miniature Alaskan Klee Kai, for herself and with the intention of training Luna to become a therapy dog. Luna was her first dog she raised and trained on her own. Christina quickly became hooked on rewards-based training, and subsequently volunteered as an assistant dog trainer in both puppy classes and all age obedience classes. In January 2012, Christina and Luna began scent training in the sport of NACSW K9 NoseWork®, where she found her passion in studying canine olfaction and body language. Luna went on to become the first Klee Kai to earn a NoseWork title with NACSW. Christina has titled her dogs in Conformation, Rally, Scent Work, Parkour, Fitness, Tricks, and continues to train and compete in a variety of dog sports with her three dogs.

Personal experience with disability led Christina to change her career. She trained Luna to detect gluten and completed a short internship with a professional trainer in gluten and allergen detection, earned the Certified Professional Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA) credential from the CCPDT in 2017, completed the Low Stress Handling® Certified Silver (2018) program, became a Licensed Pet Dog Ambassador Assessor and an AKC Canine Good Citizen / Trick Dog Evaluator (2018), earned the UKCSD Scent Instructor (2019) certificate, became a Certified Trick Dog Instructor (2020), and is most proud of achieving the Professional Canine Trainer-Accredited (PCT-A) credential conferred by the Pet Professional Accreditation Board in 2020. The PCT-A is an independently verified professional credential that assesses both knowledge and demonstrated skills.

With over 10 years experience training dogs, she remains the eternal student: attending webinars and workshops to keep up with the latest training techniques, reading studies about canine scent detection, behavior, and cognition, and most importantly learning from every service dog prospect and client she coaches. Christina is also a co-instructor for the CPDT-KA Exam Study Course, and the moderator for the Seeing Through a Dog’s Nose webinar series. Both courses and the webinar series are available here at e-Training for Dogs. Christina also co-teaches tiers 1 and 2 of the: Barbara Handelman Service Dog Trainer program.

Christina is dedicated to helping other persons with disabilities owner-train their own scent detection service dog. She continues her work specializing in gluten and allergen detection training, as well as training medical alert and response tasks based on scent. Christina strongly believes having the owner involved in every step of the training, in particular for gluten and allergen detection, is the best way to learn the nuances of properly handling scent, the risks of cross contamination, and the understanding of how to maintain the scent training for the working life of their service dog. She is always so proud and overjoyed when her clients report back that their dogs have indicated the presence of gluten or allergen(s) in a food, medication or other item that would have otherwise made them ill had they consumed or used it. There is no greater reward than knowing she has helped another person live a more independent and healthful life.

Christina co-teaches the CPDT-KA Exam Study course for E-Training for Dogs with Carin Ford.

Amber is the owner of a canine rehabilitation company, Canine Companions Boarding and Rehabilitation, assisting dogs and dog parents in solving even the most difficult behavioral problems. Amber lives in Bemus Point, New York, approximately one hour South of Buffalo with her husband, Tyler, two little boys, Brayden and John, and dog, Shelby. Amber has had a great passion for all animals since a very young age.

Amber has worked with dogs all over the United States analyzing and solving behavioral problems with her business. In addition to owning Canine Companions, she serves as an Adjunct Professor for Jamestown Community College in Jamestown, New York and Kaplan University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She has a desire to share her passion, knowledge and experiences with others.

Amber has earned a doctorate-level education and has taken veterinary coursework at Cornell University, Penn Foster and various other educational organizations. She continues to further her education on a regular basis to remain up-to-date in her field. She has published two books with Barnes and Noble regarding canine behavior (www.barnesandnoble.com). She has also published many articles with PetPremium (www.PetPremium) and PetFirst (www.PetFirst.com).

In 1998, a chance encounter with a pet parent facing the death of her pet was a defining moment for Coleen. It was the beginning of her vision of how to best meet the needs of pet parents in their desire to mourn, memorialize and pay tribute to their beloved pets when they die. In 2004, the experience of the death of her dog, Mico, guided her in starting Pet Angel Memorial Center, Inc.®, the nation’s first stand-alone pet’s-only funeral home. Soon, publications such as Kates-Boylston’s Pet Loss Insider deemed her the “most well known pet funeral director” and a true “pet loss pioneer.” In 2009, Coleen founded Two Hearts Pet Loss Center, to guide people who wish to provide meaningful pet death care services in their communities, as well to be an educational resource in the pet grief discipline. [Read more…]

Pat Engel has been an animal lover her whole life. Not surprisingly, her favorite species is Canis lupus familiaris.

Pat is the owner of Co-Pilot Dog Training in Sonoma County, California. Since 1997 she has been helping owners understand and train their dogs in ways that respect and nourish the canine-human bond.

Looking for a way to add even more fun to her training repertoire, Pat became a Certified Trick Dog Instructor in 2014. Pat, her own dogs, and her students have been having fun ever since!

When she is not training dogs, Pat enjoys practicing yoga and getting her hands dirty in the pottery studio.

Pat shares her life with Bob, her husband of 37 years, and four dogs- Jazz, a 14 year old Corgi and retired class demo dog, Rio, a 6 year old Silken Windhound who is a certified social/therapy/reading dog and a Novice Trick Dog, Foster, a 6 year old rescue Terrier cross who is a class demo dog and an Intermediate Trick Dog, and the newest pack member, Jasper, a 12 week old Aussie, who will soon be Pat’s new class demo dog, and be learning lots and lots of tricks!

Course: Six Awesome Dog Tricks