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.