Leslie shares her household with
three Golden Retrievers and shows them in confirmation, obedience and
agility. She has earned several titles in obedience and a Championship
with BoBo. Her dogs are also therapy dogs and regularly visit GrandViewHospital. She and
her dogs also enjoy Free Style whenever they have a chance to take a
class. Leslie is the Training Director of Hilltown Dog Training Club and
has been training her dogs for twenty years.
DEBBIE GELSEBACH
Debbie is a Cosmetologist by
profession but her passion is breeding and showing Golden Retrievers. She
started fifteen years ago showing in obedience and titled her first Golden,
“Chuckles”. Soon after, she got her second Golden, bred her, and had a
litter of puppies. It all began! She kept one puppy, showed her in
conformation and finished her. “Lexi” was her first Champion and she was
so proud of her. Today, Debbie breeds a few litters a year and is very
active in showing in confirmation.
KATHY TREXLER
Kathy has owned and trained German
Shepherds for the last 40 years and has recently added two Belgian Sheepdogs to
her family. Her dogs have titles in obedience, rally and agility.
She and Calli have competed in freestyle but are still working on their first
title. She has attended dog camps for the last 9 years and loves the
environment of being with other dog-crazy people. Kathy recently retired
and went back to school. This summer she completed her Veterinary
Technology program and passed her state boards to become a Certified Vet Tech.
INSTRUCTIONAL STAFF
AGILITY TEAM
CLYDE CLOSSON
Clyde
will be heading up our agility team. He has been competing in agility for
ten years, and has been teaching beginner level on up to master for the past
seven years. He is currently competing with 2 Golden Retrievers, “Rosie”
aka Pine Run’s Kiowa Wild Rose who is 11 years old and “Olivia” aka Pine Run’s
Liv’n It Up who is 4 years old.
Rosie has earned her AKC Master
Agility Champion title (MACH) as well as her USDAA Advanced Agility Dog (AAD)
title. She also has her AKC Junior Hunter title. She competed at
the 2002 and 2003 Incredible Dog Challenge earning the gold medal in 2002 and
the silver medal in 2003. Olivia has earned her Master Agility titles (MX
and MXJ) as well as her Performance Dog III (PDIII) title.
Clyde
is currently teaching at Y2K9’s, Trailblazers AgilityClub and high Octane
Agility. He is known for his passion for agility and his supportive
teaching techniques which help dogs and handlers be
the best they can be.
DARRYL WARREN
Having trained dogs since 1985 and
agility since 1991, Darryl comes to us with a multitude of talents. He
will be part of the agility team and teaching Rally Obedience. Darryl is
an Agility Judge along with being a Rally Judge. He is a Bronze Medal
winner at the Eastern Regional’s of the Incredible Dog Challenge and is a
member of the Purina Incredible Dog Demo Team at the National Dog Show.
Darryl is also a member of the Coca Cola Classic
K9’s demo team and does demos across the country. He has appeared
on national TV several times including a live performance on the Today Show.
Darryl has competed in agility with
Cocker Spaniels, Golden Retrievers and a Labrador Retriever.
He is currently competing with Dixie, a Golden
Retriever, and she has earned his Agility Dog Champion in USDAA and is nearing
her NATCH in NACDAC. She is also competing at the Excellent
level in AKC and is working on her Master Agility Champion title. Dixie also has a novice Rally title and has started
competing in obedience.
KAREN SCHELLING
Karen Schelling
has been training and showing dogs in agility and obedience since 1998.
She believes that the primary foundation for all dog sports is that of the
human-animal bond and her training methodology reflects that relationship
building. Karen provides agility instruction for the Flying W Agility
training group and teaches agility, obedience and Rally-O lessons through her
own training group, Heatherfield Training. Her passion lies in assisting teams
in developing the human-animal bond.
Karen has
enjoyed success with her two English Springer Spaniels in agility, obedience
and Rally competitions. Riley, a.k.a., MACH Aubrey’s Jump For Joy, UD,
RE, XF, AAD earned his Master Agility Champion and his obedience Utility degree
at three years of age. He was ranked as the number nine English Springer
Spaniel for AKC agility in 2006 and represented Pennsylvania at AKC
Agility Nationals that year. He is eligible for AKC Nationals for
the coming year. Riley was awarded the High Combined award for agility
and Rally at the All Star Tournament held in York, Pa in
2006 and currently holds the breed record for the Clean Run 60 weave pole
challenge.
Jake of
Heatherfield, CD, MX, MXJ, MXP, MJP, RE is a reformed
rescue dog who is a challenge to work with. He is 13 years old at this
writing and continues to shine in Preferred agility
classes and was the subject of a short story entitled “This is Jake” (http://www.frontandfinish.com).
4th MEMBER
TBA
OBEDIENCE TEAM
BETSY SCAPICCHIO
Betsy started training dogs in 1977
with her German Shepherd Dog. That was the beginning of what would prove
to be a lifetime career in training dogs. She has put five OTCH titles
and over 30 other AKC obedience titles on her dogs. Betsy has earned
nine perfect scores of 200, and placed first in Super Dog at the 1999 Eastern
Regional with her Border Collie, Jinx. She also
placed first in Novice at the 1997 Eastern Regional, plus five other
tournaments. In 1998 at the Eastern Regional, she placed with her Aussie,
Trouble. She has put numerous titles on many different breeds including
her Chihuahua,
Desi. For the past 20 years Betsy has proved to be an excellent trainer
(owning Top Dog Obedience School), With her upbeat personality she makes
training fun and a great bonding experience for any team that trains with her.
LINDA BRENNAN
Linda has been training with Betsy
Scapicchio since 1986 and teaches competitive obedience at Top Dog Obedience School. Her Border Collie, Spy, went form his CD to OTCH in just 11 months.
So far, Linda has earned 46 obedience titles and 15 rally titles on eight dogs. She has also competed in conformation, agility, herding, hunt tests, and earthdog trials. In her spare time, Linda and her Welsh Spring, Maddie, became the first in the breed to earn a MACH. Linda has also put conformation championships on several dogs. Her two-year-old Norfolk Terrier, Oz, has earned Excellent titles in Agility, Novice titles in Rally and Obedience, plus competing in earthdog and conformation. Her dogs also work in commercials and advertising. Linda is a prime example of “you can do it all”.
KAY MESSER
Kay started training in obedience
in 1972 when she got a Scottie who wanted to eat every animal it saw. She
immediately fell in love with training. Next came a Bernese Mountain Dog who had to be retired because she could not
make the then AKC jump height of 1 ½ times her shoulder height. Then came two Golden Retrievers and five Flat Coated Retrievers who
all achieved a UD in obedience. Some came with more challenges
than others. One was aggressive. One had no desire to please.
One was hyper. One was shy. One was just happy-go-lucky and one was
serious. Then, one was Opal.
Kay is a UKC obedience judge and judges trials across the East coast. Kay is presently
a member of Hilltown Dog Training Club, substitute
teaches for them and is becoming a full time trainer at the club. She has
taught classes in Novice through Utility over the last ten years.
Kay will assist with obedience and
teach puppy classes and a tricks class.
CONFORMATION
ANN SULLIVAN – BIO TO COME
FREESTYLE TEAM
CAROL PEARCE
After training and showing quarter horses to top five standings, dog
training was a natural progression for Carol
After
training and showing quarter horses to top five standings, dog training was a
natural progression for Carol. While showing horses, she wrote
a book on horsemanship, designed to help and encourage horse owners to
compete. She taught group exercise classes and yoga before devoting her
time to the pursuit of training her sighthounds and teaching freestyle.
Her life was changed when a saluki named Aziza came into her life.
Not only did the puppy capture Carol's heart and imagination but she found it intriguing
to train a breed that is not often seen in a ring other than
conformation. Several years later they were joined by another saluki
named Basheera and recently a whippet puppy, Suri. Together
they are active in freestyle, conformation, and lure coursing.
Aziza holds both heelwork to music and musical freestyle titles as well
as pairs (two dog/handler teams).
Carol
teaches three year-round all-level freestyle classes a week and
choreographs individual and group routines. She has also taught puppy and
rally classes and is active with the Huntsville Obedience
Training Club. Ten of her student handler teams perform a
freestyle production number in the North Alabama
region. Carol and her students perform at community gatherings, dog
fairs, schools, clubs, camps, dog show specialties, and other training
centers. She has a special place in her heart for those who have the
patience and understanding to train breeds that are not typically seen at
training centers. She feels that every dog has a story and has much to
offer, if we will only listen and be open to them.
JOANN COOK
Jody Cook, a professional graphics artist, shares her home in
Huntsville,
Jody Cook, a professional graphics artist, shares her home in Huntsville, Alabama with seven dogs--an Aussie, Sheltie, Papillon, Border Collie, Whippet, and 2 Chihuahuas. The Aussie, Sheltie and Papillon have earned over 100 titles in Agility, Obedience, Flyball, and Freestyle. Jody and her canine partners have won numerous 1st places in Freestyle along with High Artistic and High Technical awards and was honored recently with theAttila Video Challenge Trophy for high artistic impression score internationally. For many years Jody owned a horse farm and trained and competed with her quarter horses and taught both English and Western riding. She teaches obedience, rally, and agility on a year-round basis. She competes in freestyle in both heelwork to music and musical freestyle as well as performing for community outreach programs in AL.
