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Hi! I'm Liz Joyce. I'm a personal trainer, a movement nerd and a dog enthusiast. I excel at splitting and transferring the concepts of R+ training into fitness programming.

I've been in the fitness industry since 2006 logging over 15000 client training hours to date. I've tried most avenues of fitness and then field-tested the best of the disciplines on hundreds of clients. I've also competed at the National and International level in 2 sports.

I've studied program development, strength training, athletic development, applied movement mechanics, best practices for menopause, osteoporosis, dog agility sports movement, and much more. I drew from the best of all these regimes and education to create accessible and effective programs.

I am the founder of Canine Handler Fitness and work closely with agility handlers of all fitness levels to improve their athleticism, agility and speed.

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.

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

Michael Shikashio, CDBC, is the past president of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC), and provides private consultations working exclusively with dog aggression cases through his business Complete Canines LLC. Michael is fully certified through the IAABC and is a full member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT).

He is sought after for his expert opinion by numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, New York Post, Baltimore Sun, WebMD, Women’s Health Magazine, Real Simple Magazine, The Chronicle of the Dog, and Steve Dale’s Pet World.

Michael is a featured speaker at conferences, universities, and seminars around the world, and offers a variety of workshops, webinars, and online courses on the topic of canine aggression.

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.

Dr. Spaulding has a PhD in Biopsychology and is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist through the Animal Behavior Society. As a graduate student, she acquired extensive experience in teaching the science of behavior and received an award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Student. Prior to receiving her PhD, Dr. Spaulding earned her B.S. in Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. In college, she volunteered and then worked at the local humane society. During her time at the animal shelter, she and a coworker established a training program for shelter dogs. She also served as an assistant trainer at Dog’s Best Friend which was owned at that time by Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist Dr. Patricia McConnell. In 2001, Dr. Spaulding moved upstate New York and opened Smart Dog Training and Behavior LLC, where she continues to conduct private lessons for basic training and a wide variety of behavior problems.

In addition to working with clients, Dr. Spaulding regularly offers educational opportunities on the science of animal behavior at training and behavior conferences and online. She has a particular interest in increasing the flow of information between academia and those in the field to improve the quality of both research and applied work. She is a long-standing member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainer’s (APDT) Education Committee and in 2019, Dr. Spaulding received the APDT’s Member of the Year Award. She is also a member of the Fear Free Advisory Group and an authorized Speaker for Fear Free which advocates for minimizing fear, anxiety and stress for pets around the country. She chairs two task forces for Meeting of the Minds, a coalition of top dog professionals across the country charged with improving quality of life for our dogs. She also regularly conducts staff training on dog behavior for local veterinary clinics and animal shelters.

Shortly after adopting her Chihuahua, Barbara Currier got involved with agility. She started teaching in 2004, and has trained with some of the best agility trainers and handlers in the world, including Susan Garrett, Tracy Sklenar, Kayl McCann, Jaakko Suoknuuti and Janita Leinonen and has implemented what she has learned from them into her training program.

Barbara became heavily involved in the OneMind Dogs handling method in 2014.

She has successfully competed over 10 different breeds of dogs since she started competing in agility. Her current competition dog is her 3-year-old mini poodle, Miso.  Miso started trialing in March 2016 and in 7 months qualified for AKC NAC and USDAA Cynosports. After 4 clean runs at the 2017 NAC, she earned her way into finals and finished as the 9th ranking dog in the country in the 12’ division.  She then went on to to win RD 1 at AWC World Team Tryouts April 2017.  Barbara continues to teach all over the country.

Barbara is also the head dog trainer for the F.I.D.O. Program run at Georgia Tech, which creates wearable computing for military, SAR and service dogs. She has also worked as an animal wrangler for Marvel’s Ant-Man, 90 Minutes in Heaven, the TV series Satisfaction and various commercials.

Today, she resides in GA and shares her home with her very supportive husband, Mike, border collies Brazen and Blitz, Parson Russell terrier Piper, mini poodle Miso, field English cocker Eggo, and bearded dragon Saphira.

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.

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

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.

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.

Erin (she/her) is a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner, North America Diving Dogs judge, CWAGS scent judge, and breeder of performance focused Labrador Retrievers under the “Eromit” kennel name.

Erin’s journey in dog sports began as a junior handler, first in obedience and then more seriously when her family took up dog sled racing. She spent ten years as a competitive sprint racer specializing in 4 and 6 dog class with both Labrador Retriever and Alaskan Husky sled dogs. During her university years, where she studied Biology and Animal Science, Erin fostered a variety of breeds and mixes through her local shelter- also working as an adoption councillor and animal attendant for 6 years. It was around that time that a friend introduced her to the sport of agility and that brought about a whole new training passion!

Currently, Erin’s primary dog sport is dock diving and she also competes in agility, obedience, rally, and nosework. She has earned multiple national and regional championships, high in trial and perfect scores across various sports and set records in dog sledding and dock diving. Erin enjoys training her dogs for upland, waterfowl and shed antler hunting as well as canicross. In doing all the things, her dogs are most well known for their joyous and enthusiastic attitudes towards their activities.

As an instructor, she takes the most pride in teaching her students with a ‘fun-first’ philosophy for both the people and the dogs, and helps them develop a special bond with their dogs whether training as pets, in fitness or in sports. Her training facility - Eromit AIRcademy- was voted the North America Diving Dogs 2019 Canadian Facility of the Year, and hosts NADD sanctioned dock diving trials throughout the summer months as well as lessons, seminars and year-round online training.

Erin shares her home with her equally dog-loving husband Tim and a dozen or so wild and wonderful labs ranging from 9 month old Pounce to 12.5 year old Ruger. Their family also includes 2 cats any many rabbits, chickens, pigeons, and American Blackbelly sheep.

Author Erin McNeill has been owned by and competing in dog sports with whippets since 2005.Although lure coursing (despite the risks!) is her first love, she has also titled her dogs in straight racing, rally, obedience, conformation, scentwork, barn hunt, dock diving, tricks, and agility. She has also competed in disc sports with them and trained but never competed in flyball. She is also an avid collar collector.

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/.

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.

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.

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.

Megan has been involved in the dog sport world nearly her entire life. Though her family did compete in obedience, agility was Megan’s passion right from the start. With over 20 years experience, she has competed with a variety of dogs, including an American Eskimo and West Highland White Terrier, Shelites, Border Collies, and Parson Russell Terriers, and has worked with an even larger variety of breeds. She got her first dog, a Sheltie, when she was 7 years old and since then she has competed with six of her own dogs and seven dogs belonging to others. Her accomplishments include many ADCh (USDAA Agility Dog Champion) titles, MACh (AKC Master Agility Champion) titles, Regional and National Championships, and representing the US on the European Open in 2015. Megan was also a USDAA judge for over 10 years, providing valuable insight into course design, course analysis, and handling styles throughout the United States.

Megan has been teaching agility full-time, in person and online, for 6 years, through her training school, Synergy Dog Sports. Her passion for sharing knowledge with her students drives her to constantly be learning, growing, and evolving. Megan became a OneMind Dogs Assistant Coach in 2016 and finished her Coach Certification in 2018. She believes in developing a system of communication based on the dog’s perspective and what dogs naturally understand and then individualizing that system for the humans that train and run them. Synergy Dog Sports is named for the truly great things a team can accomplish together when they focus on using the strengths of both the dog’s mind and body and the handler’s mind and body, and improving on any potential weaknesses.

Megan currently has three dogs of her own; Smack (11 y/o border collie), Shock (7 y/o border collie), and Shrek (3 y/o parson russell terrier) and lives with her partner, Graham, and his dogs, Skittles (11 y/o Sheltie) and Skrik (4 y/o border collie) in Stanwood, WA.

For more from Megan, visit her website, www.synergydogsports.com.

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.