Kim Palermo CPDT-KA (she/her) is a Certified Control Unleashed Instructor and ACE (Animal Centred Education) Practitioner. She specializes in teaching Control Unleashed and ACE Free Work with private clients, teaches a high volume of in-person CU classes, and incorporates CU into all of her membership-style group pet dog classes for her dog training business, BlueDog, located north of Boston...

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 (she/her) 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. (Click here for full bio and to view Ann's upcoming courses)...

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 (she/her) 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...

Loretta Mueller (she/her) has been involved in agility since 2003 with her first rescue dog, Ace. Since then she has been involved in a variety of dog training activities including USBCHA herding, competitive obedience, rally obedience, and service dog training. In 2007, Loretta...

Julie Flanery (she/her), 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...