Faculty & Staff

Faculty

Amy Cook, Ph.D. (she/her) has been training dogs for over 30 years, and through Full Circle Dog Training and Play Way Dogs in Oakland, CA, has been specializing in the rehabilitation of shy and fearful dogs for 20 years. She is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant through the IAABC, a longstanding professional member of the APDT, and was one of the first trainers nationally to become a Certified Professional Dog... Read more here.

= Amy Johnson's (she/her) start in professional photography came when she was taking pictures of her friends' dogs at conformation shows, and quickly surpassed both her interest in showing her own dog and the capabilities of film. She was quick to make the move to digital, starting with Canon’s first digital SLR, the D30. Amy is the official show photographer for many of the premier agility events in the United States, including the... Read more here.

Barbara Currier

Barbara Currier (she/her) got involved with agility shortly after adopting her Chihuahua in 1997. In 2004, Barbara and her husband Michael were relocated to VA and shortly after she started teaching agility at All Dog Adventures (fka All Dog Playskool) in Richmond, VA. It was there that Barbara was introduced to Susan Garrett and her foundation-based training that is centered around impulse control and relationship building with your dog. She continues... Read more here.

Chrissi Schranz

Chrissi Schranz (they/them), CCUI, is a dog trainer, writer and traveler currently based in Mexico. Chrissi has been fond of dogs of all sizes, shapes and personalities for as long as they can think - especially the so-called difficult ones. After training the dachshund of their early teenage years in traditional ways at their local obedience club, they learned about clicker training and got hooked on motivational methods. Their work... Read more here.

Deborah Jones, Ph.D. (she/her) is a psychologist who specializes in learning theory and social behavior. She taught a variety of psychology courses at Kent State University for the past 20 years. Deb has been training dogs for performance events for the past 25 years and was an early innovator in the use of clicker training techniques in dog training. She has owned and worked with a variety of breeds and... Read more here.

Debbie Gross Torraca

Deborah (Gross) Torraca (she/her), DPT, MSPT, Diplomat ABPTS, CCRP has been involved in the field of animal physical rehabilitation for over 17 years and currently owns a small animal rehabilitation practice in Connecticut called Wizard of Paws Physical Rehabilitation for Animals, LLC. She received her BS from Boston University, a Masters degree from Quinnipiac College, and her doctorate from the University of Tennessee. She has advanced certifications in her field. Dr.... Read more here.

Denise Fenzi (she/her) has titled dogs in obedience (AKC and UKC), tracking (AKC and schutzhund), schutzhund (USA), herding (AKC), conformation (AKC), and agility (AKC). She has two AKC obedience champions, perfect scores in both schutzhund and Mondio ringsport obedience, and is well known for her flashy and precise obedience work. While a successful competitor, Denise's real passion lies in training dogs and solving the problems that her own dogs and her... Read more here.

Donna Hill (she/her) has had a life long love affair with dogs and a fascination with dog behavior. She has competed in agility, flyball, and rally O and teaches people to train their own service dogs. She uses a holistic approach when solving people's problems with their dogs. Donna's classes use step by step training using text, videos and diagrams. Given her background in zoology and teaching humans, she also explains... Read more here.

Hannah Branigan

Hannah Branigan (she/her) has been training dogs and teaching people for more than 10 years. She is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) and a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner (KPA-CTP). Hannah is the owner of Wonderpups, LLC, and teaches workshops nationwide, as well as conducting behavior consultations, teaching private lessons, and conducting group classes on pet manners, rally, and competition obedience. She has titled her own dogs in... Read more here.

Heather Lawson (she/her) is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer - Knowledge Skills Assessed (CPDT-KSA) and also a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner (KPA-CTP), a CGN evaluator and a free-style judge. She has been training dogs and their humans for more that 20 years after deciding that the corporate world just wasn't cutting it anymore. Having had German shepherds for most of her life, she decided it was time to... Read more here.

Hélène (she/her) got her first dog, a border collie named Jake, in 1989 and has been training dogs ever since. Over the years, she has explored 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... Read more here.

Judy Keller (she/her) has owned and trained Shelties for more than 20 years. She has been most successful with Morgan, her once in a lifetime dog. Judy and Morgan represented the United States three times in world agility competition, and were on the gold medal winning mini dog team in 1998. Judy continues to enjoy training and showing in agility, even though multiple sclerosis has added significant challenges to pursuing... Read more here.

Julie Daniels (she/her) 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 opened Kool Kids Agility.... Read more here.

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, Freestyle, Rally, Rally-FrEe, Agility, Trick Dog and Parkour titles on her dogs and has earned a Championship in Heelwork-to-Music and a Grand Championship in Freestyle and Elite Grand Championship MCL in Rally-FrEe.... Read more here.

Julie Symons (she/her) has been involved in dog sports for over 25 years. Starting with her mix, Dreyfus, in flyball, she went on to train and compete in conformation, agility, obedience, herding and tracking with her first Belgian tervuren, Rival. Rival was the first CH OTCH MACH Belgian Tervuren and they competed and placed in many regional and national events, winning Ultimate Dog (High Combined in Utility and Agility) and... Read more here.

Kamal Fernandez

Kamal Fernandez (he/him) started training in 1991 after getting Scrunch, an independent and free-willled chow-chow mix. Like many other first time dog owners, Kamal found himself in for a rude awakening when he got her – Lassie she was not! You name it, Scrunch did it – running away, biting, resource guarding, nervous aggression – Scrunch did it all! Scrunch prompted a trip to Newham Dog Training Club at Eastlea... Read more here.

Laura Waudby (she/her) trains and competes in obedience, rally, and agility. She was halfway to her OTCH with her UDX corgi, Lance, before his unexpected early retirement. She also has championship titles in USDAA and UKI agility. Laura was previously a service dog trainer for 10 years in a variety of roles from directly training the dogs for their specific jobs, to helping the puppy raisers and clients with how... Read more here.

Loretta Mueller

Loretta Mueller (she/her) has been involved in agility since 2003 with her first rescue dog, Ace. Since then she has earned ADCHs with 4 border collies — Zip (retired due to back injury), Klink, Gator (achieving his ADCH at the age of 2.5 years), Lynn and Gig. Lynn was 2013 Central Regional Grand Prix 22” Champion, as well as being a steeplechase and Grand Prix semi-finalist. Gig is just starting her... Read more here.

Lori Stevens (she/her) (CPBC, CPDT-KA, CCFT, SAMP) is an animal behavior consultant, a professional dog trainer, a canine fitness trainer, an animal massage practitioner, and a senior Tellington TTouch® Training practitioner. Lori continually studies the interactions among animal behavior, movement, learning, fitness, and health. She uses intimidation-free, scientific, and innovative methods, in an educational environment, to improve the health, behavior, performance, and fitness of animals. Lori's most recent of three DVDs By... Read more here.

Lucy Newton (she/her) has been training dogs and teaching dog training almost all her adult. She was a search & rescue dog trainer, handler, and instructor and she trained numerous personal dogs for wilderness search and rescue, as well as land and water human remains detection. Working with very active wilderness SAR teams, she has worked on a large number of missing person cases in both urban and very remote... Read more here.

Melissa (she/her) is FDSA's resident marketing geek. She teaches several marketing classes here at FDSA, including: Marketing for Pet Professionals and Building a Wordpress Website. In addition to her marketing classes, Melissa teaches FDSA's Treibball Classes and workshops. In addition to teaching, she hosts the Fenzi Dog Sports Podcast, coordinates webinars and workshops, handles much of FDSA's email marketing, runs the Ripple Effect group for dog trainers using Fenzi principles, and... Read more here.

Melissa Chandler

Melissa Chandler (she/her) lives in Ohio and is owned by her Weimaraner and Vizsla. Melissa has been addicted to dog sports since starting in 4H and AKC Jr. Showmanship. She has competed in conformation, agility, obedience, hunt tests, nose work, and rally. She has also successfully trained and handled non-owned dogs to many titles and championships. Melissa’s Weimaraner, Edge, was so excited about nose work she sought to learn everything she... Read more here.

Nancy Gagliardi Little

Nancy Gagliardi Little (she/her) has been training dogs since the early 1980s, when she put an OTCH on her Novice A dog, a Labrador retriever. Since then she has put many advanced obedience titles on her dogs, including 4 AKC OTCH titles, 6 UD titles, 3 UDX titles, and multiple championships in herding and agility. Her dogs have been nationally ranked in the top 3 placements in obedience and agility... Read more here.

Nancy (she/her) is a certified trainer with the CCPDT, and a certified behavior consultant with the IAABC. She teaches seminars, webinars, and workshops on dog training, dog behavior, and the business end of training throughout Canada, the U.S., and Europe. She has presented at conferences for the Pet Professional Guild (USA), the IAABC (UK), DogEvent (France), and the WOOF!2019 conference in the UK. Here at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, her classes... Read more here.

Nicole Wiebusch

Nicole Wiebusch CPDT-KA (she/her) has been competing in dog sports for over 25 years. Starting in 4-H, Nicole quickly became addicted to the sport of obedience and has been showing in obedience, rally, and agility ever since. Her first golden retriever, Tucker CDX RAE MX MXJ, was her “crossover” dog, the one who taught her the value of positive reinforcement training. Her second golden retriever, Toby, earned multiple high-level titles in... Read more here.

Sara Brueske (she/her) has been training dogs since she was a young child, and has experienced a large variety of breeds and sports during that time. After graduating as a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner in 2011, she jumped into the professional dog training world. She began teaching group classes and private lessons at On the Run Canine Center in Minnesota. At the time she was also competing in... Read more here.

Sarah Elizabeth Stremming

Sarah (she/her) has been working with dogs in the realms of performance training and behavior solutions for over a decade. She currently operates online through her business, The Cognitive Canine. Her special area of interest has long been helping dog owners address behavioral concerns in their competition dogs. Reactivity, anxiety, aggression, and problems with arousal are all major concerns for many competitors, and there is nothing Sarah loves more than... Read more here.

Shade Whitesel (she/her) has been training and competing in dog sports since she was a kid. Always curious in how dogs learn, she has successfully competed in IGP/IPO/Schutzhund, AKC obedience and French Ring. Along the way, Shade has received a perfect score in the IPO tracking phase on two separate dogs, a perfect score in IPO obedience, placements at Nationals and Regionals in Schutzhund and numerous 1st in class in... Read more here.

Sharon (she/her) 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. Sharon started competing with dogs over 30 years ago, she then made the change from competing with dogs, to competing with horses. For the next few decades Sharon had a successful career riding,... Read more here.

Stacy Barnett is a top nosework competitor and trainer, being the first handler to put Summit titles on 3 dogs (Judd SMTx3, Brava SMTx2, Powder SMT) in the National Association of Canine Scent Work (NACSW). Stacy has been a faculty member at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy since 2015 and is an international clinician for seminars around the world. She is a licensed Judge for for AKC Scent Work where she... Read more here.

Susan Finlay Ailsby (she/her) has retired from active teaching for FDSA. She is a retired obedience and conformation judge. She has been "in dogs" for 54 years, having owned and trained Chihuahuas, miniature pinschers, miniature longhaired dachshunds, Australian cattle dogs, miniature schnauzers, giant schnauzers, and Portuguese water dogs. She has trained for virtually every legitimate dog sport including sled racing, schutzhund, hunting, tracking, scent hurdle and flyball, carting, packing, agility,... Read more here.

Guest Instructors

Andrea Harrison

Andrea Harrison (she/her) is passionate about all species, including dogs and humans! Having lived with dogs her whole life, Andrea was an early convert to positive training for people and dogs. She has taken this message to the media many times, including appearances on many TV shows and news programs, as well as print and radio. Active as a foster home since 1994, Andrea has had many opportunities to work with... Read more here.

Ashley Escobar (she/her) has been training dogs and their people for 20 years. She is a retired college professor of mathematics and is a Certified Canine Fitness Trainer (CCFT) as well as a Certified Human and Canine Physical Trainer. Ashley is the owner of Ashley's Dog Sports, LLC, and Canine Performance Institute and teaches workshops nationwide, as well as conducting performance specific consultations, teaching private lessons, and conducting group classes on agility, canine conditioning... Read more here.

Dr. Jessica Hekman (she/her) 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... Read more here.

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 with a focus in sports medicine. Dr. Eide is now a resident with the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Eide also helped to create and teaches some... Read more here.

Sue (she/her) graduated from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, NY, in 1980. After three years in private practice, she joined the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps. While on active duty, she completed a 3 year residency in small animal surgery at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX and became board certified by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. She retired from the Army as a Lieutenant Colonel... Read more here.

Staff

Teri Martin (she/her) manages operations for FDSA. She is an accountant by trade and a dog training geek by choice. She was dragged into the world of dog training when her Labrador hit the terrible teenager stage and she needed help. That was the start of a passion for dog training and an introduction to the wonderful world of dog sports with tracking and rally obedience. The adventure continued with... Read more here.