About
Stephanie has a B.Sc. in Education, and is also a certified professional dog trainer, certified OneMind Dogs instructor, and has been teaching and training agility since 2010. Before she became a professional dog trainer, she taught music to public middle school students. Stephanie is an avid agility competitor, competing in UKI and AKC. She believes in always striving to learn and improve, and that the greatest joys in the sport of agility can be found in learning new things and growing as a team, as well as succeeding in competition.
Stephanie strives to find what works best for each individual handler and dog. She loves to help handlers learn and grow, open up new possibilities for each team, and find what works best for them. Stephanie believes that every dog and handler are different, and that having a wide variety of tools for each team is very important. Her strong background in human education and canine behavior help her effectively teach both handler and dog individually, and bring them together as a team. Stephanie believes in a positive and supportive learning environment where handlers feel motivated to learn, try new things, and discover the ‘how and why’ behind all aspects of the sport of agility. Stephanie believes well trained dog and highly skilled handler have limitless potential in the sport of agility.
In 2015, Stephanie was introduced to the OneMind Dogs method. She quickly embraced the concepts at the heart of the OneMind Dogs method, believing that training and handling agility from the dog’s point of view creates a fantastic start in the sport of agility. In 2017, Stephanie was selected to become a certified OneMind Dogs instructor, and has continued to expand her education both with OneMind Dogs and beyond. She believes each team has individual needs, and that a wide variety of tools, skills and knowledge leads to an effective instructor who can help each team reach their full potential. Stephanie continues to learn and grow as handler, adopting skills and concepts from a variety of methods.
Stephanie and her dogs love training together and she finds great joy in any opportunity to let her dogs’ skills shine, be that in training, class, or in a competition. “My job is to help them show it off! I like to have many tools in my handler toolbox so my team is ready for anything we may come upon in a course”. Stephanie has competed on regional and national levels in UKI, including the UKI US Open and AKC Masters Agility Championship at Westminster, and recently made 3 place in the first round of European Open Team Tryouts in 2022, and 3rd place in round 3 of AKC World Team Tryouts in 2024. Stephanie and Dash were members of the 2023 European Open USA team as alternates.