appropriate one to describe my life. By trade, I
am an artist. I have always enjoyed drawing and
painting. One of my primary interests, as a child, was to draw and paint animals -
dogs, cats, birds, horses, and other nature-related subjects.
I studied art with numerous teachers and have taken many classes, entered
competitions and shown in several exhibitions, worked in the commercial art field...
as well as, having taught commercial art and design at the Alamance Community College
for fourteen years. It was while at ACC, that I became aware of my love of teaching and
watching people learn. During this time, I also earned my BAS degree from Elon College,
continued to travel the area training and showing my dogs... and, of course, attending to
family matters. There must have been more hours in a day then!
I have always had dogs; they were my friends and companions during my
childhood and afterwards. In the late 1970’s, I got my first Australian
Shepherd, fell in love with the breed, and entered the world of dog showing.
It was in 1988 that I enrolled in my first obedience class with the Alamance Kennel
Club. From there, I was hooked. Jasper was my first “obedience” Aussie, and
was a great motivator for me to continue training. Following Jasper, was Willie,
Gypsy and Mixie. Through ASCA, we have earned multiple obedience titles an have
several High In Trial/High In Trial Aussie awards. Mixie also earned UKC and AKC
titles (as the breed was accepted into the AKC registry during that time), as well as
qualifying for and showing at the Regional Championships. About that time, agility
also entered the picture! How fun training dogs had become!
Throughout the years, I have participated in many aspects of showing and training dogs -
breed competition, with Mixie earning her AKC and ASCA Championship; herding tests and
events; Frisbee competitions; agility; and tracking. My current challenge is Rowdy, a 6 year-
old Aussie, showing in Obedience, Agility, Freestyle, Conformation, and Herding. My husband
and I also have two Jack Russell Terriers; Reagan and Sheba, that I enjoy training.
I retired from teaching art in 1998, after 14 years at Alamance Community College and
began working at the Bon-Clyde Learning Center, where I had been training and instructing
since 1993. The Bon-Clyde Learning Center is located in Sanford, NC, and is one of the east
coast’s premier dog training facilities. Classes taught ranged from agility and
obedience to canine acting, freestyle, and breed handling.
Working at Bon-Clyde was very exciting for me. The opportunity to work with so many types
and breeds of dogs has been a wonderful learning experience. Working with beginner
classes and “problem” dogs has really helped me to gain insight into understanding and
training dogs. The wide variety of seminars and guest speakers that we had, offered
valuable training information, not only for me with my dogs, but as a major part of
helping me to understand other dogs and how best to train them.
Let Dogtown Training Academy, LLC help you to create a wonderful relationship
and bond with your dog. It is our goal to help you to understand and train your dog to the
level that you desire for a great family pet or a competition-level performance dog.
