Denise Tatro – Beginner, Novice Polish, Open, Utility, and Conformation Training

Denise titled her first Obedience dog, a black Standard Poodle, in 1962 at the age of nine. She grew up with Dobermans and her Grandmother always had mini-smooth Dachshunds. She has put well over fifty Obedience titles on dogs in all seven of the AKC groups, which means she has vast experience training and showing many different breeds of dogs.

For the past forty years she has taught all levels of competitive obedience, handling and canine behavior modification, with her specialty being aggressive/fearful dogs. She also does volunteer work with a group of 4-H children as well as judging the State 4-H final several times.

Denise and her husband “Red” breed and show AKC Whippets and Lakeland Terriers along with a couple of Mini-Wire Dachshunds that have recently been added. Denise and Red have finished over thirty-five champions, always breeder/owner-handled. She is an AKC licensed judge and is very active in her local breed club as well as her National breed clubs. She is a long time member of the Fort Worth Kennel Club and the Show Chairman for all events held by the club. In her “spare time” she also competes in agility with Bugsy, her mini Wire Dachshund. Her favorite saying is “There is nothing more fun than a well trained dog”.

Mary Waugh Swindell – Beginner & Intermediate Obedience, Beginner Agility

Mary is currently the co-owner and head trainer at Dancing Dogs. She has been training dogs since 1991 with the arrival of her English Shepherd, Gwen. Mary’s dogs have trained and participated in a number of sports and venues including competitive obedience, agility, Canine Freestyle, and Pet Therapy. Mary and her dog, Devon have been featured on the Doberman edition of Animal Planet’s Breed All About It, have been awarded High in Trial and gathered many agility titles. She is currently showing her Doberman Cassanova, who was ranked as the number 12 Doberman Pinscher in agility in 2005, and is currently working on his championship in multiple agility venues.

Mary and her husband Michael also have two dogs formerly from Doberman Rescue of North Texas: Morgan is a therapy dog, and Madeira competes in AKC, NADAC and ASCA agility. Their new Doberman pup Viktor will have some pretty big paw prints to fill!

Mary enjoys working with dogs of all breeds and ages and brings to her classes a love of teaching and learning. She uses positive motivation and clicker training in her classes. Food, toys and a myriad of rewards are what she encourages owners to use to build a better rapport for obedience and communication.

Jeanine Wilson – Beginner & Intermediate Obedience, Beginner Agility

In 1978 Jeanine was given her first Irish Setter as a Christmas present. She was purchased from Doctor’s Pet Center on the “Pay As You Love” plan. She would be known and loved as Brandy. Brandy was red which was one of the few things that qualified her as an Irish Setter, but she had plenty of Irish Setter traits, thus Brandy began Jeanine’s love affair with obedience (out of necessity) and her life long love for this
“Red Headed” breed.

Since 1978, she has put 39 titles on ten Irish Setters. It is important to her as a breeder that her dogs have beauty AND brains, so all of her dogs have their AKC Championship title, plus Obedience, Hunting, and Agility titles. Jeanine has shown and put several titles on other breeds as well, but learned quickly, the Irish Setter was more her style.

In 1988, Jeanine was asked to teach a short obedience course to the 4-H group in Parker County. That was eighteen years ago and she is still teaching. Over 800 children have gone through her program. Some have gone on to show AKC, and have qualified to show at the Texas State 4-H Dog Show. She is proud of the “Parker Pack” and
their accomplishments.

Jeanine is the proud mother of twin boys, Tristan and Travis. Travis has “special needs” and thus she has learned a great deal about the world of service dogs, which has confirmed how truly great she thinks the bond is between humans and dogs.

Karen Black – Beginner, Novice Polish, Rally

Karen is currently owned by 6 Australian Shepherds, 3 Whippets. 1 Portuguese Water Dog, and 2 cats.  Karen, her husband, Mike and son, Connor have all been training and competing in conformation, obedience and agility since 2000.  Karen has conducted conformation seminars for 4H clubs in the North Texas area.  Karen has title dogs in agility, obedience and rally.  She loves being able to share her knowledge and experience with her students.  Even more fun for her is being able to share in her students’ successes.

Much of Karen’s time is devoted to homeschooling Connor and carting him to dog shows all over the country where he competes in Junior Showmanship with his Whippet, Phoenix and in the breed ring with a variety of breeds.

Joanne Davis – Puppy Kindergarten

Joanne and her husband Mike are owned by several Doberman Pinschers. In 1972 Joanne purchased her first Doberman. She was encouraged by the breeder to show her in conformation shows. Joanne put numerous points on her while also training her in obedience for her CDX (Companion Dog Excellent). This was the start of a long time love of the breed.

Since then Joanne has bred over thirty AKC Champion Dobermans and put over twenty obedience titles on dogs with two of them being Champions with UD’s (Utility Dog).

Joanne has also trained and shown Poodles, Springer Spaniels and Whippets. She is currently a member of the Doberman Pinscher Club of America and Metro All Breed Obedience Club.