Al and Jane Boeck
A Match Made in Doggie Heaven

A dynamic duo with a myriad of talents to share, ABC Mentor Trainers Al Boeck and his wife, Jane, give the gift of real-life experience to their ABC apprentices. Since 1992, the pair has successfully owned and operated their training company, Dog Obedience Group (D.O.G.), with the ultimate goal of “helping to keep dogs with behavior problems out of the local shelters and in the family by showing owners how to fix and prevent problems,” their website proclaims.

A native of Blue Springs, Missouri, Al was raised around a family of true dog lovers. He remembers going on evening walks with his father 50 years ago with their Schnocker (Schnauzer/Cocker mix). “My dad and I would walk the Schnocker at night the length of a long block, take his leash off and he would be waiting for us on the front step,” Al explains. When he grew up and became aware of the overabundance of unnecessarily homeless dogs, he was determined to do his part to rectify the problem. “So many dogs end up in shelters with fixable behavior issues,” he says. Through pet sitting, obedience showing, and obedience training, he transformed himself into a skilled and practiced dog trainer. He has been training professionally since 1984.

Born in Paris, France, Jane Boeck’s father was the Director of Tech Services with TWA and opened up the Paris airport after the war. “My very first dog was a Standard Poodle that we got in Paris France where I was born -- a real French poodle!” Jane says. “We brought him back to the states when I was two years old, so I’ve had dogs all my life.” A dog lover by blood, her maternal grandfather was also huge dog fan; “he was one of the first people in his rural farm town to not keep his dogs in the barn. They came inside with him!” she exclaims. She believes she got her love of dogs from him. She has been training dogs all her life, but has been teaching classes since 1986. Eventually moving on from Standard Poodles to Cocker Spaniels, she formerly showed in conformation. She has titled two dogs to date.

As fate would have it, fellow dog lovers Al and Jane met in Chicago 37 years ago because of a different common interest. They were both participants in road rallies. “Road rallies are big in Chicago. A car club would write instructions and drivers would attempt to follow them, play detective and try to get to the end of the obstacle course,” Jane explains. Both Al and Jane were both avid road rally competitors – they even earned a few trophies! After meeting at a Road Rally, the two got married 3 weeks later; they’re still married after 37 years. “Something must’ve been right!” Jane laughs. Her employment background is as an assistant; she has done assisting in the engineering field and even worked for the same engineering company as Al. They then decided to follow their dream of founding a dog training company… as a team. “We came home [to Missouri] and started our dog training business together. I don’t know many people who can do that and still be married after this many years,” Jane admits. “We get along really well -- neither of us could ever be with someone who didn’t love dogs.”

In 1992, Al and Jane formed their training company, Dog Obedience Group (D.O.G), with a definite and common goal. “We started DOG because there are way too many dogs in the shelters for fixable problems. It’s ridiculous! We are too much of a ‘throw-away’ society and an ‘instant’ society,” Jane says heatedly. She hopes to teach dog owners that because training really does pay off in the end, it’s worth the time and effort to have a life-long, obedience, enjoyable pet. “Dogs don’t get trained overnight, and they should be yours for life. They should not be thrown to the shelter on a whim.”

While Jane carries the title of training director of D.O.G., making lesson plans, evaluating instructors, teaching at least two classes a session and doing most of the private lessons, Al teaches obedience, clicker, rally, and trick classes, handles phone calls and questions, maintains the website, and helps with kennel duties. “It has been a team effort and we are now getting to the point where we have enough very good instructors so that we can just relax a little and let some other people run the school,” Al says. “We even took a two week vacation this year!” The two also stay up-to-date and attend conferences in order to give their clients, their dogs, and their ABC apprentices the most current, well-rounded training information and advice. “Jane has been instrumental in adding classes or changing the way we do things – we recently made a major change in the way we teach puppy class after she attended an Ian Dunbar ‘Sirius Puppy’ seminar,” Al explains.

Since being hired by ABC as Mentor Trainers in January of 2006, Al and Jane have mentored several ABC apprentices, each one coming away with a newfound understanding of obedience training. Despite having learned how to train “the old-fashioned way, with years of hands-on practice and a few bites,” Al enthusiastically agrees with ABC’s plight. “At first I had some reservations,” he says, “but the ABC program seems to prepare their students to be very good trainers in a relatively short time.” They attest to having fun with their ABC apprentices, and they’ve met some interesting individuals throughout their experience. “One of the ABC apprentices didn’t have a dog, so she had to borrow one,” says Al, “but she did have six elephants! She was an elephant handler at the Kansas City Zoo.”

Both Al and Jane play a major role in the educations of these aspiring trainers, assisting in molding them into positive, understanding, and prepared professionals.

For more information on Al, Jane, and D.O.G., please visit www.dogwizard.com.

Jamie Bozzi, CPDT, ABC Mentor Trainer
Striving for Excellence

With dog training role models such as Ian Dunbar, Jean Donaldson, Pat Miller and Pam Dennison, it’s no surprise that ABC Mentor Trainer Jamie Bozzi aptly passes on the gift of positive reinforcement training methods to her apprentices. Her charitable nature, vast ability and keen knowledge of the ever-changing training industry render her priceless to the ABC team.

Like many other professional dog trainers, Jamie didn’t pursue a career in dog training until she had already worked in a different field for several years; she has a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and previously did legal and administrative work. It wasn’t until seven years ago that she aspired to donate her time to a charitable cause and consequently fell into the training groove. “I always wanted to do volunteer work, but could never decide exactly what type,” she says. Since she grew up in a family of animal lovers, her desire to contribute naturally gravitated toward four-legged recipients. “Through therapy dog training, I discovered how much I enjoyed not only working with my dogs, but building our relationship. The unique bond that developed during this training inspired me to develop my training skills and become a dog trainer.”

After attending the San Francisco SPCA Dog Academy and apprenticing under a trainer in her area, Jamie founded her training company, SmrtDog, and began accepting clients in the San Diego, California area. She has been training full time ever since, teaching everything from Basic Obedience classes to specialty classes such as Hollywood Hounds and Canine Good Citizen. She also teaches basic agility and raves about the effectiveness of Clicker Training -- “Since dogs don’t speak English and we don’t speak Dog, the clicker is a wonderful communication tool,” she says.

Although Jamie boasts an impressive resume, she recognizes that the animal business is perpetually growing and she adjusts her education accordingly. “Education is a life-long process,” she explains. “I continually build my knowledge by attending seminars, lectures, conferences and staying current on the latest dog training and behavior research. I’m always learning new ways to educate people and dogs.” Her commitment to canine education shines brightly and greatly benefits her apprentices, her clients and their dogs. She devotes special attention to establishing a successful working relationship between dog and owner. “It’s so important to set both dog and owner up for success. People who play with their dogs stay with their dogs. My favorite success stories are those moments when the light bulb goes on for both dog and owner,” she says.

Since being contacted and hired by ABC in 2004, Jamie has excelled as a Mentor Trainer and has skillfully laid the foundation for her apprentices’ training careers. The eagerness of her apprentices to soak up as much knowledge as possible gives her inspiration. “ABC students are very willing to learn and are open to new ideas,” she explains. “In addition, they come from very diverse backgrounds. I think that this diversity really brings a lot to the program.” She agrees that although real-life experience is essential, having a capable mentor is immensely influential. “I enjoy watching young trainers develop their skills and grow,” she says. “Although nothing can replace lots and lots of hands-on experience, a mentor can help guide students in the right direction. Throughout my career, I’ve had mentors that were very supportive and nurturing; it’s so important to be supportive in an ever-changing and growing field.” Jamie persistently serves as a guide to her ABC apprentices, and the advice, attention and training she provides are invaluable to their new careers as professional dog trainers.

Years of experience have taught Jamie that one of the most essential aspects of dog training is connecting with the people, and not just their dogs. She graciously passes this wisdom on to her apprentices in hopes of assisting them in building a career with a solid foundation. “I try to convey to ABC students that you not only must be skillful with dogs, but you must also be an educator/teacher to the owners. The owner is the one who lives and interacts with the dog; he/she must not only see the techniques working, but he/she must also be able to implement them easily at home,” she explains. “The dog/owner relationship is built on trust and mutual respect. I think it’s a dog trainer’s job to help foster that very special relationship.”

In Jamie’s words, the key to success in the world of dog training is “educating yourself, really knowing your stuff, being kind to dogs and fair to clients.” By passing on this knowledge to her ABC apprentices, Jamie Bozzi benevolently gives them the tools they need to kick-start their careers as professional dog trainers. She is an asset to the ABC team.

For more about Jamie and SmrtDog, please visit smrtdog.com.

Marsha Houston, ABC Mentor Trainer
A Country Dream Come True

Marsha Houston, ABC Mentor Trainer and agility enthusiast, attributes most of her dog training know-how to the time she spent 10 years ago learning with an apt mentor – her Aussie puppy, Banner. “Banner taught me everything I need to know about training a dog. She was a marvelous trainer,” Marsha raves. Banner, appropriately named due to her red and white coat and blue eyes, came to her as a puppy in 1996. “I wasn’t allowed to train her with my training club until she was six months old. In the meantime, I trained her at home with no collar and no leash, just her walking beside me for treats.” This exercise in trust gave their relationship a strong foundation based on respect and adoration.

However, when Banner finally reached six months of age and was allowed to attend classes, the training style that she had become accustomed to was ripped out from under her paws. “The first thing they did when I took her to class was fit her with a choke collar,” Marsha reminisces, “and the instructor would scream at me for not popping her leash when she didn’t keep up with me while heeling.” She saw Banner’s spirit begin to fade. “I said to the trainer, ‘did you notice that the enthusiastic puppy I had with me when I first started is gone, and now I have this puppy who’s lagging and who looks insulted every time I pop her leash?’ I went home that night, threw away the choke chain, and put on the regular buckle collar.” Even though the training style of that particular instructor was incongruent with what Marsha believed in, she became hooked on the idea of going to obedience classes and meeting dog people. “It changed my whole outlook on what dog training was,” Marsha explains. She has been training formally for the past 11 years, and hasn’t strayed from her preferred all-positive training methods.

Marsha was born in Defiance, Ohio, and grew up right outside of Ohio in Williamstown, West Virginia. A graduate of West Virginia University, Marsha boasts a degree in Journalism, but has never been employed as a journalist. “In order to work as a journalist, you have to move to a big city and work for a big newspaper. That’s not what I wanted to do with my life,” Marsha says. She lived in West Virginia for 45 years and worked in the office of Fenton Art Glass Company for 25 of those years before moving to central Ohio to train full-time.

About three months ago, Marsha and her husband, agility icon Bud Houston, bought a property from her parents and moved out to a small town near Marietta, Ohio to live out a relaxing retirement. She and Bud bought the 28-acre property from her parents, who were getting older and needed help with its upkeep. “It all came together. We were thinking of retiring, they were wondering what to do with this place. It all worked out,” Marsha explains. Although they still intend to retire, they moved to their new home for other reasons, too – to pursue their common dream of opening “Bud’s Country Dream” agility camp and training facility.

One night a week, Marsha conducts several levels of obedience classes, including basic obedience, advanced obedience, and competition-style obedience. In addition to her already packed schedule, she also takes care of nine canine companions, and prides herself in keeping her house as pristinely clean as possible, considering the circumstances. “I am a clean freak,” Marsha admits. “The best compliment you can give me is, ‘I can’t believe there are nine dogs living in this house!’ I work hard for that everyday.”

When ABC contacted Marsha to become a Mentor Trainer in 2005, she admits that she was flattered to be considered. She liked the all-positive training style that ABC teaches its students, and passed the Mentor Trainer exam with flying colors. Since becoming an ABC Mentor Trainer, she has mentored over 15 students and “the experience has been wonderful,” she says. “The students have been very refreshing and fun. The typical obedience class student is just somebody with a family pet; an ABC student will stay after class to talk about things, how they would have handled certain training situations. It’s more like having associates rather than students; they’re people I can bounce ideas off of. It’s always nice to sit down with somebody who has the same interests.” She even goes above and beyond by scheduling extra classes for students with busy schedules. “They want to change their lives and go out and help other people. I will create classes so they get the experience they need,” she explains.

Marsha challenges her ABC students in real-life situations to prepare them for their careers in training. “I think an obedience instructor should have grace under fire, and the only way to learn grace under fire is to decide to believe in yourself,” she says. “So what I do with ABC students is, I teach them how to be poised when faced with questions being fired at them. I have my students face the class; they may have had time to prepare for it, they may not.” She believes that this high-pressure scenario is very true to real life. “As an obedience instructor, people will stop you at the grocery store or the gas station and ask you questions you’ve never heard and you have to know how to handle them,” she explains.

When asked what advice Marsha would give to aspiring trainers, she was full of inspiration. “What I discovered by watching Bud and being around him is, if you want it, you can do it, and if you do it well, people will come back and ask for you again,” she says. “The thing about being a dog trainer for a living is that you have got to figure out what customers are looking for and streamline your program to go right into what they’re looking for. You can’t pigeon-hold yourself or limit yourself in any way. You have to say, ‘if I want to do this for a living, I have to devote myself to it entirely.’ You’ve got to be there – do whatever that customer base is looking for.”

With a plethora of knowledge and training wisdom to bestow upon her apprentices, Marsha Houston is an inspirational and influential mentor trainer. We’re proud to have her as an essential part of the ABC team.

For more information on “Bud’s Country Dream” agility camp and training facility, please visit www.dogagility.org.

Wendy Appleton, ABC Mentor Trainer
Teacher, Trainer, Mentor

ABC graduate and Mentor Trainer Wendy Appleton may have a Bachelor’s degree in elementary education, but she exercises her teaching skills on a different type of student -- the four-legged kind.

Studying elementary education taught Wendy that learning is a sensitive process, and that not everyone absorbs information in the same manner. “I was taught to approach problems in different ways, because not everyone learns the same,” Wendy said. Several years ago, she signed up obedience classes with her deaf Dalmatian, Buddy. She observed a trainer utilizing negative reinforcement to train a four-month-old Boxer puppy. The stubborn puppy was refusing to walk on a leash. Instead of positively encouraging him, the trainer dragged him around on a leash and ultimately resorted to using a prong collar. Wendy cringed and questioned the necessity of such methods. “There were no provisions made in the learning style. I thought to myself, ‘there has to be a different way to train,’” she said.

Volunteering at a local shelter was Wendy’s first window into the world of dog training. She responded to an advertisement on a local cable channel in search of volunteers for the Animal Rescue League (ARL) of New Hampshire, located in Bedford. Starting off as a dog walker and socializer, she even joined the “Pet Step” festival committee, where she helped to organize the annual dog-walk-a-thon event to raise money for the shelter. She used her time there to soak up all of the knowledge she possibly could. “I found out the manager of the shelter was an amazing trainer. I picked his brain constantly,” she said. “Every week I would go in and ask him another question.” She even attempted to initiate a “No Bark Zone” program to keep the dogs calm and quiet when potential adopters entered the shelter. Even though the limited staff and large amount of dogs kept the program from being successful, Wendy was given the opportunity to work a little more freely with the shelter dogs as a result. She took every chance she could to not only practice her own skills, but to give the shelter dogs some well-needed attention. “I saw wonderful dogs being given up because people couldn’t find a way or weren’t shown a way to have their dogs become the best dogs they can be,” she explained.

Meanwhile, Wendy was working in telecommunications and had just graduated from college with a Bachelor’s degree. Although she was prepared for a career in teaching, she was unable to find a job close to her home. After her eye-opening training experience, she felt that becoming a dog trainer was “a natural progression; I couldn’t find kids to teach, so I went to dogs and people!” She researched online and found ABC’s website. She read the biographies of the contributing authors and staff members and was very impressed. The convenient home-study format and the invaluable hands-on training convinced Wendy that ABC was the right school for her. “My problem was that as an adult with a real job, I couldn’t just give up my real life and go to dog training school, plus pay tuition. I liked the fact that ABC is a home-study program, and you can do it at your own pace.” She was even able to train for a new job in health insurance while studying to become a dog trainer.

Wendy graduated from the ABC Obedience Instructor Program in 2002 and began training part-time, teaching both private lessons and group classes. She was recruited by ABC as a Mentor Trainer in 2003. Since becoming a mentor, she has mentored approximately fifteen ABC students in and around the Bedford, New Hampshire area. Wendy works with students in a “shelter” format, meaning she meets with them at the ARL and other local shelters and works with them and the dogs there on basic obedience and problem solving. Not only does this benefit the students by giving them valuable hands-on experience; because of the hard work and dedication of her and her apprentices, she has watched many newly-improved dogs find happy, permanent homes. Both shelters also appreciate the help, and love having more people to work with the dogs. “They have been very open to both me and my apprentices,” Wendy explained.

Showing her apprentices the power of positive training is rewarding in many ways. “I had one apprentice who had taken her dog to a compulsive trainer before beginning the ABC program. She didn’t believe the positive methods would work,” Wendy said. “The very first time she laid her hands on a dog, she did a leash pop.” Wendy showed her a non-abrasive way to fix the problem in which the dog actually corrected himself. “Afterwards, she said, ‘wow, that was easy! It was easy for me and him too!’” Wendy admits to having chosen an all-positive training program for this reason. “I loved watching her have that ‘wow!’ factor, and watching the progress of not only the shelter dogs but her own dogs,” she said. “The joy she had in working with her own dog and the joy he had working with her was inspiring; they had lost their connection and regained it.”

“The variety of apprentices is my favorite part – the diversity of their backgrounds, and why they want to add training to their repertoire,” she said. “I’ve mentored veterinary technicians and groomers who simply want to handle dogs better, people who want to own their own businesses, horse trainers who have become dog trainers. They all bring something with them, and it’s helped me to become a better trainer.” Wendy continues to stay in contact with many of her former apprentices.

Wendy proudly boasts, “I have learned as much from my apprentices as I hope they’ve learned from me! I have found [mentoring] to be very, very beneficial to me; it keeps me grounded, and keeps me remembering what’s important. A lot of times when you run a group class with family pets, the clients don’t always challenge you. The apprentices keep me honest; they ask me questions and make me go back and think about my answer. I love watching them succeed, and I love watching them interact with the dogs and know that they can make a difference.”

Even though she is in the process of opening her own training school, Wendy continues to mentor ABC students, teach group classes and private lessons, volunteer for the ARL and balance a full-time career in health insurance. How does she do it? “The dogs keep me sane,” she said. “Dog training is a stress relief.” With her amazing ability to balance it all and still maintain a jubilant demeanor, Wendy Appleton is an invaluable member of the ABC team.

Lisa Sickles, CPDT, APDT, ABC Mentor Trainer
Will Work for Cheetos

A spunky little cockapoo named Liberty was Lisa Sickles’ first training triumph, and her initial dog training inspiration. Lisa spent many days trading tricks for Cheetos with Liberty, until one day he learned how to climb up and slide down a playground-style steel slide. "He was so teachable," Lisa says. "He loved it! He would do it all the time, even on his own. ‘Will work for Cheetos,’ I always said." Little did she know at 11 years old while teaching Liberty to climb up and slide down a playground slide, she would someday have a successful and influential career as a professional dog trainer.

Lisa Sickles is one of ABC’s prized Mentor Trainers, and she is honored to be this month’s "ABC Mentor Trainer in the Spotlight."

Lisa was born in Utah and raised in Colorado Springs. Now she lives in Englewood, Colorado where she trains to this day. Liberty was not her only canine companion; she was raised around dogs her entire life. During her early adult years, she did many different things for a living, but found she still felt unfulfilled. "My husband inspired me because he was always self-employed in a job he loved," Lisa explains. "I thought to myself, there has to be more." She pooled the opinions of her friends and family, and they came to the conclusion that Lisa should be working with dogs.

At the time of this revelation, Lisa was taking one of her dogs through obedience classes at a local pet store. She later became employed as a dog trainer at this pet store and taught dog obedience classes there for about two years before being promoted to Senior Trainer, meaning she mentored other dog trainers. She also taught private lessons. Lisa then decided to branch out and broaden her training spectrum, and began a training program at her local vet clinic where she taught group classes for about a year and half. Lisa then decided she was ready to train on her own.

At first, Lisa was petrified in group classes. "None of my friends would believe this, but I was always the shy person," Lisa giggles. However, the rewarding nature of dog training kept her going. She loved connecting dogs to their owners through positive motivation. "Every time a dog’s owner would say, ‘oh my god, you got him to sit!’ it was so rewarding that I knew I was meant to be doing this."

ABC approached Lisa in 2005 after following a student recommendation and asked her if she’d like to become a Mentor Trainer for the ABC Externship program. She immediately excelled at mentoring students and always received a positive response. Her ABC students have a large amount of respect and admiration after working with her, and her positive, upbeat nature makes learning fun.

Lisa admits that ABC has changed her ways of explaining things to both students and dog owners. "Working with ABC students makes me become a little more aware of how I’m describing how to do something to both them and the clients. It makes me a better trainer," she says. Training potential trainers has taught her to look closely at the way she explains even the simplest training techniques. Once something becomes second nature to someone, they may leave out necessary steps because they feel they are implied. "You have to tell them how to do it, show them how to do it, and then have them do it. It’s all about the different ways that people learn. Some people learn by seeing, some by hearing, some by doing." Lisa is now much more careful about making sure she covers all of these bases.

The ABC Externship has given Lisa valuable training experience, not to mention a good reputation. "When I have an ABC student apprenticing me in class, it makes the clients look at me like, ‘oh, well if she’s helping to teach other people to become trainers, she must really know what she’s talking about!’"

"The ABC staff is great, too," she says. "They’re always available when I need to talk about something, and they’re very supportive."

Lisa’s advice to anyone who aspires to become a dog trainer but is not sure what path to follow is to seriously consider why they’re interested in doing this and how they can benefit dogs and their owners. "I’m impressed by students who, as much as they want to train, are smart enough and caring enough about the dogs and the clients to know they aren’t ready," she explains. Those who truly care about the happiness and well-being of dogs and their people will seek the training and education to do it in the most effective and positive way.

Bill, Lisa’s husband and a professional musician, shares her love of dogs and actually named both of the dogs they have now. Their sheltie mix, Jazzy, was adopted from a rescue at eight weeks old. Jazzy immediately bonded with both of them but was fearful of everything. She’s now seven years old and while she used to be unable to be in a room alone with somebody, she now accompanies Bill to work every day. "Working with her and watching her progress has taught me so much," Lisa says. They also have another dog, Nica, who Lisa lovingly calls a "Picasso dog" (meaning every part of her looks like a different breed). "My dogs are a huge part of my life. They teach me something every day."

Lisa’s goal is "to help people and their dogs have a happy and respectful life together." Her innate ability to pass this philosophy on to her ABC apprentices and her devotion to dogs and positive motivational training are what inspired ABC to name her our "Mentor Trainer in the Spotlight."