Mindy Cox, Training Director
at Lucky Dog Sports Club, has been working with dogs for many
years. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in Animal Science
from Cornell University and pursued her master's degree in veterinary
anatomy from the University of Georgia College of Veterinary
Medicine. She has been a veterinary hospital administrator for
over twenty years, and has been instrumental in starting programs
in pet therapy, puppy kindergarten, and obedience and behavior.
She holds a CD obedience title on her dog, Bella, as well as
multiple AKC agility titles, and is training and competing at
the Master Agility level. She is currently training and enjoying her new boy, Remy, a Belgian Malinois. Mindy has had the good fortune of
training under some of the top agility competitors in the world.
Cynthia Kean currently
competes with her two dogs at the highest level in two agility
venues, AKC and USDAA. She recently put her 8th Championship
on her border collie, ADCH MACH2 Nell CDX FN. Cynthia has been
playing agility for over thirteen years and has trained six of her
own dogs in that time. She has been an AKC agility Judge for
more than nine years. Cynthia has a Masters degree in Education and owned
and operated a successful dog training facility when she resided
in New York. She is owned by Nell, as well as Beau, a sheltie,
a Papillion named Cricket, and her newest family member, Tickle, a border collie. Her husband, Patrick is a great
roadie!
Sonya Cerron proudly refers
to herself as an agility junkie! She has been in love with the
sport of dog agility since 1999, and it shows. She is always
promoting the sport, and the love of dogs. Sonya has trained
and trialed with her now-retired dogs Wiley and Jacy, both Australian
Cattle dogs, since 1999. She currently trains and trials with
Jimmy, an Australian Shepherd, in both AKC and USDAA agility.
She has been involved in animal health and welfare all of her
life. As an animal control warden in Marathon, Florida, she
began obedience classes, and worked tirelessly to help find
new homes for our unwanted friends. Sonya has volunteered her
time at many non-profit animal organizations over the years,
including most recently, the Humane Society of the Treasure
Coast. Students in her agility classes in foundation, beginners,
intermediate and advanced levels have gained from her instruction
and knowledge. She is generous with her time and experience,
and to her delight, sees many of her students succeed in their
training and gain the confidence to win at trial!
Dr.
Lisa Radosta: Special Visiting Instructor. Dr. Radosta has been helping owners alter their
pets behavior for the past 12 years, first as a dog trainer,
later as a veterinary behavior consultant and currently as a
board certified veterinary behaviorist.
Dr. Radosta is a native of Florida. She graduated from the University
of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in 2000. Following
graduation, she completed a one-year small animal medicine and
surgery internship. She continued to practice in South Florida
as a small animal veterinarian with a special interest in small
animal behavior cases for the next 2 years. In 2006, she completed
a three-year residency in Behavioral Medicine at the Matthew
J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
She received multiple research awards during her residency. We are fortunate and honored to have her teaching here at Lucky Dog.
Visit
her website to find out more about her practice or to schedule
a private consultation.
Blase Pfefferkorn has
a long history in the dog training field. Beginning n 1982 he
assisted in the training of police K9s and in 1989 he began
training dogs for obedience. By 1993 he had started training
dogs for performance obedience obtaining his first title in
1995. In 1997 his dog was ranked number two in Open obedience.
Tragically, this dog died young of cancer, but had attained
enough points to end up number five in the breed in the country
for the rest of that year. Since then, he has ranked his dogs
in Novice, Open, Utility and obtained a UDX. He had the number
three and number ten dogs in their breed in Novice, in the country
in 2001, number three in Open in 2003, number three in utility
in 2005, number two in Open in 2006 and going first place over
the number one dogs in both Open and Utility at the National
Speciality in 2007, winning High in Trial and High Combined.
This past year he has the number one Open dog in his breed (Rottweilers)
in the country. Blase began instructing classes back in 1995,
and believes in maintaining a rewards-based, positive, interactive
learning experience for both the dogs and students to achieve
the best results and enhance the partnership between the handler
and the dog.
Stacey Perry has been
in the dog field for over 20 years. She is a Level IV (the highest
level) veterinary technician at Harmony Animal Hospital, and
has gained a reputation with clients as a person willing to
share her vast knowledge of dog behavior and training. She has
a gentle, yet confident manner with the dogs she works with
and quickly gains their trust. She shares her home with six
dogs that live happily together, including one being trained
as a police K9. Three of her dogs have attained their AKC Canine
Good Citizen titles and two of her dogs are certified therapy
dogs.
Maureen Parsons began showing dogs in obedience almost 20 years ago, putting CDX (advanced obedience) titles on her German Shepherd Dog and Standard Poodle. Since those early days of training that relied more on punishment (the old "pop and jerk") she discovered more humane and reliable methods to teach dogs and has been an avid teacher of positive reinforcement, including clicker training. She utilized these rewards-based methods to train her subsequent dogs to do many tricks and to teach them the behaviors necessary to qualify for Rally and obedience titles. She taught many puppy kindergarten classes using the clicker at Harmony Animal Hospital and has had a positive impact on many dog's lives.
Maureen continues to learn new ways to teach by attending numerous conferences led by world-renowned instructors. She is also strongly involved in pet therapy through her group, www.sunshineonaleash.com and has been a Delta Society Pet Partner evaluator for 10 years. She visits hospitals, geriatric centers, and schools regularly with her therapy dogs, Chrissy (a 9-year old Maltese), who also holds an RN (Rally) title, and Ricky (a 5-year old Keeshond) who has achieved an RE title in Rally as well as his obedience CD title. Maureen and her husband Roger are also owned by two additional dogs, Karma (a 19 month old Standard Poodle) and Ace (an 8-year old Maltese).
Fully fenced
and landscaped outdoor grassy training field with excellent
footing and lighting for night classes and events.