Agility

Kathy has loved dogs for as long as she can remember. She has also enjoyed training each of her dogs in conformation (the breed ring), in obedience, or in agility. She has been showing her dogs in the breed ring since 1999 and continues to enjoy competing in this show ring. She is the breeder/owner/ handler of Sunny, her CH-VCX (a versatility title earned by receiving championship titles in breed and agility and titles in herding).

In 1996 Kathy got her first Shetland Sheepdog, Skyler, the first dog she trained in agility. Since then she has enjoyed and competed frequently and successfully in AKC agility earning Master Agility Championships, three times with Sunny and once with Bliss. She is currently training two more shelties, Derby and Castle.

Kathy has taken agility training seminars from Jen and Susan Crank, Bud Huston, Mary Ellen Berry and Loretta Mueller and plans to stay up to date learning new agility skills, training techniques and handling maneuvers. She wants her students to come to class to have fun with their dogs and begin learning the foundation skills so essential throughout agility training.

Deb trained her first dog, a border-collie mix, in the late 1970s as a member of Boone County 4-H. She returned to dog training in the late 1990s, first in obedience and then in other dogs sports. Today, she has trained multiple dogs (a Border Collie, a Belgian Sheepdog, a Belgian Tervuren and three Golden Retrievers) to high-level titles in several dog sports, including agility, obedience, rally, tracking and hunting/retrieving.

Before returning to the Indianapolis area, Deb lived in the Columbus, Ohio, area where she was fortunate to train with some of the best agility instructors in the country. She has taken numerous camps and seminars with Linda Mecklenberg of Awesome Paws and continues her education with seminars and private lessons with Jennifer Crank of Incredipaws.

Deb has bachelors’ degrees in animal science and agricultural communications, spending her professional career in public relations and communications. In her spare time, she trains her dogs and teaches others to do the same. No matter what sport she is teaching, her passion is training solid foundation skills on which advanced training is built leading to greater accomplishments. She also believes dog training is a team sport where both dog and handler work together to achieve success.

Elizabeth Ann (or Babs) Beck is the owner of Pawsitive Partners. Because of her business degree and background in teaching, Babs will be managing the business and teaching Beginner I Agility. Her goal is to manage using the same positive philosophy as is used with the four-legged clients.

Babs competes in agility with her rescue sheltie and now MACH (AKC Master Agility Champion) Bravo as wells as with her fun-loving Parson Russell Terrier, Tic Tac. Babs has attend numerous agility handling seminars and instructor camps with Jen Crank, Dana Pike, Stuart Mah, Julie Daniels, Rachel Saunders, Rhonda Carter, Jen Pinder and Jo Serman. She plans to keep on learning about agility attending as many seminars/workshops/ camps, etc. as she can.