Cathy's life with dogs
started as a run-of-the-mill aspiring dog owner...
After a lifetime of wanting
a dog, when she turned 25 Cathy decided that finally she would have the time
and space to devote to a puppy. Two years later, after much reading, Cathy
finally got her first pup in the spring of 2001: a Golden Retriever she named
Aza. Cathy was an AnimalSense student right from the start and after years
taking classes as a student, then apprenticing and assisting, she has been an
experienced head instructor since 2004.
Cathy loves training dogs,
and is AnimalSense's "trailblazing trainer" as she does a great deal
of research and reading to incorporate the most up-to-date and groundbreaking
techniques in her classes and private lessons. Her focus is always to help
training be easier and make communication with your dog, clear, effective and
fun.
You will usually find Cathy
teaching Clicks, Tricks & Games, All Puppy, Basic Manners and Bowser and
Baby. Cathy is our resident expert on child-dog relationships, and for good
reason as she has two daughters and another child due in February, all of whom
get along famously with Aza the Wonder Pup. In addition to teaching classes and
seeing private clients with AnimalSense, Cathy produces and publishes our new
Video Podcasts! You can find them on the video page of our website or you can
subscribe to them via iTunes.
Teaching dogs and their
humans has helped Cathy round out her educational background. Until the Fall of
2005 she worked as a computer science lecturer at the
An activist in the
community, Cathy loves supporting As Good As Gold, the Golden Retriever Rescue
of Northern Illinois. Additionally, she is a founding member of the Chicago
Area Pet Trainers Association (CAPTA) and the current head of the Technology
Committee for CAPTA. Cathy is also an active member of The Association of Pet
Dog Trainers and has attended the national APDT conference in 2003, 2004, 2005
and will attend the 2006 conference this September. She has also been
participated in countless local conferences and seminars.
Cathy balances volunteering,
training and teaching with spending time with her husband, Mitch, and their three
children, Anastasia, born May 2002, Victoria born May of 2004 and Alfonse born
February 2007…..and, of course, playing with Aza, the Wonder Pup.
You can reach Cathy at cathy@animalsense.com.
