Animal Training Academy

Monty Gwynne, founder of Equispeak and a self-proclaimed training junkie, is passionate about sharing her decades of training experience.  This depth and breadth of her experiences with many different breeds and disciplines allows her to draw on them to better solve issues using R+.  Monty’s training passions are classical dressage and driving.  Because of her long involvement in the horse world she is often called upon to help take and rehab ponies and minis who have been in difficult situations. Using R+ has been the saving grace for many of these rescues.  Monty’s approach is based on shaping without frustration and is unique in the R+ horse community. The focus of Monty’s journey is on bringing positive, science-based horse training to the forefront and working with people interested in discovering this powerful tool. Having seen the joy that positive reinforcement training brings to both partners in the horse - human relationship over the past 30+ years, there is no going back. Through her business, The Best Whisper is a Click, Peggy Hogan provides clicker training lessons, clinics, and online coaching, all focused on horses. She has been a horse-lover since the age of three when her sister put her on a pay-per-lap pony ride, loves all animals and has a passion for training. Her background in training includes N.H. and in-depth study of the teachings of Peggy Cummings, founder of Connected Riding. In the late 90's there was little information on using positive reinforcement with horses, so after an introduction from Alexandra Kurland, Peggy learned from clicker trainers of other species, as well as diving into the science behind the training with Dr. Susan Friedman. Peggy has investigated ways to add more shaping, capturing, luring, and targeting to her clicker training for horses program. Horses offer complex behaviors freely if given the choice, behaviors that apply to environments that range from agility to freestyle to medical procedures and Start Buttons. Peggy is currently teaming up with Monty Gwynne to reach the online community for teaching this amazing technology. For links, visit >>> https://atamember.com/2022/08/01/peggy-monty-2/

Monty Gwynne, founder of Equispeak and a self-proclaimed training junkie, is passionate about sharing her decades of training experience.  This depth and breadth of her experiences with many different breeds and disciplines allows her to draw on them to better solve issues using R+.  Monty’s training passions are classical dressage and driving.  Because of her long involvement in the horse world she is often called upon to help take and rehab ponies and minis who have been in difficult situations. Using R+ has been the saving grace for many of these rescues.  Monty’s approach is based on shaping without frustration and is unique in the R+ horse community. The focus of Monty’s journey is on bringing positive, science-based horse training to the forefront and working with people interested in discovering this powerful tool. Having seen the joy that positive reinforcement training brings to both partners in the horse - human relationship over the past 30+ years, there is no going back. Through her business, The Best Whisper is a Click, Peggy Hogan provides clicker training lessons, clinics, and online coaching, all focused on horses. She has been a horse-lover since the age of three when her sister put her on a pay-per-lap pony ride, loves all animals and has a passion for training. Her background in training includes N.H. and in-depth study of the teachings of Peggy Cummings, founder of Connected Riding. In the late 90's there was little information on using positive reinforcement with horses, so after an introduction from Alexandra Kurland, Peggy learned from clicker trainers of other species, as well as diving into the science behind the training with Dr. Susan Friedman. Peggy has investigated ways to add more shaping, capturing, luring, and targeting to her clicker training for horses program. Horses offer complex behaviors freely if given the choice, behaviors that apply to environments that range from agility to freestyle to medical procedures and Start Buttons. Peggy is currently teaming up with Monty Gwynne to reach the online community for teaching this amazing technology. For links, visit >>> https://atamember.com/2022/07/18/peggy-monty-1/ 

MELISSA MILLETT - Professional Stunt and Movie Animal Trainer Melissa is the founder and head trainer of In Dogs We Trust, The Ultimutts, and Ontario Animal Actors.  Melissa has taught thousands of family pets, holds training workshops for professionals in the pet industry including Veterinary technicians, Rescue Organizations, Professional Dog Trainers and sessions for the staff and volunteers at the London Humane Society. After joining the world of cat training, Melissa has offered online lessons to cat owners around the world and is part of the faculty for  ClickerExpo,  Melissa's own cat team (Sashimi, Tonic and Kit Kat) have acquired a Guinness World Record, travelled to California to earn 4 yesses on the America's Got Talent stage and performed in Hollywood Blockbusters and commercials.  Most notably, Melissa was the key trainer for the cats for Stephen Kings 2019 Pet Sematary.  The dogs and cats represented by Ontario Animal Actors have been featured in Commercials for Tim Hortons, Duracell, a 2019 SUPERBOWL commercial and alongside A-list celebrities like Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell and Sam Worthington (Avatar)! For the links visit here >> https://atamember.com/2022/07/04/melissa-millet-2/ 

MELISSA MILLETT - Professional Stunt and Movie Animal Trainer Melissa is the founder and head trainer of In Dogs We Trust, The Ultimutts, and Ontario Animal Actors.  Melissa has taught thousands of family pets, holds training workshops for professionals in the pet industry including Veterinary technicians, Rescue Organizations, Professional Dog Trainers and sessions for the staff and volunteers at the London Humane Society. After joining the world of cat training, Melissa has offered online lessons to cat owners around the world and is part of the faculty for  ClickerExpo,  Melissa's own cat team (Sashimi, Tonic and Kit Kat) have acquired a Guinness World Record, travelled to California to earn 4 yesses on the America's Got Talent stage and performed in Hollywood Blockbusters and commercials.  Most notably, Melissa was the key trainer for the cats for Stephen Kings 2019 Pet Sematary.  The dogs and cats represented by Ontario Animal Actors have been featured in Commercials for Tim Hortons, Duracell, a 2019 SUPERBOWL commercial and alongside A-list celebrities like Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell and Sam Worthington (Avatar)! For the links visit here >> https://atamember.com/2022/06/20/melissa-millet/ 

Dante Camacho Bio Dante is the founder of DanteDogWorks, he focuses on teaching other dog trainers and dog owners around the world about how to successfully train and live with dogs using positive reinforcement based training. He started his dog training career in the late 90’s and was one of the first dog trainers to introduce clicker training in Brazil. Dante is an international presenter and a dog sports enthusiast,  having represented Brazil and Canada in multiple World agility competitions,  titled dogs in Rally obedience and Dock diving, taught and performed Dog Dancing for almost a decade in Canada and the US and in recent years developed an online dog training platform that offers multiple courses for his Brazilian audience. He’s a teacher for the “Animal Behavior and Welfare” post grad course at the UNIRP University. Since 2020  Dante has worked as a volunteer developing training programs and training staff at the Rio Preto Zoo. To check all the links visit here -  https://atamember.com/2022/06/07/dante-camacho2/ 

Dante is the founder of DanteDogWorks, he focuses on teaching other dog trainers and dog owners around the world about how to successfully train and live with dogs using positive reinforcement based training. He started his dog training career in the late 90’s and was one of the first dog trainers to introduce clicker training in Brazil.Dante is an international presenter and a dog sports enthusiast,  having represented Brazil and Canada in multiple World agility competitions, titled dogs in Rally obedience and Dock diving, taught and performed Dog Dancing for almost a decade in Canada and the US and in recent years developed and online dog training platform that offers multiple courses for his Brazilian audience.He’s a teacher for the “Animal Behavior and Welfare” post grad course at the UNIRP University. Since 2020 Dante has worked as a volunteer developing training programs and training staff at the Rio Preto Zoo.

Jessica Hekman, DVM, PhD, is a veterinary genetics researcher who is fascinated by dog behavior. She works at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard as a computational biologist, studying the genetics of behavior in pet and working dogs through the Darwin's Ark project and the Working Dogs Project. She teaches behavioral biology at the Virginia Tech online Masters program for Applied Animal Behavior and Welfare. She also offers webinars online and consults with breeders about genetic testing and breeding choices. She is one of the founders of the Functional Dog Collaborative (functionalbreeding.org), a non-profit which seeks to change the conversation around dog breeding in the dog loving community. Jessica lives in Raymond, NH with her husband and three dogs.

Jessica Hekman, DVM, PhD, is a veterinary genetics researcher who is fascinated by dog behavior. She works at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard as a computational biologist, studying the genetics of behavior in pet and working dogs through the Darwin's Ark project and the Working Dogs Project. She teaches behavioral biology at the Virginia Tech online Masters program for Applied Animal Behavior and Welfare. She also offers webinars online and consults with breeders about genetic testing and breeding choices. She is one of the founders of the Functional Dog Collaborative (functionalbreeding.org), a non-profit which seeks to change the conversation around dog breeding in the dog loving community. Jessica lives in Raymond, NH with her husband and three dogs.

Deborah Jones, Ph.D. is a retired psychology professor who now trains animals full-time.  She has been training for 25+ years and focuses on positive reinforcement based methods.  Deb has written 12 books on dog training and has helped develop several DVD series.  She has also trained and shown multiple breeds to high level titles in agility, rally, and obedience.  She is currently teaching online training classes and webinars at www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com.  Her newest project is the Cooperative Care Certificate program in partnership with Fenzi Dog Sports Academy.  You can learn more about this at www.cooperativecarecertificate.com.  Visit her website at www.k9infocus.com for her blog and more information.

Deborah Jones, Ph.D. is a retired psychology professor who now trains animals full-time.  She has been training for 25+ years and focuses on positive reinforcement based methods.  Deb has written 12 books on dog training and has helped develop several DVD series.  She has also trained and shown multiple breeds to high level titles in agility, rally, and obedience.  She is currently teaching online training classes and webinars at www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com.  Her newest project is the Cooperative Care Certificate program in partnership with Fenzi Dog Sports Academy.  You can learn more about this at www.cooperativecarecertificate.com.  Visit her website at www.k9infocus.com for her blog and more information.