Meet The Team

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In 2004 Cathie fostered Sebastian, a two-year old male Sheltie who was highly intelligent and extremely energetic, but lacked any sort of discipline.  He quickly learned house manners and basic obedience, but he needed more.  In searching for something other than obedience, Cathie found agility and rally. That was the start of Cathie’s training and competing in canine performance sports.  

Cathie and her dogs continue to compete in a variety of sports such as agility, obedience, rally, herding (sheep and ducks), ratting and scent work.  For “fun” her dogs run in Course Ability and FastCAT.  Most recently she started competing in AKC and UKC conformation. As training techniques continue to evolve over the years, Cathie has continued to train and embrace the new methodologies.  

Cathie enjoys training dogs and their owners.  She believes having well mannered dogs makes their homes happier.  She also promotes training and trialing, believing the bond created while working as a “team” is one of the best experiences.  Cathie has put championship titles on her dogs in agility and rally; and her Mollie earned a Grand Champion Versatility Title from the Association of Working Shetland Sheepdogs.

She is a World Cynosport Rally judge (WCRL); AKC Farm Dog Certification evaluator; AKC Agility Course Test (ACT) evaluator; AKC Fit Dog Certified Trainer; and AKC CGC, Trick and S.T.A.R. Puppy Evaluator/Trainer.  

Before retiring to Florida, she and her husband, along with their Shelties, lived in Northern Virginia.  She worked in telecommunications and IT security, retiring from the Federal Government as a director and from IBM as an associate partner.  When not taking classes or trialing, she was training students in agility and rally. 

Courtney has always loved dogs from a young age. She worked at the Sea World in San Diego for a few summers with marine mammal trainers, using positive reinforcement to teach dolphins, sea lions, and whales. She saw the benefits of using
positive reinforcement and uses the same techniques with her dogs.

She believes dog training with rewards is fun and helps build the trust
and bond between the dog and the owner.
Courtney joined the Bratty Paws’ team in November 2020. Florida. She graduated in May 2020 from Gulf Coast University with her
Bachelor of Science in Nursing and currently works at Health Park
Medical Center on the medical-surgical unit.

Courtney has traveled around the country competing in different dog agility venues, including CPE Nationals, UKI Nationals,
AKC Nationals, and AKC Invitationals. They have earned multiple
championships.

Over the past few months, she has
been focusing most of her attention on her young border collie, Wave.
Throughout the years, Courtney has fostered over 100 dogs in her home with different medical and behavioral problems. She loves developing a plan to work through the different challenges each dog has and allow them to progress at their own pace. Courtney will always have a special place in her heart for students with rescue dogs.

At seventeen I sat as a Board member for the Greater Naples Dog Club. 

That experience ignited my lifetime involvement in Obedience, Conformation, and Rally. I began showing in AKC trials.

I continue to train and show many of my own dogs with my experiences expanding to  Farm Dog, Barn Hunt, Frisbee, and Scent Work.
I have been an instructor in Naples and in Ft. Myers area in Obedience, Rally, and Trick classes.

As a teacher and competitor, I have shown my own dogs in most of the dock diving disciplines for the past 12 years earning many titles.
 
Today I enjoy teaching puppies and adult dogs and students the joy of dock diving.  I have a love for photography and enjoy doing pet portraits and dock diving pictures.

In 2015 I started my journey in the dog world. I had applied to a doggy daycare and kennel facility. While working in the kennel I was able to learn about dog behavior and dog body Language. After my first year, I was eager to learn more and was offered the opportunity to begin training under a CPDT-KSA certified dog trainer. As I got more comfortable with basic obedience skills, I continued to expand my knowledge on other forms of physical and mental training. Over the years, I have encountered many different types of dogs and have enjoyed learning to adapt to each challenge they present. I stay involved with the CATCH dog training community consistently building my knowledge.

Lori has been involved in competitive dog sports for more than 20 years and has achieved advanced titles on several dogs in Agility (AKC, USDAA and CPE), Obedience, Rally, Scent Work and Water Work (Water Work is specific to Portuguese Water Dogs and involves tasks that mimic the work the PWD was bred to do). In 2009 she adopted a rescue PWD who was reactive to other dogs.  Because of him, she worked out a protocol, that has helped many dogs and people manage this issue.

 In 2011 she started a program for the Franklin County (Ohio) Animal Shelter to provide basic obedience training for people who adopted dogs from the shelter. She then expanded the program to work with people who adopted dogs that were reactive to other dogs. She ran both of these programs until 2017, reducing the number of dogs that were returned to the shelter from about 33% to almost none.

Lori uses positive reinforcement training has read extensively on the topic and attended many seminars.