Kerry Hall, Certified Canine Training Specialist and Behavior Consultant
KERRY HIKING WITH HER BELOVED PERSONAL DOGS: MUDD, TOM AND RAIN IN VAIL, CO.
Breanna Leonard, Certified Dog Trainer and Behavior Consultant
Ali Ramsey
Ali has always loved animals of every shape and size. While working at a pet store in 2013 she had the opportunity to join their dog training program. While there she taught group classes and private lessons, but realized she could only get the dogs so far using only positive reinforcement. When her personal dog, Molly, started having severe dog and human aggression she knew she had to broaden her horizons.
Ali began learning all she could about balanced training and tools. She took a short break from training client dogs to focus on Molly. After gaining some ground she knew it was time to move on, and began working at a balanced training facility. While there she worked in practical obedience, behavior modification, and service dog task training. She taught group classes, private lessons, and developed specialized board and train programs. Her passion for training stems from her love of helping dogs feel more comfortable in their own skin and helping owners understand their dogs.
She joined the Flash team in the summer of 2020 as Denver’s Head Trainer where she’s continuing her mission of helping dogs and owners live a more harmonious life together.
Amanda Seale
Jess Holden
Jessica is originally from Upstate New York and has always had an immense passion for all things animals. The majority of her life has been working and training horses. She has taken everything she has learned from horse training and their behavior and has used this knowledge to help her in her canine career.
After graduating from SUNY Cobleskill with her Bachelors degree in Animal Science and a concentration in Canine Behavior, she went on to take an internship in South Carolina. During her time there she worked extensively with pet and working dogs. After her internship she began working for the company as a trainer. She taught group classes, curated specific training plans for board and train programs, taught agility, dock diving, bitework, tracking, and behavior modification to dogs of all shapes and sizes, helping countless owners live a better life with their dogs.
In 2020 completed an internship with FDT Oregon to familiarize herself with their methods and has been helping the dogs of Denver and their owners ever since.
Katie
Katie’s first dog-related job in 2014 was at a small veterinary clinic in upstate New York where she was a Veterinary Assistant. After six months at this clinic she moved back to Westchester and found another Veterinary Assistant job at a clinic in Connecticut. At both clinics, Katie acquired the necessary skills to handle dogs in stressful situations, whether it be drawing blood or trimming nails. After working a year as a Veterinary Assistant, Katie decided she wanted to take a different route in working with dogs.
Coincidentally, she saw an add in the local pet gazette at the clinic where she worked for a dog hiking company in CT. Katie decided she wanted to try the dog hiking business and in 2015 she was hired as a dog hiker for Active Dog LLC. This is where her interest in dog training and behavior started to blossom.
After two years hiking dogs in CT, Katie wanted a change of scene. She decided to move west to Denver, CO. Fortunately, her boss in CT offered her the opportunity to start a franchise branch of Active Dog in Denver. From 2017 to 2019, Katie hiked large packs of dogs and built Active Dog Colorado into a successful business. In April of 2020 she moved to Oregon to pursue training dogs professionally with Flash.
Sammy Rudy
After years of loving dogs and dog-sitting for others, in 2018 Sammy finally decided to bring home a puppy of her own. She spent weeks leading up to getting her puppy researching food, training, supplies and spending hours in pet stores talking to store associates to ensure she was well-prepared. She picked Bowie out of a litter of ten puppies because of his playful but relaxed demeanor. Out of wanting to love and bond with Bowie, Sammy let him sleep in the bed from his first night home, never crate trained him, gave him a ton of freedom, and went to dog parks to meet as many friends as possible. She lucked out that he inherently was not destructive in the home, potty trained easily, and was generally very dog social, but she ended up with an adolescent dog who did not know how to cope with being apart from her and suffered with stress and anxiety any time he had to be left home alone, taken to the vet for medical care, or separated from her for any reason. As much as Sammy tried to do everything right, she fell into the trap that many first time dog owners do of following tons of generic advice on the internet and not seeking support from true professionals.
After bringing home a second puppy to offer companionship for Bowie, she was quickly redirected towards a more guided approach to dog training when this new puppy presented with more challenging behavioral issues including resource guarding and reactivity. Shortly thereafter she discovered balanced training methods and the work Flash Dog Training was doing with dogs, and the rest is history. She enrolled her personal dogs in the program and began vigorously studying training methodology, e collar training and puppy raising. After seeing the drastic improvement in her dogs’ lives and the relationships she developed with them, and developing a passion for dog training, she left her career in the non-profit sector to pursue professional dog training. She became a shadow student at Flash Dog Training and thereafter was offered a job position, and has since grown in her skillset working with the diverse groups of dogs that come in for training. She is currently pursuing her Canine Training & Behavior certification through the Animal Behavior Institute.
Sammy also has a passion for canine health and nutrition, and is certified in Raw Dog Food Nutrition through DNM University. Bowie, too, was the impetus of this passion as he struggled with health issues while eating kibble during his first five months of life. Extensive research led her to switch him to a raw diet, working with a local co-operative who’s owner, Kasie Maxwell, has multiple credentials in nutrition and has been an expert in the area of raw feeding for 30 years. She was fortunate to learn under Kasie, observe extensive health improvements in Bowie, and has since weaned all of her subsequent puppies to raw food. Before beginning her work at Flash Dog Training, she served as a mentor within Kasie’s company educating dog owners on nutrition and helping hundreds of dogs switch to a raw diet. In addition to her trainer role at Flash Dog Training, she works with Flash Raw Dog Food as a nutrition consultant helping educate clients and members of the community on raw.