2025 Rally National Champion
I am a competitive obedience and rally trainer. My Golden Retriever, Tara, and I recently won the 2025 Rally National Championship becoming the top dog of almost 700 dogs competing. Dogs and their handlers came to St. Louis, MO for this trial from all over the country. All dogs competing had to qualify and be invited. Needless to say, this is one of my highest honors in dog training. See Tara and I on AKC’s website.
At this same show, my young Border Collie, Skye, came in 21st place out of over 170 dogs in the championship class as the youngest dog to compete at the highest level at the show. There were less than a handful of dogs at this level under three years of age. Skye was the only dog under two years of age.
Competitive Obedience
In obedience trials, I have earned two OTCH’s (Obedience Trial Champion), UD (Utility Dog) titles on four dogs, over a dozen High in Trial awards (highest scoring dog in the whole trial) and over a dozen High Combined awards (highest combined score out of the two classes where you compete for championship points). One of these high combined awards was at the 2022 Southeastern Regional Championship. I qualified one dog three times for the Westminster Masters Obedience championship, and once for the National Obedience Championship, not to mention qualifications on numerous dogs for the Obedience Classic.
Rally Obedience
In AKC Rally Obedience, I earned RACH’s (Rally Obedience Champions) on four different dogs. One of them earned 3 RACHs, over 60 High Combined awards, over 60 Triple High Combined awards, a seventh place in the championship class at the 2024 Rally National Competition, and was the first place winner of the 2025 Rally National Championship. Another RACH dog owned and trained by me finished her RACH after only loosing 6 master’s points in a total of 20 master’s runs. That’s an average score of over 99 1/2 out of 100 possible points in 20 master’s runs. A third dog finished her RACH before turning two years old. All four dogs finished their titles fast, skipped intermediate, and earned scores averaging well above 98 out of 100. In addition, I have put rally titles at the off-leash level on almost a dozen other dogs.