Julie Sandson, Owner/Operator and lifelong dog lover/handler: I hold BA and graduate degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. In 2003, after 15+ years as a public/private sector workers compensation insurance defense practitioner, I left corporate America to pursue my true passion: working with dogs and cats; specifically, influencing for positive change the quality of the lives of the animals I touched, along with those of their human families.
I have trained and shown performance dogs to obedience titles since 1984, with my first owner-handled AKC dog, American Staffordshire Terrier CH. Sligo’s Punjab McCarthy, CGC (Canine Good Citizen), TT (Temperament Test), TDI, CD, CDX. I have since worked with a wide variety of breeds from Pugs and French Bulldogs to Great Danes, Bullmastiffs, Boxers, Saint Bernards, Great Pyrenees, Newfoundlands, Bernese Mountain Dogs, “The Terriers” and many lovely Labrador and Golden Retrievers in conformation, performance sport, temperament stability and obedience work, under the American Kennel Club, United Kennel Club (notably, my own American Pit Bull Terrier, Razor’s Edge Steel City Linus, CGC, TT, TDI, UCD) and the American Rare Breed Association, where I have handled and worked closely with Cane Corso, American Bulldogs, Dogue De Bordeaux, Fila Brasileiro, and the Neapolitan Mastiff (now AKC recognized) in conformation, obedience and companion activities. I have finished a variety of dogs to temperament stability designations under the American Temperament Testing Society; Therapy Dogs International and the AKC. I sub-specialize in the brachycephalic dog breeds.
For a number of years, I apprenticed and assistant trained dogs locally under the late premier Master Trainer Gertrude Sullivan. I continue to study and attend training sessions and educational seminars under some of the foremost dog trainers and behaviorists in the U.S. including: Suzanne Clothier; Dr. Ian Dunbar, author of: “SIRIUS Puppy Training”; Sue Sternberg; Master Trainer and ATTS Evaluator W. Joseph Overstreet; and Canine Play and Aggression workshops with Canine Behaviorist Jean Donaldson, PhD., author of “Culture Clash”, “MINE!”, “FIGHT!” and “Dogs are from Neptune”. I currently train and case consult with Certified Master Trainer, Barbara Nicholas.
At the invitation of Sean Winnie, DVM with the Greenfield Veterinary Hospital, I was teaching group handling and management lessons to Dr. Winnie’s puppy patients and their human parents at the Greenfield Vet. Hospital.
Through the wealth and diversity of my experience in the fields of canine care, training and management, I hope to bring to each of my clients an enhanced level of enjoyment and gratification from the relationship they share with their own canine and/or feline companion(s). I pledge to treat each client with honesty, integrity, judicious discretion and respect.
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