Karin Apfel has been involved with dogs and dog rescue and training for over 18 years. She has trained and competed with her own dogs in a wide variety of sports and disciplines including obedience, flyball, agility, rally-obedience, tracking, and dock diving. She has also taken classes on training for Schutzhund, herding and Search and Rescue and has done home visits for rescue organizations. For the past 15 years, she has taken extensive courses in behaviour studies to assist in the rehabilitation and training of dogs with fear, aggression or other problems.
Karin is a long-time member in good standing of the Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers (CAPPDT), the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC), the North American Mixed Breed Registry (NAMBR), the Agility Association of Canada (AAC), the North American Flyball Association (NAFA), the Canadian Rally Obedience Association (CARO) and both the World and Provincial Dock Dogs clubs and is a CKC Canine Good Neighbor evaluator. She is also certified in pet first aid.
Karin is manager of the DogSmart Performance Team which performs agility, flyball, high jump, frisbee and other canine skills at fairs, horse shows and other events. For more information email here.


Positive reinforcement training started thanks largely to innovators like Karen Pryor, Dr. Ian Dunbar and Jean Donaldson as well as clicker trainer extraordinaire Bob Bailey (pictured with Dr. Jesus Ruiz-Rosales of North Texas University and with Karin [r] and friends at the 2008 CAPPDT Conference). 
 
Kris Bailey - Agility Instructor
Kris has trained multiple dogs for international competition in agility. She titled her rescued Border Collie Askum with an ADC before the age of two. Askum is a feature star of the DogSmart Performance Team. Askum also competes in flyball and has recently taken up herding and his brother Panic plays flyball and dock jumping. Kris also trained her Doberman Taffy Thief of Hearts in Schutzhund and Obedience and has also done movie and television work with her dogs.