Catherine Crabtree is a Professional Dog Trainer with a deep love for all animals. She worked for 4 years at the Carnivore Preservation Trust in North Carolina studying the behaviors of large carnivores, under biologist Dr Michael Bleyman, before moving to Georgia in 1995. She is Certified by Animal Behavior and Training Associates as an Obedience Instructor and is Certified by Novartis as an Animal Behavior Specialist.

Catherine and her 2 children share their Dawsonville home with two Siberian Huskies, Polar and Matisse.

· All of her dogs have been awarded Canine Good Citizen titles by 6 months of age.

· Polar is a pointed show dog, holds an AKC Companion Dog (CD) obedience title, Novice Agility Dog (NA) and Novice Agility Jumpers (NAJ) titles, Rally Novice (RN), and the SHCA’s Working Pack Dog (WPD) title.  He is currently training for Tracking work. (Kachme in the Arctic Sun CD RN NA NAJ WPD CGC)

· Matisse holds the Companion Dog Excellent (CDX), Master Excellent Agility (MX), Master Excellent Jumpers (MXJ) ,Rally Novice (RN), and the Working Pack Dog (WPD) titles. She works as a Certified Therapy Dog in nursing homes and competes at Agility Trials.  (Kachme First Cadance of Yeti CDX RN MX MXJ WPD CGC Therapy Dog FFX-AG FFX-AP FFX-AGC)

· Matisse and Catherine earned the following honors above and beyond title recognition in obedience and agility: Highest Scoring Siberian in Open Obedience competition 2004 SHCA’s Number One Open Obedience Dog 2004 Top Obedience Siberian in the USA for the show year 2004 FFX Platinum Novice Agility Award winning dog 2005 FFX Gold Open Agility Award winning dog 2005 SHCA Number One Novice Agility, Novice Agility Jumpers, Excellent Agility, Excellent Agility Jumpers dog of the year 2005 FFX Gold Combined Agility Award winner 2005, National Ranking Siberian in Agility 2006-2008

“I particularly enjoy the positive training approaches. When you learn how to ‘speak’ dog, you can become a better teacher.”