Deborah Lankford
Pictured: Deborah & Bonnie
Retired after forty years of teaching high school English students, Deborah now has time to do what she has always wanted to do: teach dog owners how to build a great relationship with their pets! Two Lankford dogs (Bonnie, her Australian Shepherd, and Einstein, her son's Pembroke Welsh Corgi) are currently competing at the Excellent level in AKC agility trials, while her husband's young Papillon, Stella, competes in the Novice level. Deborah also competes in the up-and-coming dog sport of Rally. In only nine classes, Bonnie worked her way up through the Novice, Advanced, and Excellent levels, and Stella is following in her pawprints, having moved quickly into the Excellent level of competition. All of the Lankford dogs do numerous tricks, which they learned through clicker-training, but her dog Bonnie is the "trickiest." With a repertoire of over 30 tricks, Bonnie won all 6 trick contests she entered, and now she performs an entire trick show for schools, dog events, and--most importantly--when she makes weekly visits as a certified TDI therapy dog.
Deborah is a graduate of the Animal Behavior College and attends clinics and seminars all over the country. Some of the dog experts she has learned from include Patricia McConnell, Victoria Stillwell, Susan Garrett, John Rogerson, Gail Fisher, Suzanne Clothier, and Pat Miller. She is a firm advocate of the positive reinforcement approach espoused by these experts and has had outstanding success in applying the wide variety of dog-friendly techniques she has learned.
Of all the current dog-training gurus, however, Deborah has been most influenced by Karen Pryor and Ian Dunbar. She attended Karen Pryor's four-day "Clicker Expo" in 2009 and in 2010-11 attended three separate two-day seminars given by Dr. Ian Dunbar. She considers education an ongoing process, and so she expects to continue to stay abreast of the current "revolution" in dog training techniques, a revolution which is proving that non-aversive training works best. But most of all, she wants to help owners and dogs discover all the wonderful things they can do together!
Pictured: Gail Fisher, Ian Dunbar, John Rogerson, Karen Pryor
Pictured: Patricia McConnell, Tempin Grandin, Victoria Stillwell
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