Erin is a Ph.D. student studying livestock genetics at the University of Guelph and has been an assistant at JV Training since May 2018. Erin's family used to breed English Springer Spaniels, so growing up she had a lot of opportunities to practice puppy care and training. Currently, Erin owns a senior English Springer Spaniel named Hunter and a 1-year-old Springer pup named Remi. Erin loves trick training, hiking with the dogs and competing in various dog sports such as agility and dock diving.

Erin became interested in formal obedience and dog sports through the College Royal Dog Show. The College Royal Dog Show is held in March each year and pairs students at the University of Guelph with dogs from the community to teach various obedience skills over eight weeks of training classes before the big show. Erin has competed as a handler in the College Royal Dog Show for the last 8 years, and she was also the Director in 2016 and the Demonstration Team Coordinator for the halftime show in 2017. Erin has been assisting and teaching at JV Training since 2018. She became a Certified Trick Dog Instructor through Do More With Your Dog (2020) and now teaches Specialty Classes and our Advanced Levels classes.

Alyssa has had dogs her entire life. At 13, her family rescued a Samoyed puppy and she and Kalen were inseparable for 14 years. Alyssa worked hard from a young age to help Kalen overcome his past of abuse and undersocialization. Her passion for animals and behaviour started then and continued into adulthood as she graduated with an Honors in Psychology from the University of Guelph. She now has a 3 year old Samoyed named Stark who loves learning - especially when it comes to agility. 

Alyssa has been assisting in positive reinforcement training classes for 4 years, and has been lucky enough to be helping Julia at JV Training since November 2019. Stark and Alyssa are a certified therapy team with Therapeutic Paws of Canada and visit a local nursing home weekly. Alyssa's goal is to get her Karen Pryor Trainer's Certification and continue her involvement in the training community. Alyssa and Stark are currently working on Sports Foundations and agility training. Some of Stark's favourite things are giving kisses to all of his friends, hiking and playing fetch with and pouncing on his Chuck-It. We can't wait to meet you at JV Training!

Kayla was first introduced to the world of dog training at age 8 when her family took their spirited Labrador Retriever to a local obedience school. From there she was introduced to the sport of agility and fully embraced the crazy dog mom lifestyle. Kayla got her first dog at the age of 14, a shy and nervous Labrador Retriever, named Piper, who needed a lot of behavioural work to function amongst polite company. At 21, Kayla got her first “serious” competition dog – a Weimaraner named Brisingr – they trained and competed in conformation, agility, obedience, scent detection, lure coursing, barn hunt and field.

A graduate of the University of Waterloo with a Masters in Global Governance and a Master’s in History, Kayla has a lifelong passion for teaching and has assisted in teaching agility, obedience, and scent detection seminars, as well as, lecturing at the university level. She believes training should be fun for both ends of the leash and encourages students to not be afraid to get silly with their dogs. 

She currently trains and shows two Alaskan Klee Kai – Valor and Fenris, in scent detection and recently adopted Repeat, a deaf Australian Shepherd. She is working on building up Repeat’s adult life skills and teaching him ASL sign language. She hopes to begin competing with him this year in dock diving and scent detection. 

Kayla has been working with the JV Training team since 2022 and is currently assisting with Puppy Classes, the Levels Program, and will soon be taking on clients of her own!

A champion carriage driver and professional dog trainer who has spent years learning about animal behaviour, Helen is committed to creating great relationships between dogs and their people. She is a certified dog trainer and behaviour consultant, Pet First Aid Training Instructor, and licensed presenter of the internationally recognized dog bite prevention program Doggone Safe - "Be a Tree" for school-aged children. She is also well-respected for giving back to her community. In 2010 she received the Ontario Equestrian Federation's "People Make A Difference" award for her dedication to improving horse sports and over ten years of organizing competitions, seminars, events and sitting on association executives. She is current Chair of the Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers.  

When not helping clients develop well-mannered family dogs, Helen enjoys training her own animals and spending time taking professional development courses in learning from other dog training experts about dog training, attending seminars that strengthen her training skills and keeping current on the latest scientific literature. She proudly supports the CAPPDT, CCPDT and IAABC Standards and Code of Ethics - and has made a professional commitment to do her work based only on humane training methods.

If you are looking for a little extra help with your dog's behaviour, Helen is your trainer! 

To book directly with Helen, our Behaviourist, click here:

https://live.vcita.com/site/dogfriendship/online-scheduling?service=e3kblb728ari2csi

Fen began volunteering at JV Training in November of 2023 with the goal of earning her CPDT-KA Certification through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers. Her intention is to become a Service Dog instructor with an accredited organization. She has had dogs her entire life and from a young age knew she wanted to work with them. Her interest in training began at 10 years old with her family’s Golden Retriever, and from there was introduced to sports such as Rally Obedience and Agility.

Her passion in dog training and behavior only grew as she involved herself with National Service Dogs as a Puppy Raiser in 2010. For 8 years, Fen raised and trained a total of 7 dogs through NSD. She then became an Early Puppy Educator in 2020, and continues volunteering at NSD as a Puppy Educator and event staff.

Fen owns two dogs of her own, both Labrador mixes: Maes is a 7-year-old yellow Labrador and ixtlilton (ixtli) is a 6-year-old black Labrador. Even with his dog reactivity, she has done a variety of dog sports with Maes, including Scent Detection, Rally Obedience, Dock Diving and Carting/Draft work. Ixtli was her last puppy from NSD, who decided he didn’t want the job and she adopted him 2018. Both boys have obtained their Canine Good Neighbour and Fen continues on working on tricks to get them titled through Do More With Your Dog.

In her spare time, Fen enjoys practicing photography with her dogs, attending workshops, learning a new dog related sport or going on a adventure with her Labradorks.