Morris K9 Campus

OUR STAFF

	"We started to bring Lucy to K9 when she was about 8 months old. She was a very rambunctious and tireless young yellow lab. Immediately K9 accomplished what we needed for Lucy - providing a safe place with professional supervision so Lucy could run out some of the boundless lab puppy energy and learn to interact with other dogs. Four years later Lucy still loves her time at K9. She is well "socialized" with other dogs and well exercised after her K9 sessions. Thank you, K9!" Marilyn Burk

Margaret Reitmeyer - Agility Instructor

Margaret Reitmeyer began training for agility in 1995 with her All-American, Lindy. She began competing in 1997 going on to earn titles at the elite level of competition. Margaret became an agility instructor in 2001 after completing an apprenticeship under five- time FCI World Team member, Elicia Calhoun. Prior to teaching at The K9 Campus, Margaret was an agility instructor at St. Hubert's Dog Training School where she also spent two years as an assistant dog obedience instructor. She has been a staff member at The Morris K9 Campus since the school opened.

Margaret is currently training and competing at the elite level with her 5 year old rescue Portuguese Podengo, Jonah and her 4 year old Cattle Dog mix, Tempe Wick. Jonah has earned both Triple Superior and Versatility Awards through NADAC (North American Dog Agility Council).

Margaret likes the challenge of training "previously owned" dogs that may have been surrendered for "behavior problems" or had a little too much energy for the average pet owner. She believes there is nothing as rewarding as seeing the change in her dogs' confidence and focus - even though the road there can be frustrating at times.

Kim Seiter - Agility Instructor

Kim has been involved in many aspects of competitive dog sports for the last 14 years and brings a unique behavioral approach to her training methods and ideas. Originally showing German Shepherds in competitive obedience, she trained under renowned obedience trainer and competitor Elwood Wilson. After several years in the obedience world, Kim moved on to the conformation ring showing toy breeds. Kim's current interest is dog agility.

She has actively been training and competing in the sport of agility for the last 7 years with multiple breeds. To date, Kim has titled to the Masters levels, 6 different dogs in 3 different Agility venues. Kim's training approach is built on relationship building and the principles of operant conditioning. She trains all foundation behaviors with a clicker and play based methods maximizing the bond between dog and handler.

Kim's current agility trial dogs include a rescue Belgian Shepherd, a rescue Keeshond, two Pomeranians (1 which is a rescue) and three Border Collies (1 which is a rescue) and she will be starting her young Mudi soon. In addition, Kim has worked for American Eskimo rescue and specializes in aggressive behaviors in dogs working with some very difficult cases. She also has taken un adoptable dogs and given them a safe and happy home while continually working on their behavioral problems.

Francoise "Sassie" Joiris - Agility Instructor

Sassie has been teaching cognizant non-human animals most of her life, and humans for slightly less time. As a teacher of animal actors she has worked with a wide variety of species including rodents, reptiles, ungulates (hoofed mammals), parrots, farm fowl, felines, and dogs for about thirty years. At sixteen she started teaching pet and competitive obedience classes, and continued to do so for 24 years. For the last five years Sassie has been teaching agility as well as competing in agility with her own dogs. She has also successfully home educated two children, now adult, a process which really made her think about and study the human side of the team.

Sassie teaches seminars on motivating the 'hard to motivate' dogs in agility and has worked with numerous private students to overcome motivational issues, on both ends of the leash, so they could compete successfully. She utilizes the best tools possible for each dog and handler team including bridge and target techniques. Sassie is on the staff of the nationally recognized dog camp, Camp Gone to the Dogs in Vermont. She has also published articles on motivation and other subjects for Clean Run magazine.

Her current competition dog is six year old Norfolk Terrier CH MACH Stamp JE. He has been #1 or #2 Norfolk Terrier in agility his entire career, has qualified for the AKC Nationals three times as well as the AKC Invitational, and was the #4 New York State dog in State Team competition at the 2006 AKC Nationals. He has also received numerous awards from our parent club and has acted in over 50 jobs (print, commercial, film and television) including Law and Order and Sex and the City. Her up and coming agility dog is a Whippet, named Boing!.

On the non-agility front Sassie has trained and titled dogs from four different groups (Sporting, Working, Hound and Terrier) in obedience. She has also competed successfully in lure coursing, hunt tests, earth dog and many of other things.

Sherrie Wilkes - Agility Instructor

Sherrie Wilkes moved from NJ to SC over 10 years ago and has recently returned to our area and we are very happy she did. Sherrie and her dog Maci qualified and/or competed at the AKC World Team Tryouts from 2004 to present and in 2004 had a 4th overall finish and a 7th overall finish in the two rounds.

ADCH, MACH 2 Madison (10yrs) Australian Shepherd.
Semi-finalist in USDAA Grand Prix from 1999-2004.
Qualified for the Dog Agility Steeplechase World Championships from 2000-2005.
In 2006 she earned her USDAA Gold Lifetime Achievement Award.
Competed in both the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge (USA Network) and Animal Planet's Super Star Challenge.

In 2005 Madison won the South East Regional Performance Grand Prix qualifier and competed in the finals in Arizona where she got to the podium and was a third-place finalist. In 2006 she earned her USDAA Gold Lifetime Achievement Award and retired from championship height competition with Sherrie in early 2006. She currently competes with Sherrie's student, Karen Denton, in South Carolina in the Performance Division in USDAA.

ADCH, MACH 3 Maci (8 yrs) Australian Shepherd.
Earned her ADCH at the age of two and a half, completing that championship in only ten months.
Has her USDAA Gold Lifetime Achievement Award and needs only a few more legs for her Platinum.
National Top 10 ranking in USDAA 2001-2003, 2005, and 2006 in multiple categories.
Three-time finalist at the USDAA Grand Prix of Dog Agility World Championships.
Won the team championship in Arizona at the USDAA Nationals, beating out 208 teams to win the finals!
Qualified for the Dog Agility Steeplechase World Championships from 2001 to the present.
Qualified and competed in the AKC finals.
Ranked No. 2 AKC Aussie in 2004.
Kix is a four-year-old border collie competing at the Masters and Excellent levels and is a work in progress.

Sherrie prides herself on her ability to work with so many varied breeds in agility as well as creating a consistent and fun training atmosphere.