It all started with an absolutely horrible, shaggy dog who was cute as a button, but had the temperament of Satan, according to Linda. After his demise at 12 years of age, Linda swore that she would never have a dog like that again.

So she contacted the Sir Francis Drake Kennel Club to inquire about breeds and temperament. At that time, her son was six and had survived "Cujo" with constant supervision. Well, the woman who answered the phone at the kennel club was a Chow fancier and breeder and was involved in Chow rescue, so naturally her breed of choice was.....guess what? And, she just happened to have an 8-week-old Chow/Lab X.

Having adopted that puppy, Linda came to learn that Chows aren't particularly good with children, being a one-person kind of dog and very, very independent.

Smartly, she immediately signed the dog up for dog training at MHS, not wanting to have a repeat of her previous dog. Her new dog's name was Max, he was large and strong, but so, so sweet. He was written up in an article by a class participant who had a 5 lb. dog named Fred. The article appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. Her dog was described as no match for his "plucky mistress," among other things.

The trainer of the class and then-head of the department recognized Linda's potential and invited her to become her dog training assistant. Six years later, when Trish King came on board, Linda became a trainer.

She continues to own Chows and Chow mixes, finding that they suit her lifestyle and temperament. All of her dogs have been very solid, with the exception of her current girl, Ginger, who came with leash aggression. She is 10 now and has gotten much better over time.

Linda's hobbies include gardening, home design, orchid culture, and sewing and knitting – which all make her the Martha Stewart of the dog training department. You do know that Martha, too, has Chows!

Anni Black

Anni grew up with an assortment of cats and dogs in rural Maine.

Since 1967, when her husband brought home a bedraggled 4-month-old Siberian, there have been Huskies in her life. She became a master at management and "managed" to keep all the subsequent Huskies and resident cats alive into old age. No mean feat, through moves to California and two children.

Anni started volunteering as a DTA in the B&T department in 1996 after 10 years in the adoption department and a stint in the clinic. She stayed on to be a behavior volunteer and now gets to coordinate the behavior volunteers – a job she really enjoys! What more to ask for working with, good people doing interesting 'work' with dogs!

Currently, Anni has one cat, Angus Burton MacDuff, and two dogs, Kanuti and Denali. She is inordinately proud of the fact that, in spite of their breed description, both dogs hike off leash with her, thanks to positive reinforcement and a lot of long-line work!

Within the B&T department, her role is behavior volunteer coordinator, which entails recruiting, training and supporting the volunteers who are indispensable to the B&T department. She teaches Family Dog classes, Tricks and Street Smarts, plus a variety of Small Dog classes.

Anni is one of the cat evaluators, checking out the great cats we put up for adoption.

Emma Clifford

Emma grew up in Ireland where she spent summers as a child at her grandmother's house in the country. Surrounded by cows, horses, dogs, cats and birds, her love of animals began.

Emma moved to Chicago in 1992, but missed the ocean so much that she decided to make San Francisco her home. Now she and her husband live in Novato with their two adopted dogs, Dusty and Chance.

When Emma adopted Dusty (a "challenging" puppy) in 2002, she became interested in learning more about canine behavior and training. She began volunteering as a Pet Pal and gradually started helping out with training classes and the Pet Partnership and Pen Pals of San Quentin programs.

Emma has completed CITA I and II, and is an APDT member. She currently teaches Family Dog I and Agility Basics. "Learning new stuff about dogs' behavior and communication never gets old. I am proud to be a member of the MHS Instructor team."

Patty Gable

Patty Gable began a second career in dog training after moving from Carmel Valley to Petaluma, where extra living space allowed her to significantly expand her involvement with companion animals. A lifelong adopter of rescue animals, Patty is currently caring for a Golden Retriever mix, a Jack Russell Terrier mix, a Fox Terrier mix and a Miniature Pinscher. A household with three terriers can be a lot of fun, as Patty has discovered, but can easily become out of control without regular training. In addition to her dog pack, she shares her home with her husband, three cats, two parakeets and a cockatiel.

Patty has completed both Canine Instructor's Training Academy I and II (now Canine Behavior Academy) and was a volunteer at MHS in all beginning, intermediate, advanced and specialty training classes for several years before taking on instructor duties. She is also the director of the all-volunteer dancing dog troupe Dancing Paws, and has done additional training in Canine Freestyle.

A firm believer in Marin Humane Society's positive training methods, Patty especially enjoys teaching tricks classes and working with multiple-dog households. "With four dogs, a cat and 6-foot-five-inch husband all sleeping in the bed," she says, "everyone has to get along."

Laura Hazard

Laura Hazard grew up in Southern California. Her family had a full range of pets, from dogs and cats to chickens and owls. She is currently owned by her almost lifelong companion cat, Spookie. Laura has been working as a veterinary technician for more than six years and is currently employed in a pet hospital in Kentfield. She is also attending San Francisco State University to further her education in behavior. A volunteer at MHS since 2002, Laura is presently the cat behavior consultant at MHS. And still enjoys playing with the dogs at MHS!

Virginia Heath

Virginia Heath has three dogs at home: Kali, a 13-year-old Chow Chow, Chase, a nine-year-old Pit/Boxer mix, and Poncho, an eight-year-old German Shepherd/Labrador/Chow mix. She also has experience with German Short-Haired Pointers and Cockapoos.

While she does not have cats anymore, she has managed a household with a Chow and three cats, to which she then added an extremely prey-driven stray male Chow. She is also working with her dogs and her friends’ children, teaching all to get along together.

Virginia is experienced with household dog-to-dog aggression, dog who are aggressive to strange dogs, difficult-to-train breeds, and issues surrounding rehomed and rescued dogs. Before moving to California and becoming involved with MHS, she did rescue work in New York City, including in the city shelter. She also has agility experience.

Coming in after and around her “day” job in San Francisco, Virginia teaches Family Dog and Difficult Dog classes, as well as shelter dog evaluations. She also pioneered the MHS Bull Breed Basics class and also helps with the fly ball team. Virginia began her life at MHS as a behavior volunteer and dog training assistant.

Kristin Herrera

A Marin native, Kristin Herrera and her husband, Benn, enjoy life in San Rafael with Girl Friday, a Cardigan Corgi, Jones, a Doxie/Labrador mix and Doc, an elderly, deaf Border Collie. Her two cats, Banjo and Sawyer, add even more love and fur to the mix. Kristin competes in Agility with Girl Friday - they have a great time working together!

Kristin came to MHS in 2001 shortly after adopting Jones and began volunteering as a Pet Pal, Dog Training Assistant and Behavior volunteer. She quickly became enamored of the world of dog behavior and training, and realized she had found her calling. Now she works at MHS as a behavior consultant, shelter dog evaluator and training instructor (for Family Dog and Agility classes). She also participates in both the Pet Partnership and Pen Pals programs.

Kristin is a Certified Pet Dog Trainer (CPDT) and a graduate of the Canine Behavior Academy, Levels I and II.

Carey King

Carey King has lived in California all of her life, and was raised in Saratoga back in the days when most of the Santa Clara Valley was still planted in plum orchards. Her family had the usual complement of pets: various rodents, reptiles, cats and dogs – among the latter a German Shepherd and a Cocker-Setter mix named "Penny" who lived to be 22. The unfulfilled dream of her childhood was to have a horse of her own.

When she married her husband Fred, he had been showing Boxers in conformation for a few years, and Carey was instantly hooked on the breed (much less so on competing with them in conformation). They moved to Santa Rosa where the dog pack grew to seven and the horse actually materialized, along with a cat, sheep, pigs and chickens. Over time, though, the menagerie has been pared back to two nicely portable Boxers.

Carey became interested in canine behavior with the arrival of her current Boxer, Annie, who needed far more in the way of management and training than any dog with whom she'd ever lived. She brought Annie to MHS for a behavior consultation, and then just sort of stuck around, quite happily taking classes with Annie, going through Canine Behavior Academy I and II, and eventually moving from volunteering in Behavior & Training to becoming an instructor. Managing her time at the shelter around her "day job" as a Senior Programmer Analyst at Sonoma State University, she particularly enjoys teaching the beginning-level classes, as well as assisting with Difficult Dog. She says the opportunity to participate in the breathtaking progress that some owners are able to make in those classes is extremely rewarding to her.

Trish King

Trish is a nationally recognized dog behavior and training expert. Trish shares her home with a formerly stray German Shepherd, two Australian Shepherds, and a Bull Terrier/heeler/something mix.

Trish has extensively studied, taught and written about dogs. She has been at MHS for more than 19 years and established the Canine Behavior Academy. She is a Certified Pet Dog Trainer (CPDT) and a Certified Dog Behavior Counselor (CDBC). In September 2004, Trish’s book Parenting Your Dog was published to wide acclaim. She is also the author of “DogSense,” a behavior and training manual for dog guardians.

Trish frequently teaches workshops and seminars on dog behavior, canine management, behavior assessment and handling difficult dogs. She is also an instructor for the Officer Training Academy at MHS and was a member of the panel that developed the Delta Society’s Professional Standards for Dog Trainers: Effective, Humane Principles. She has spoken at several national conferences, including Association of Pet Dog Trainers, Humane Society of the United States, American Humane Association, and Animal Care Conference.

Trish says she is “eternally fascinated by canine communication and human interactions with animals.” And people and their animal companions are the better for it.

Dawn Kovell

Dawn Kovell and her five-year-old daughter share their home with three dogs and two cats. The dogs are Kiko, a female Alaskan Malamute, Quinn, a female German Sheppard, and Ringo, a male Belgian Shepherd (Malanois). The cats are Louie, a female, and Elwood, a male.

Dawn and Ringo have earned their Flyball Master title and are working on Flyball Master Excellent. The two have been competing in California flyball tournaments with the nationally ranked Gold Rush club for a year, and Ringo can consistently run the flyball course in under five seconds!

She also enjoys mountain biking, hiking, roller blading, and horseback riding with her dogs.

Growing up on a dairy farm, Dawn is experienced with horses, Holstein dairy cattle and Hereford beef cattle. She showed dairy cattle as a 4H member. The horses she has owned include a Shetland pony, a registered Quarter Horse and an Arab/Quarter horse cross.

She has also sponsored and participated in endurance trail riding in the Sierra Nevadas and Marin with an off-the-track Thoroughbred, and has owned and shown cattle.

On the smaller side, Dawn has hatched and raised 35 chickens and six ducks, which all went off to live happily at the Burton Ranch.

Dawn schedules all of the B&T classes, consults and shelter dog evaluations, and assigns staff members to cover these needs. She teaches Family Dog classes and oversees the training of new instructors, consultants and shelter dog evaluators. In-between these duties, she does consults and evaluations.

Her title? Department Manager, of course.

Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee currently has a household full of dogs. In addition to four of her own, she "Board & Trains" an average of one dog a month. Her dogs consist of one Toy Fox Terrier, Yoda, an eight-year-old female, with whom she did competition obedience with for two years; Sasha, a female Rottweiler/Shepherd mix, about 6–7 years old, who came to stay by way of a “foster/train” because Sasha was very leash aggressive and fearful of big, loud trucks; and two male, 11-year-old Shar Peis, Tatsu and Tig – named by her husband as they were his dogs when she met him. Last but not least, one female cat by the name of Dazy, spelled like lazy, as she is.

Peggy is a private dog trainer in the Dixon area. She began her business in the fall of 2002. Her focus is the family companion dog, teaching families how to communicate and build relationships with their pets. Her goal is to keep as many pets together with their families as possible. The bulk of calls she gets come from families with adolescent Labs, Pit Bulls, Golden Retrievers, Beagles and a variety of small dogs.

Peggy has volunteered at the Fairfield Animal Shelter and worked as a dog walker for several years before making her love of animals her life’s work.

Peggy first came to MHS after attending Trish King’s CITA classes (now Canine Behavior Academy). In the fall of 2003, Tricia Breen recruited her as a volunteer to the Behavior & Training Department; shortly thereafter, Peggy began assisting other trainers with their classes and is now instructing for Family Dog 1 and Small Dog 1. She is looking forward to teaching a Tricks class, Family Dog 2, and doing consultations.

Debbie McDonagh

Debbie lives in San Rafael with her husband of 18 years, Bill. Currently, they have Ellie, a 3-year-old Dalmatian, and Ernie, a 7-month-old JRT/Whippet Mix. Ernie was rescued from the Madera County Animal Shelter through the MHS Pet Partnership Program. Previously, Debbie and Bill had another Dalmatian and a Vizsla, both of whom are now in doggie heaven.

Debbie started at MHS as a volunteer Dog Training Assistant (DTA) in 1994 and then began substituting for Instructors in 1997, becoming an Instructor in 2000. She teaches Family Dog 1; Family Dog 2; Come On, Let’s Go; Leash Free; Agility Basics; and Musical Paws. From 1994 to 2002, Debbie assisted in and taught Beginning Puppy classes. Debbie also conducts “DTA Camp” several times a year, which is a five-week, 13-hour training program for new volunteer dog training assistants. Debbie is a CITA 1 graduate (now Canine Behavior Academy) .

Being a part of MHS is Debbie’s third (and last!) career. After graduating from Northern Illinois University in 1976 with a degree in sociology/psychology/criminology, she was a welfare-social worker, then a group home counselor for boys aged 12–17, then she became a job counselor-coach for prison parolees. Her second career was in human resources, in which, as Director of HR, she was responsible for employee recruitment and retention, compensation planning, benefits administration and conflict resolution.

Debbie has a special affinity for high-energy, athletic dogs who like to have fun. Her newest dog, Ernie, the terrier mix, however, is challenging the depths of her dog training skills, but she figures you can’t consider yourself a good dog trainer until you’ve owned and trained a terrier!

Betsy McGee

Betsy has been volunteering and working with the Marin Humane Society (MHS) since 1985. She volunteered as an adoption counselor originally, while also enrolling her two puppies in Family Dog One class (FD1), eventually moving on to FD2 and FD3.

In 1986 Betsy joined the Behavior & Training department as a volunteer dog training assistant. Two years later Betsy became an instructor and she’s been teaching classes ever since.

Betsy has also worked at MHS in Customer Care, Adoptions, Animal Care, and Outreach. In 1997 Betsy and her husband adopted a retired racing greyhound, and she has volunteered with greyhound rescue ever since. (Betsy says that living with ex-racers is like living with cats – even though they are capable of running very fast for very short distances, their favorite past time is lounging around looking elegant.)

Betsy currently works at MHS as a dog training instructor and evaluator of dogs and cats for adoption. She also volunteers in the Society’s Pet Partnership Program and in the Education department – giving shelter tours and assisting with summer camp programs.

Betsy is a native Marinite and lives in Larkspur with her husband, Bill Clarke, two ex-racing greyhounds, Nicky and Cindy, and an MHS senior partner cat, Tessie. When not working with MHS and greyhound rescue, Betsy tends her home and community gardens, takes yoga class, hikes and bird watches around Marin, and rides her bike and plays tennis.

Sue McGuire

Sue McGuire grew up in the forests of rural Northern California where her father insisted on always having dogs. “Dad was a music teacher who traveled to even more rural parts of the state. Cash was tight so payment came in the form of bags of potatoes, corn and one time a beautiful German Shepherd puppy.” Over the years there were many breeds, breed mixes, small and large that came with the family on various stops around California.

When she met and married her wonderful husband Larry, the first thing they adopted was a teri-poo “Opus,” and several schnauzers.

Several years ago, Sue began raising puppies for Canine Companions for Independence, which provides dogs to persons with disabilities other than blindness. Several puppy raising/training adventures later and Sue soon found herself with plenty of lab and lab/retriever crosses but no service dog graduates. Hmmmmm. So Sue dove into breeding, whelping and the early socialization of dogs through becoming a breeder/caretaker for CCI. It was not unusual to have 14 labs of various ages and colors running around the property in Sebastopol. Puppy poop management was the new job.

Sue became a dog walker for Sonoma Humane, then DTA for MHS, CBA I and II followed by an internship under the guidance of Behavior and Training. Sue joined the adoptions staff in winter 2007 and joined Behavior and Training shortly after. You can find her doing consultations and teaching classes. She loves working with families with young children who want to have a well mannered family pet.

Sue also has two daughters who love that mom is dog crazy. The home menagerie includes two Labradors and a young Jack Russell Terrier who thinks it’s a lab. Thank goodness the labs don’t think they are JRTs!!

Andrea Sirott

Andrea Sirott's dogs come in small, medium and large sizes. She shares her home with Django, an 11-year-old female Standard Poodle and little Bella, a female Poohuahua. Thus, her involvement with NorCal Poodle Rescue.

Andrea has been involved in a wide range of activities with her dogs. Her former dog, Shiva, worked as a therapy dog with children and adults in many facilities, including psychiatric, skilled nursing facilities, preschools, pulmonary subacute facilities (including people in comas), hospitals and private visits. Andrea has also competed and participated in obedience and agility with her dogs. Of course, they also enjoy a lot of playing and napping at home and around town! She also has taught “recreational obedience” at her dog training club.

Andrea came to MHS as a behavior volunteer and now teaches Family Dog, Tricks, Senior and Puppy classes, along with doing consults. She conducts shelter dog evaluations at the Martinez animal shelter as well as at MHS.

Another claim to fame: Andrea recruited Tricia Breen to the MHS Behavior Department!

Meg Sorota

Meg Sorota's 90-pound, mixed-breed rescue dog, Bogie, has taught her firsthand how to manage and modify a range of behavior issues, including – among other things – territoriality, barking and fear-based reactivity. As she grew up, Meg and her family enjoyed life with a Poodle and a Cockapoo.

Meg has been involved with MHS as a behavior assistant, a dog training assistant and part of the Pet Partnership Program; she is also a CITA (now CBA) graduate. Before coming to MHS, she volunteered at Guide Dogs for the Blind as a docent, a trainer for other volunteer dog walkers, and a walker for kennel dogs, providing them with the exercise, socialization and training that helped mold these “career-changed” dogs into wonderful family companions.

Meg became a volunteer in the B&T department in April, 2003. She now teaches Family Dog classes and is training to do consults and evaluations.

Stop the presses! Meg was blessed with TWINS, Adam and Jillian, in the spring of 2005!

Kathy Wells

Growing up in San Rafael, Kathy and her family had a succession of canine companions: a Beagle, Toy Poodle, Border Collie and a Sheltie. Currently, she shares her home with two Catahoula Leopard Dogs and an Australian Kelpie mix. After taking her Kelpie through Family Dog 1 and 2, Kathy volunteered as a Dog Training Assistant at MHS. Several years later (after adding the female Catahoula to the household) Kathy learned that sometimes multiple female dogs are not the easiest to live with! Volunteering in the Behavior & Training Department and completing Trish King’s Canine Behavior Academy has taught her many tools to use to help manage her pack. She now teaches classes at MHS.

Other species Kathy has experience with include cats, mice, finches, parakeets, grey-cheeked parakeets, parrotlet, blue-fronted Amazon Parrot, Blue and Gold Macaw, saltwater fish, and horses! She also enjoys road biking, hiking, backpacking, kayaking, sailing and scuba diving.

Biographies of MHS Behavior Consultants & Instructors

Biographies of MHS
Behavior Consultants & Instructors