Instructors


Nicole Levesque – Lead Instructor

As a handler, Nicole wants to ensure that her dogs enjoy the experience as much as she does. She has spent years learning how her handling plan and what she does on course affects her dogs’ performance.

After years of back issues affecting her ability to compete in the ring, Nicole has been working on balancing her time between training her handling skills with her own conditioning program. Combined with an interest in perfecting her mental game, Nicole sees herself as a handler committed to self-improvement both inside and outside the ring.

Years ago, Nicole adopted the motto, "Improving dogs' lives one handler at a time." She has been committed to helping students understand how their actions and time spent training affects their dogs’ interpretation of agility.

Her number one goal has been to teach her students how to "speak dog” and to help them understand that they must teach the dog to understand the game. Fueled by her experiences with the OneMind Dogs philosophy, she now teaches classes with a focus on the dog's line and how each handling move and technique affects it. She is committed to making the dog's job as clear as possible with an emphasis on consistent criteria when training running and stopped contacts and loves to work on teaching clarity to the dog on all obstacles.

Each and every class is geared to maximizing the dog's experience as well as the handlers understanding of the game.  Having taught agility full time for over 11 years, Nicole is experienced in training dogs of all breeds and sizes, from Pomeranians to Great Danes and Beagles to Border Collies.  She currently is competing with and training 2 Border Collies and an Australian Shepherd.  

In 2016 Nicole’s teaching experience and understanding of the OneMind Dogs methodology was recognized by the organization and she was selected, along with only 23 other trainers from around the world, to become a OneMind Dogs Assistant Coach. 


Morganne Wagoner-Perry – Primary Instructor

Morganne has been involved in dog agility for 13 years and has had much success at the national level. She grew up training and competing with horses in performance sports and in addition to being a strong competitor, she was also a riding instructor and coach.

Her first agility dog, Sage, was deaf, and presented Morganne with the challenge of communicating with her on the agility course which led to the adoption of a motion-based handling system. Sage not only earned her agility championship title, she was also a Steeplechase semi-finalist at the USDAA nationals.

Morganne has been a national finalist many times with both her Border Collie, Summit, and Sheltie, Soleil, with both earning spots on the podium. She currently competes with MACH 4, ADCH Soleil, and her 2-year-old Sheltie, Kieran, who in 2018 was a 16” Regional Biathlon Champion and earned Silver in both Steeplechase and Grand Prix. In April, 2019, she and Kieran traveled to Brazil as a member of Team USA to compete at the AAO. This was Kieran’s first international event and he performed very well earning a Gold medal in the Medium Challengers and a bye to the Finals!

In order to stay on the cutting edge of the sport, Morganne regularly attends seminars and camps taught by agility instructors from all over the world. She is also inspired by the OneMind Dogs philosophy and is a certified instructor. Morganne works hard to ensure that her students are meeting their personal and competitive goals.

Morganne holds a master’s degree in Education and has 16 years of experience instructing at the collegiate level. Her methodology is founded on positive reinforcement and play-based training. She is committed and passionate about teaching her students how to be effective dog trainers and handlers while always instilling a clear understanding of the “why.”


Janey Bell – Co-Owner and Instructor

Janey is an agility competitor and enthusiast and recently became a Certified OneMind Dogs Instructor. The OneMind Dogs philosophy of emphasizing connection attracted her to the method, and she grew to truly appreciate how the OneMind Dogs training system focuses on agility from the dog’s perspective. 

Janey loves to run and is a former marathoner and ultra-runner. In agility, she runs her dogs attempting to not sacrifice connection and flow. She has one dog she currently competes with, Tinker, a border collie rescue, who has qualified for USDAA Cynosport two years in a row, making it to Grand Prix and Steeplechase Semifinals. She is in training with another young rescued border collie named Jezzie and has trained and competed with two german shepherd dogs. She appreciates the nuances of working with dogs of all different stripes - who all have different speed, physical abilities and confidence levels - and her favorite thing is to see handlers and dogs grow into unified teams and to see the bond between them strengthen and deepen.

Having been an attorney at one point of her life, Janey has great attention to detail. But she can also see the big picture! “I like to think I'm a pretty good navigator between the small and the big stuff and I enjoy helping students find that same path.”




  

Bev Brinson - Instructor

Bev started training agility to help her dogs do better off leash hiking more than 18 years ago. Her Great Pyr/Golden mix, Brodie, would have been competitive but unfortunately, he had hip dysplasia. They kept training at very low heights, both working on their skills. Next came Henry. Henry loved agility and became her first competition dog. He earned many titles including two MACH (Master Agility Champion) titles. 

Her current competition dog is Joey, a large Standard Poodle. Joey has qualified for AKC Nationals four times. They attended in 2019 and placed 5th in the Premier Class. They hope to go again in 2021. Joey has earned many titles in multiple venues. He swept the Rockstar National Championships in 2018. He is close to earning his AKC MACH2. Joey is consistently ranked in the top five Standard Poodles nationally.  

Up and coming is Snoop, a flashy parti poodle girl.

Bev has taken at least two classes a week for many years; she also attends as many seminars as possible and takes online classes to continue learning. She assisted Nicole Levesque with classes for several years before teaching on her own. The constant changing of course design and techniques keeps her interested and challenged. She uses a lot of humor and analogies to explain concepts.