About Us

All Dogs are Welcome! All Family Members are Welcome!
Sit Happens!^® is always growing and learning so that we can help you do the same. Our highly qualified Instructors make Sit Happens!^® a LEADER in pet dog training. Our staff:

• Maintain the highest level of current, cutting edge dog training and instructional skills
• Specialize in teaching YOU how to train your canine companion
• Hold memberships with the Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers (CAPPDT)
• Hold memberships with the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT)
• Become certified through the Certification Council for Pet Dog Trainers as they meet the qualification requirements
• Attend the CAPPDT & the APDT's annual educational conferences
• Attend seminars given by the world class training and teaching experts

Our Values
We believe that force-free training methods are the most effective way that people can nurture strong bonds between themselves and the companion dog(s) in their lives. Sit Happens!^® advocates the use of clicker training so that dog owners can achieve specific, positive outcomes for their pets in their families. Our philosophy has been inspired by the Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training and Behavior.

• New Video: How to Train a Great Family Dog (external link to KarenPryorAcademy.com)

Our Instructors

Jill (training@sithappens.org) is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA), a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner, and holds professional membership with both the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) and the CAPPDT (Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers).

She is very proud to be able to assist with the Karen Pryor Academy workshops held in Calgary. While she loves dogs, her favourite part of her job is teaching people. She also holds a seat on the Responsible Pet Guardianship Committee along with representatives from the animal & bylaw services, area rescue groups, the veterinary community and local dog fanciers.

Jill currently has two dogs, humane society adoptions: "Sally", a mixed breed and "Rufus", a German Wire Haired Pointer. Jill has learned a great deal from her dogs and she's found that each dog brings with it a unique "personality" accompanied by a unique set of training challenges. Both are reasons that she has chosen to pursue dog training as a career.
Jill likes to have fun and stay active with her furry companions. She and "Rufus" play scent hurdle, agility, rally and tracking together. "Sally" and Jill have taught each other a great deal about patience and trust and have tried their hand at rally.

Jill is the owner, operator and director of training at Sit Happens!^®

Kim - Kim is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT) and holds professional membership with both the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) and the CAPPDT (Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers).

A frustrated team who were not working well together using traditional methods of dog training, Kim and her border collie X, Charlie, discovered clicker training about 12 years ago. They have both embraced the reward based strategies wholeheartedly. Charlie now offers a wagging tail and enthusiasm when a training opportunity presents itself.

Skye, a borzoi, joined the family seven years ago, and has been trained exclusively using reward based strategies. She can be seen at Sit Happens!^® from time to time helping with orientation classes, and competes in Rally Obedience.

Kim has been teaching people to train their dogs professionally, for the past 7 years, in Airdrie.

Kim teaches the Let's Get Started Orientation, Bright Puppy, Let's Go! (Be Good!, Come Here! & Walk Nicely!) and Let's Go Further.

Leigh is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT) and holds professional membership with both the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) and the CAPPDT (Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers).

Leigh's talent for choosing dogs that few people could live with made her entry into the dog training world an obvious one. She has helped her own dogs to overcome some serious issues and blossom into wonderful family dogs, learning more from them than they have from her.

She apprenticed under Tammy Brooks, CPDT-KA, and began teaching classes when Sit Happens!^® first opened its doors.

Leigh owns Mungo's Books for Dog People, Canada's source for great dog books & training tools, and lives in a homeschooling family of three active little boys, her patient husband, and four rescued pets: Mungo, the 13-year-old Border Collie cross who started this journey; Jack, a very un-Lassie-like Rough Collie; Sam, an energetic young Border Collie/Samoyed cross . . . and Joey, the cockatiel.

Leigh teaches the Let's Get Started Orientation.

Carla is an Agility Association of Canada Judge and a Canine Good Neighbour Evaluator for the Canadian Kennel Club. She continues to learn from colleagues and seminars including Chris Zink, Susan Garrett, Kim Collins, Barb Davis and Terry Simons.

Carla loves to see people and dogs learning and is lucky that her spouse welds agility equipment. She enjoys hiking with her Brittany Spaniels (ranging from 4 months to 15 years) as well as agility, obedience, rally, show and field.

Carla teaches Leaps & Bounds! and Beyond Leaps & Bounds!

Trudy Trudy is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) and holds associate membership with both the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) and the CAPPDT (Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers).

Trudy is truly the "bleeding heart" of the group. She has fostered many dogs and has made countless trips to First Nations to rescue animals. She was also involved in initiating the spay/neuter program called Alberta Spay Neuter Task Force, which is currently ongoing for First Nations' dogs and cats.

True to her character, Trudy continues to help foster families and rescue dogs today with her MORE to Love program. Trudy created this FREE training program to assist all foster families with the dogs in their care. To date, over 80% of the dogs that have attended Trudy's class have been adopted.
Trudy's passion and dedication to this industry is lifelong. Trudy has obtained certification in Pet First Aid & Level 1 Canine Reiki. She has attended seminars on Tellington TTouch and continues to attend essentially every seminar/conference possible.

Trudy currently shares her home with her four rescue dogs, Bonnie, Clyde, Shady Lady and Gypsy.
Trudy teaches MORE To Love, Bright Puppy & Let's Go! (Be Good!, Come Here! & Walk Nicely!).

Rhonda is currently working towards becoming a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA), and holds professional memberships with the Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers (CAPPDT), the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC) and the International Sled Dog Racing Association (ISDRA). Committed to this industry, Rhonda is also constantly attending seminars/conferences, is certified in Pet First Aid and competes in sprint sled dog races.

Rhonda brought home her first Siberian Husky, Simba, in 1994. Simba taught her all the ins and outs of being a Siberian owner. Due to kidney failure, Simba passed away in 2007. Having the house feeling too empty and feeling the need to hear the sound of four paws running through the hallways and jumping on the couch, a new member of the family was found. With her new pup, Rhonda looked for a training facility that met both her and her new pup's needs. Rhonda went through traditional training with Simba and thought there must be another way. Sit Happens!^® was found and Rhonda embraced the reward based methods and has never looked back.

Rhonda has been a school teacher since 1997 and teaches junior high students. In addition, she's a mom, a wife, co-operates Urban Mushers Equipment and Supplies and is raising 4 Siberian Huskies. Her background in teaching makes her a natural for teaching classes at Sit Happens!^® Rhonda is exceptional with dogs, and her teaching style is effortless and FUN! You can't help but catch the "training bug" when you take one of Rhonda's classes. Take a peek into one of her classes and you're guaranteed to see smiles and wagging tails!

Rhonda teaches TRIX, Puppy Playtime and Let's Go! Outdoor Adventures.

Sharron Sharron's love for dogs started at a very young age - her parents did not share her enthusiasm. As soon as she moved away from home, Sharron immediately got her first dog, a Golden Retriever named Jager.

Jager proved to be a very challenging puppy, thus Sharron was introduced to the dog training world. Sharron & Jager became a great team, accomplishing a CD Title in Competitive Obedience and participating in Agility, Rally, Tracking, Field, Freestyle Dance plus numerous seminars & workshops. Jager's favorite activity was visiting patients in hospitals thru the PALS program.

Sharron now belongs to a goofy Bull Terrier and an exuberant Bullmastiff. Both of these boys have taught her a great deal about the rewards of positive dog training. Petey, the Bull Terrier is happiest hanging out with his family. Sherman, the Bullmastiff, enjoys everyone and everything. Sherman loves his pulling classes with Urban Mushers, agility classes at Sit Happens!^® and always has fun at the confirmation dog shows. Both of Sharron's Bullies have their Canadian Good Neighbor Certificate.

Sharron has been teaching various Sit Happens!^® classes for over 5 years and has been part of the Sit Happens!^® team for 10 years. Thorough instructing, she looks forward to helping owners learn to connect with their dogs and truly become part of their own "dog/handler team".

Sharron is the current President for PALS (Pet Access League Society), member of AKC (Alberta Kennel Club), APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) and the CAPPDT (Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers).

Sharron teaches the Let's Get Started Orientation and the Let's Go Further field trips.

Kathryn is a member of CAPPDT (Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers) and APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers). She is currently working towards her CPDT-KA certification and frequently attends specialized training seminars.

Her interest in becoming a certified trainer started after bringing her young English Mastiff to Sit Happens!^® "Hoover" is an eager student and loves to work on new behaviors but is reactive to unfamiliar dogs. Working with him has given Kathryn insight into managing reactivity and taking an exuberant black pug "Shiver" and an energetic chocolate lab "Lulu" through Let's Go! has brought more understanding about working with more excitable breeds.

Kathryn believes fully in "teach your dog what they can do". It is always a special thrill for her when owners and dogs have share those "ah ha!" training moments, and realize that life together can be more relaxed and fun.

Kathryn shares her life with her wonderful husband, two English mastiffs, one Colombian cat, and loves it when her daughters, son-in-law, grandson, and their dogs visit!

Kathryn teaches Bright Puppy, the Let's Get Started Orientation & Let's Go!

Jenn is an ABC (Animal Behaviour College) certified dog trainer who holds a professional membership with both the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) and the CAPPDT (Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers).

Jenn adopted her Schnauzer cross Sydney from the City of Calgary. Realizing that she needed some help with his very outgoing behaviour, she brought Sydney to a Let's Go! class. She enjoyed classes with him so much, she decided to start volunteering. Always wanting to work with dogs, she decided after about 6 months of volunteering with Sit Happens!^® to take the ABC program and become a Certified Dog Trainer.

Jenn`s passion is dogs! She and her husband have recently decided to take in foster dogs. She hopes to help better these dogs so they will be well adjusted and behaved for their future homes. She has started her own business walking dogs in the North East of Calgary called Plum Tuckered Pooch so she could spend more time with her daughters and more time working with dogs! She hopes that her children will love and respect dogs and animals as much as she does.

Jenn and her husband Scott have two daughters, Kaitlyn and Allyssa. They share their home with Sydney and two cats they rescued over 10 years ago, Jewels and Scotia.

Jenn teaches the Let's Get Started Orientation and Let's Go! (Be Good!, Come Here! & Walk Nicely!)

Patti was introduced to animals at a very early age and by the age of 10 was training cats how to walk through puddles. It is not a surprise that she has turned her passion into a career.

It was her exposure to animals, while growing up on a farm in Manitoba, which led her into the veterinary field. She graduated from Fairview College with an Animal Health Technology Diploma in 1991.

Patti's AHT diploma led into a fulfilling career of animal care for fifteen years. She spent eleven years working in various vet clinics and four year with the Calgary Humane Society. This work experience gave her exposure to both traditional and conventional methods of health care and different styles of dog training.

An opportunity presented itself in 2002 and Patti accepted an AHT position with the City of Calgary at Animal and Bylaw Services. She worked in this role for 3 years and then in 2005 decided a change was in order and currently works as a Customer Service Representative in the licence department. You can see Patti's passion for animals when she promotes a dog or cat adoption thru the City's Pet of The Month on Shaw TV and You Tube vignettes.
Through out her work experience, Patti found it very rewarding to help people become better pet owners by sharing her insights and experiences. Her interest in behaviour has never wavered and enjoys volunteering at Sit Happens!^®

Patti continues to be inspired and amazed that our pets can influence us as much as we can influence them and looks forward to developing her education and training animals using positive reinforcement.

Patti teaches the Let's Get Started Orientation.

Alison is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA), a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner, and holds professional membership with both the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) and the CAPPDT (Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers). She sits on the Responsible Pet Guardianship Committee.

In 1995/96, Alison produced a television show for the local community channel called "The Family Pet". This was done through the Calgary Humane Society and went to win the 1996 National Media Commendation Award for promoting animal welfare, presented by the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies.

"Paige" joined the Stephens' family and it quickly became apparent that this young German Shepherd puppy was a force to be reckoned with! Alison once again sought out her old friend Tammy and the journey continued. Sit Happens!^® positive training methods helped turn Paige into the amazing dog she is today.

Alison shares her home with her very tolerant husband Darrell, "Paige", cats "Martin" and "Rocco" and keeps "Doc", her 23 year old quarter horse in Bragg Creek.

Alison does Private Lessons in your home or at Sit Happens!^®

Tammy started Sit Happens!^® in 2002. Her vision of a positive training and educational centre continues today under the ownership of colleague Jill Dextrase. Tammy continues to support all things Sit Happens!^® as a training program consultant, mentor and event organizer.

Tammy is a Certified Pet Dog Trainer (CPDT), certified by the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (the CPDT exam is an internationally recognized testing process which encourages continuing education and humane training methods), a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner and holds membership with the APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers).

Tammy shares her life with 6 dogs, her daughter Emily (also a talented dog trainer), and her (thankfully!) dog loving partner, Laurie.