Deborah Sangrey

Obedience and Musical Freestyle Instructor 
Experience:

 Deb’s training motto is, “I can’t make any dog do anything, but I have the knowledge and confidence to make them WANT to do everything.”

Deb’s interest in training dogs started when she saw her first obedience competition in the 60’s. As a teenager she trained her first dog, Snoopy, some obedience commands. Although she never competed with him, they both had a lot of fun.

Mindy, a Sheltie, was her first competition dog. Mindy competed and won titles in United States and Canada. Deb also trained a Brittany named Kate, who competed in United States and Canada as well. Deb and Kate were awarded the Dog World of Distinction in the CDX title in Canada. In order to win this award, the team has to score 195 or better in each leg of the obedience title. An obedience title has 3 legs, and a perfect score is 200. Winning this award means the team performed very accurately and was successful in winning the title without any failures.

Deb’s interest in training dogs continued, and she selected a Border Collie named Seacret as her next dog. Because Seacret had many issues, Deb attended seminars and collected information on dog behavior to help him.  Some of those included various obedience seminars by Betsy Scapicchio and Linda Brennan.  She has also attended a weeklong seminar by John Rogerson, a well-known behaviorist from England.  In addition, she has worked with other trainers and was introduced to the concept of tricks, fun, and play as motivators. So, Deb and Seacret learned tricks and found them to be fun, motivating, and entertaining.   Deb and Seacret were invited to assist at an obedience dog camp given by Jeannine Rash in the summer of 2003.

Although obedience has been Deb’s primary interest, she expanded her horizons and became interested in freestyle. She attended several freestyle seminars including one given by Carolyn Scott in April of 2003 and another by Richard Curtis in December of 2003. 

Deb started freestyle classes at Bella Vista and created a WCFO freestyle club called Bark-A-Ritaville Freestylers.  The club hosted its first competition in January of 2005 and brought Carolyn Scott to Bella Vista for a seminar in April of 2005.  They continue to host annual freestyle competitions.

Ciara, a border collie formerly owned by Margaret Schrader, came to live with Deb, and in December of 2003, Deb and Ciara were awarded their first freestyle title while competing at the WCFO National Specialty.  Ciara earned first place and a high score in her division in her very first freestyle event.  

  

Deb also trained a Golden Retriever, Chance. Although health problems had an impact on his life, Chance enjoyed freestyle, and in January of 2005, Deb and Chance won their first freestyle title dancing to “You Sexy Thing” by Hot Chocolate.  Chance won the high score in his division for all the legs of his title.  Chance and Deb earned their WCFO Freestyle Championship in 2008. Their song was “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime” by Dean Martin

Deb and Seacret won their first freestyle title in January of 2005 dancing to “The Dog Song” by Nellie McKay.  Seacret won the high score in his division for all legs of his title.  Deb and Seacret also earned their WCFO Freestyle Championship in 2009. The freestyle training complements the obedience, and in September 2007, Deb and Seacret completed the AKC requirements for a CDX title.  Deb and Seacret have trained and won titles in agility and tracking as well. They have also earned titles in AKC and APDT Rally and AKC and UKC obedience.
In 2006 a new dog, a Border Collie named Jiggs, entered Deb’s life. Deb and Jiggs train in obedience, rally and freestyle.  Even though Jiggs is a young dog, he earned freestyle titles and competed in rally obedience.  In his second leg of his rally title, Jiggs had a perfect score of 100 and earned 1st place. He continues to excel at whatever he does.  He love life and thrives on training.  Jiggs and Deb have been invited to various schools to promote dog training and dog safety.  Jiggs’ playful personality and repertoire of tricks makes him well liked by the school children.

In 2006 Deb started a successful program at the York SPCA which continues today.  She leads a team of trainers that volunteers their time working with the shelter dogs to improve their adoptability.  She has gained a wealth of experience with many types of dogs of various will be shared with the class and individual dogs.  Deb also hosts a free monthly seminar at the York SPCA that is open to the public to help solve problems and keep dogs in their homes.  It has continued since 2006 and is well attended and quite popular.  Pictured is Annie a shelter dog who passed her CGC test after just one night of training.  She was adopted then very next week!

Listed below are the dogs Deb has owned and trained. (Italic = retired from competition)

·         Mistee’s Spicy Mindy Am UD Can CDX “Mindy”

·         Stephoras Kountry Kate Am Can CDX, Dog World Award of Distinction “Kate”

 

·         OTCH Skye’s Ciara U-CD, Rally 1- MCL, W-FD/MF,  W-SSFD/MF,   W-SSFDE/MF “Ciara” (Formerly owned by Margaret Schrader, Ciara was last owned by Deb but the OTCH was an accomplishment of Ciara and Margaret.)

 

·         Marchwood’s Lord Hunter’s Chance CGC,  Rally 1, RN,  W-HDFD/MF,  

W-HDFDX/MF, W-HDFDM/MF,  W-CH.HDFD                                                “Chance”  

(Chance was owned by Rick Sangrey, but the freestyle titles were accomplished by Deb and Chance)

 

 

·           Skye’s Seacret CGC, CD, CDX, U-CD, Rally 1- MCL, NA, RN, 

                                    W-FD/HTM, W-FD/MF, W-FDX/MF, W-FDM/MF   W-CH.FD        “Seacret” 

 

 

·         Redtop Jiggs      CGC, W-FD/MF, W-PFD/MF, W-FDX/MF, W-PFDX, W-FDM/MF

 APDT Rally Level 1 Award of Excellence,

APDT Rally Level 2 Award of Excellence,

AKC RN, AKC RA, AKC RE                                                               “Jiggs”

 

 

 

Updated 12-1/10