I was lucky enough to have grown up on a ranch with lots animals, I really had that country kid life. On the ranch we had many dogs because my parents raised Australian Cattle Dogs and cattle. I could always be found playing with the dogs. My passion for dogs grew even more when my dad brought home a rescued red merle Aussie named Ruby. Needless to say I rallied until she became my own official first dog at the age of 4. At the age of 8, I joined a 4-H club and learned that I could compete in 4-H events with Ruby. That very first year we competed in many 4-H dog shows and events. Ruby was my heart dog, the dog that I could be anything with and she was my best friend.

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At age 10, I saw my first agility dog show on TV, that was it, I was obsessed with the learning this dog sport. Ruby and I began backyard agility with whatever we could find to create agility obstacles. As the time went on Ruby started to enjoy the life of retirement and after months of searching, my first Border Collie puppy, named Panda, came home. Both Ruby and Panda did many dog shows with 4-H and at other organizations. Panda started to excel at running agility. Agility shows became little mini family vacations as my brother also eventually got into agility with his dog. 

 

I thought my little dog family was complete until at age 15, I met a tri-colored Border Collie mix puppy at one of my dad's construction sites.This one little pup never left us even when the rest of his family returned back to their house. He stayed helping us dig in the sand next to the diesel machinery. After much negotiating with the owner, this fearless wonder pup came home with us and was approprietly named Diesel. He was very different than Ruby or Panda, because even though he was brave around loud noises, he was sensitive and reserved most of the time. Panda gave him a dose of tough love, but Ruby took him under her wing. I will forever be thankful that Ruby, as the ultimate mother dog to him, lived long enough that she taught him all the skills that were needed to be a great dog. Just like Panda, Diesel also loved running agility and doing other dog sports.

 

During my time in 4-H, I learned about all aspects of dog health, behavior, grooming and training. With the guidance of an experienced 4-H dog club manager, I quickly learned how to engage new kids into the club and show them how to work and to train their own dogs for 4-H dog show events. These events included obedience, rally, showmanship, conformation, drill team, agility and even costume contests with dogs. I was not thinking about being a dog trainer at first. During my last few years of 4-H I was blessed by one of our

4-H club's grandmother volunteer's who just happened to be a life long professional dog trainer. She spent a lot of extra time teaching me all about dog training and behavior, giving me a multitude of books and just spent a lot of time mentoring me each week. One day she told me, "You have a gift with dog's and you should make this your career!" I will always be forever thankful to this special lady for all she taught me.

 

In my later teenage years I started working for a kennel part-time that my agility trainers owned. It was so much fun to learn about this aspect of the dog world.  They taught me a lot about animal behavior and how dogs can play together safely even in larger groups. Knowing what I know now about dog boarding facilities, their facility was truly ahead of its time and was a very special one of a kind high end facility that really paid attention to all the little details of a dog's daily physical and mental needs. They also had specialized care and training for agility sport dogs who happened to board with them. Sadly, later they sold their property and moved to another location to specialize in only dog agility training.

 

After working at their kennel I wanted to know more about the dog boarding and daycare industry, so once out of school, I achieved a full time job as a kennel technician at a facility in Round Rock, Texas. I spent 5 years watching and learning all about boarding, daycare, grooming and training. I also attended many seminars and training opportunities. In those 5 years I rose through the ranking from kennel technician to general manager and dog trainer, overseeing up to 150 dogs a day and staff. After helping and contributing to this company, there was still something I wanted to do. I wanted to learn more about dog training. And sadly training was no longer going to be their focus.  

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While working, Panda hit her golden years and Diesel was a mature adult, they both loved going to work with me, which was always a perk of working in the dog industry. We took a break from dog shows so I could focus more on my career and sadly Panda later passed. She challenged me as a trainer on a daily basis, because she had her own behavior issues. She taught me so many things and how to own a reactive dog and a dog very set in her ways.

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I set out to find another training facility to work. As I did with the previous company, I quickly rose to a manager and trainer positions within the first year. I was helping training clients and training dogs everyday.  I attended conventions and seminars learning more about dog behavior and training.  At this facility, I would stay at the property and watch the business for months at a time while the owner was gone on vacation, so I got the full experience of running a dog training business first hand. After being there for five and a half years, and pouring my life into this facility night and day, pure exhaustion and illness got the better of me. I was forced to take a break. It was nice to rest and get some perspective.

 

I found myself at a real crossroads in my life. Instead of building up someone else's business, who's values and training methods did not match mine, it was very apparent that the only way that I would be allowed to train dogs the way that I thought was best for each and every dog, was to go out on my own and start my own business. So the idea of Crossroads Dog Academy was born.

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Everyone in your life is like a part of a tree!

You have leaves, branches, and roots. Leaves take from the tree, but provide shade and comfort for awhile but always leave, branches will fool you, as soon as you step out on them they break and let you fall to the ground. But a tree only needs a few good roots to thrive and stand strong.  If you are blessed enough to have people in your life that are like roots of a tree, these are the people that truly care for you, the ones that are only a phone call away, even if you just need to talk and will always support you!

Truly treasure your roots!