Meet The Team

The TopDog team is compiled of compassionate, animal loving people who are driven to provide dogs with a safe, healthy space to express themselves, play safe, learn, and therefore create a more rounded, happy, welcomed home pet. Kathy supports and encourages ongoing training and education to keep her team on the cutting edge of the pet care and dog training world. She offers and rewards ongoing education and every member of her staff is involved in continuing education, peer mentoring and apprenticeship and either are trainers, or are working towards trainer status. That being said we'd like to introduce you to;

Kathy has been a perpetual student in spite of her over 30 years experience. She has taken many courses, and classes and graduated Summa cum laude from Karen Pryor Academy. She also sat as chair for the Canadian Association for Professional Pet Dog Trainers, and sat on the board for Sweet Charity Medical Assistance dogs. Kathy has selected and trained many dogs in service roles for people needing assistance both physical and emotional. Kathy breeds Labrador Retrievers and shares her life with her 4 Labs Focus, Mulligan, Siri ( a service pup in training and Tempo . She also keeps time in her busy schedule for for husband Steve, and 4 daughters Kacy, Chelsea, Jacki, and Jessie whom have all played an intricate role in the creation, up keep, and continued success of TopDog.

Tiory has been working with dogs for many years and had lots of experience with large breeds and challenging behaviour issues. As well as working the SPCA for quite a few years and helping to rehab dogs there, she also volunteered at Bear Creek Animal Sanctuary for years. Working with Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh my!!She has her own pack of rescue dogs (Lenny,  Blayze,  and Kaco) who have all gone through extensive training to be the wonderful companions they are today. Tiory spends her spare time working with Sweet Charity Medical Assistance dogs training dogs for their clients as well.  Tiory is also a certified Training Partner with Karen Pryor Training Academy One of her  favourite pastimes are pack walks and ongoing education in manners and dog sports. 

Jacki was raised  in a dog training household and grew up hanging out in training classes with Kathy. Jacki decided to venture into the business world, opening and running many different restaurants over 10 years before turning back and putting her business background and dog knowledge together. Jacki is also a perpetual students who participate in training webinars and workshops on a ongoing basis.  Jacki shares her life with her lab Peek who is her best friend of 14 years, and her two Irish Wolfhounds Fitzpatrick and Freyja, along with her two stepchildren Mikhaila and Kolton, husband Dan and their  son Kelly completes the pack. 

Kayla works primary at our Mutt-e-Ssori Kayla joined TopDog in 2018 and has become our mainstay at our Orilla location. She is a skilled albeit reluctant  groomer and does help us out with that in a pinch.  Kayla not only keeps thing in tip top running shape at Mutt-e-Ssori but also does a good portion of our Casa Tutoring program. Kayla is managed by her fast friend Koyah. 

Hailey has been a dog lover her whole life, and grew up with dogs in her life every step of the way. She is so happy she decided to explore it as a career! Hailey shares her life with her exuberant labrador River.  She recently completed the Karen Pryor dog trainer course, just in time  before her son was born!  Hailey will be taking some time off to with TopDogs newest parent trainer Cillian 

Jocelyn always new she was destined for animal life. She grew up on a farm and competed in horseback riding when she was younger. She began volunteering at vets, and kennels and found her true passion in dogs. She began her path of working in daycares, vets offices, and boarding facilities until she landed at TopDog! Jocelyn is our very own in-house amateur photographer, and also recently completed the Karen Pryor dog trainer course. Jocelyn shares her life with her 3 dogs Jaxon, Baron and Stitch.

Kathy and Emily have been friends for years when their paths crossed years ago when Kathy was competing in Obedience trials with her Dog Justy. Emily has shared her life with a number of different breeds of dogs since she started taking 'formal' obedience classes when she was 8 years of age and earned her first 'High Scoring' award in CKC events when she was still a Junior Handler.In more recent years, Emily has focused on Obedience, Agility, Herding, Disc and Flyball plus competed with her own dogs in the breed ring and handled for others.