Meet Katie, CDBC, CPDT-KA, UW-AAB

Katie McGuire has been training dogs professionally for 20 years, but her training career and education began long before that. 

Her childhood consisted of as many animal activities as she could find!  Her formative years were spent caring for and training a variety of animals. Obsessed with animals and training, she would read or watch anything she could to learn more and practice these skills with her first pets, horses and cats. She was an avid competitor in equestrian events and enjoyed training her rescue cats a variety of tricks, but wanted desperately to have a dog of her own. Adamantly set against having a dog, her parents reluctantly agreed to let Katie spend her Saturdays working with the dogs at a local animal rescue. But seeing her passion for working with animals and her commitment to their care and training, they finally acquiesced and she brought her first rescue dog home at age 11. She then began fostering and training multiple rescue dogs, helping them find new forever homes. She spent all of her time training her own dogs and fosters in activities like tricks, agility, obedience, sheep herding, etc.

Katie attended Moorpark College, taking classes from the Companion Animal Studies program such as Dog Breed Identification, as she has always had an interest in rare breeds and their history and development. During her studies she worked part time as an On Set Safety Representative with American Humane Association, making sure that animals were being treated humanely on the set of film and television productions. She also completed an internship training dogs for the entertainment industry while completing her BA from the University of California Santa Barbara.

 Concurrently, Katie was working professionally as a dog trainer for a large pet supply retail store, and after completing her collegiate career she was promoted to the level of Area Trainer. As an Area Trainer, she managed and supervised over 20 trainers at stores within her district, as well as onboarding and training new trainers for other stores. Her reputation as an effective and compassionate trainer grew steadily and she was regularly recommended by local veterinarians and dog enthusiasts. Her success was measurable, with her store showing a dramatic increase in training sales, consistently ranking in the top 10 out of over 1200 stores, and the company’s corporate office regularly consulting with her on training policies including nationwide curriculum change.

 In 2016 Katie parted ways with the retail company and opened her own training business. This gave her the ability to grow and develop her skills, focus more on dogs with difficult problem behaviors, and train a variety of skills and dog sports. Her group classes continued to be highly recommended and attended by veterinarians, breeders, and other trainers.
 Over the years Katie has trained thousands of dogs, giving her invaluable experience in how to work with the individual dog, and tailor her techniques to the needs of that dog.

Katie is an Canine Good Citizen and Tricks Dog Evaluator through the American Kennel Club (AKC), a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) through the Certification Council of Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT), a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC), and earned a certificate in Applied Animal Behavior from University of Washington (UW-AAB). She is on the Board of Directors of the Pyrenean Shepherd Club of America (PSCA), and is a member of The Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT), the Animal Behavior Society (ABS), the Animal Behavior Management Alliance (ABMA), The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement (AAWA), the Valley Hills Obedience Club (VHOC), the Dog Trainers Alliance of Southern California (DTASC), and is a working member of the Behavior Collaborative & Education sub-group for Human Animal Support Services (HASS). 

Throughout her life and career, Katie has raised, trained, handled and competed with a variety of breeds, giving her a broad range of experience training, and living with, many different types of dogs. Her passion for training and interest in all aspects of the dog world has led her to be the exclusive handler for all of her personal dogs during their competitive careers. She regularly trains and competes in agility, conformation, rally obedience, and competition Obedience, garnering many wins, and competing at the national level, and has also dabbled in several other sports including sheep herding, barn hunt, and earthdog.  Katie has performed at a variety of events with her dogs including the Dogs! A Science Tail exhibit at the California Science Center, fundraisers for organizations such as Ride On Therapy, and multiple live events at The Wallis Annenberg PetSpace. Katie and her dog Andreu have also been guests on NBC's California Live! and Access Live! TV shows, and their 6th place run in the Finals of the AKC National Agility Championships was shown on ESPN's coverage of the event.

Katie has written and been interviewed for several articles on a variety of dog training and behavior topics, including an article for the 2017 AKC Gazette on Socialization of the Young Pyrenean Shepherd, and interviews for KROQ radio station, WeLikeLA, MomsLA, and the Born to Talk Podcast. She was also the expert training advisor for The Big Book of Tricks for the Best Dog Ever, which is currently ranked 15th in the Best Selling Dog Books of all time. ​

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