Monica Nolan
Betsy’s Nose Work journey began in 2011. Betsy has been privileged to work with three dogs to date: Rhys, Pooka (terrier mix) and Binne (black and grey mix). Betsy believes that training is a life-long journey. Betsy has earned many element titles, NW1, NW2, NW3 and Elite titles. In addition to Nose Work, Betsy has competed in Agility and taken herding lessons and Parkour classes.
Monica Nolan
Monica grew up in and around animals. For twenty years she trained and showed horses in jumping, cross country and dressage. “Sizing down” to dogs in the 1990s, she now trains dogs for competition in agility, obedience, rally, tricks, and freestyle.
“I started doing freestyle when I had to retire my Australian Shepherd, Cinna, from agility at the early age of five due to hip issues. Freestyle allowed me to continue working with her at something that was both stimulating and fun.
“My dogs and I love this sport because you can be creative with the moves and it can be done anywhere, at almost any time. And it’s a perfect training compliment to other performance sports. My warmup routine for agility and rally competition is all freestyle moves. Last year I entered Rose, my fifth “Freestyling Aussie”, in her first DCD Challenge Competition. She learned her routine in between earning her AKC Companion Dog (CD) and Rally Excellent (RE) titles. She loved performing her dance and still perks up whenever she hears her music.”
Monica has trained and competed under Dogs Can Dance for over fifteen years. She and her team of Aussies (which over time have included Cinna, Bodie, Mikko, Augie and Rose) earned DCD’s Grand Champion Freestyler title in 2018. She and Augie also won DCD “Highest Scoring Performance” awards in 2020 and 2021.
Monica is both a DCD Certified Freestyle Instructor and Judge. She’s also an AKC CGC and Trick Dog Evaluator, AKC Temperment Test Evaluator, Love on a Leash (LOAL) Therapy Dog Evaluator, and Certified Canine Parkour Instructor (through International Dog Parkour Association - IDPA).
Monica has taught Freestyle, Rally, Obedience, Canine Good Citizen (CGC), Tricks and Parkour