Meet Our Pleasant People

Pat has been around dogs throughout her life. Beginning with training them for her father (a dog breeder) when she was 8 years old. She got special permission from 4-H to teach her first class at 15. Pat has had one of the few dogs in Michigan that was approved to work with her as a dog assisted therapist, in her work as a Clinical Social Worker.

Pat has been training dogs in agility since 1996 with her first competitions in 1997. She has titled several dogs in conformation, obedience, and agility. Currently she trains regularly with Jen Pinder, international team member, regular contributor to Clean Run Magazine and internationally known agility instructor.

The dogs she has had in agility classes have included a wide variety of breeds, temperaments, strengths and challenges. These challenges range from such things as being blind in one eye, to very shy dogs, to reactive dogs and one very large Irish Wolfhound. Her greatest pleasure is to help develop and train great teams, including those dogs with challenges, teams that know lots about training together and people who have never trained a dog before. She loves to teach, and loves for her students to do things they never could have imaged themselves doing. Her students have earned numerous titles in all venues.

For Pat, teaching people and their pups life skills and agility teams to work together is the most fun thing you can do in life. Teaching is an honor.

Carlos is awesome in so many ways. We first met him after working through a difficult foster dog case, and we knew he would be an asset to our team right away. He shares his passion for behavioral science with us by teaching classes and private lessons. Carlos is currently pursuing his CPDT-KA certification. We count ourselves very lucky to have him on our team.

Carlos is a social worker by day, which makes him an excellent people trainer. He is owned and loved by Rocky, his canine doppelganger, whom he adopted from Hearts of Hope. The two of them make an excellent team.

Sara is a behavior consultant and animal trainer based in Hudsonville, Michigan, where she lives with her husband and two year old son, two dogs, a cat, a horse, and a pony. She specializes in using force free positive reinforcement based teaching methods with all species, including human learners, and has been training animals for six years. She is also a volunteer animal handler at John Ball Zoo

Whether teaching behaviors to animals, clients, or children, she is passionate about giving all learners choice and control over their outcomes to foster empowered individuals and healthy relationships.

Gin has a diverse background including teaching English abroad, website testing, and book translation. When she adopted her first dog, she discovered her life’s passion, and has training ever since. She has competed in various dog sports including barn hunt, rally, disc, freestyle, field trial, lure coursing, and her favorite, agility.

Gin currently owns three dogs: Rizzo, a longhair dachshund, and Ferris and Charlotte, two mixed breed rescue dogs. She has learned a lot about training through being the owner of both fearful and reactive dogs. Her favorite part of dog training is shaping and watching for that special moment where the dog starts to figure out what they are learning! Her mission as a trainer is to help build confidence in dogs and handlers, both individually and as a team.

In her free time, Gin enjoys training and competing with her own dogs, renovating her new home, and bird watching.

Maggie has worked professionally in the animal welfare industry for the last 7 years after earning a Bachelor’s of Science in Animal Science with a specialization in Companion Animals at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. She has over 5 years of experience teaching group dog training classes.

Maggie’s favorite part of training is fostering the human-animal bond and helping people improve their
relationships with their dogs. Her goal as a trainer is to help dog owners be the best advocates for their
dogs that they can be. Maggie is pursuing her CPDT-KA certification.

At home, Maggie has a rescue Boston terrier named Finn, a fat cat named Murphy, and a percussionist
husband named Jack. She loves all things vintage and retro. In her free time, she enjoys going to her
husband’s symphony concerts, swing dancing, travelling, being outdoors, and reading.

Roxanne grew up fascinated with horses and rode religiously for ten years, becoming the Co Captain of the Holland Public Schools Equestrian Team for two years (and becoming best friends with Taylor along the way). After her dog Oakley found her, though, her passion for dogs and dog training really emerged. Oakley suffers from anxiety and separation anxiety, which drove Roxanne to study positive reinforcement and science based methodology to help him and others. Through this work she learned that science based methods were the only way she wanted to work with animals (and we love her for it).

Roxanne worked at Camp Saugapup for two years fine tuning her knowledge and skill in dog behavior and management prior to joining our Pleasant Team. She is currently studying through CATCH Canine Trainers Academy, as well as pursuing her CPDT-KA.

In her free time, Roxanne enjoys reading books about dogs, playing video games with her partner, cooking good food, and snuggling on the couch with Oakley.

Trainer

Ben came to us with a great deal of experience managing large playgroups, which helped him slip into his original role of daycare manager like he’d been here all along. We knew he was our guy when he showed up for his interview wearing a Dog Dad hat. Now he heads up our Ft. Wayne, Indiana training team, and also helps us train at our main campus in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ben has a particular interest in training bully breeds for working purposes.

Ben has a keen eye for body language, appropriate play, and each dog’s individual needs for comfort and love. Pleasant Dogs love him like no other. Ben is currently pursuing both CPDT-KA and KPA-CTP certifications.

When he’s not training, Ben enjoys cuddling with his big baby Sampson, fishing, and spending most of his time outside, in touch with nature! He also enjoys listening to music of all kinds, and spending time with his family and friends.