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Agility Instructors

Jordan Biggs 

YouTube Channel

Jordan is one of the most talented dog trainers and agility handlers in the United States today and a contender at the world agility stage. Jordan’s dedication to building and maintaining a strong foundation for her dogs has been a huge contributor to her success in agility. Jordan has quickly made a name for herself in the world of agility winning her way onto the EO team in Round One and making a statement by winning Round One of AKC World Team Tryouts by 1.6 seconds.

Jordan is a highly skilled competitor and handler and is well known for her dogs strong foundation and extremely well trained skills and commitment. Jordan is admired for her smooth handling and her enthusiastic, engaging and creative coaching.

Jordan is known for her online threadle class as well as her online tricks class. She also teaches an online running dog walk class. Jordan is committed to bringing out the best in each of her students. She wants to push them to be the best that they can be and achieving their goals with them.

Jordan represented the USA in Italy at the IFCS World Championships in 2018 with her border collie, Kirbee. Jordan and Kirbee also won their way onto the 2019 USA European Open Team.

 

Jordan has worked with some of the best agility trainers and competitors in the world. Her classes are inspired by international competitors Silvia Trkman, Justine Davenport, Jessica Patterson, Desiree Snellman and Tammy Moody. Learning from all of these amazing competitors has given Jordan a very good eye for the sport of agility. She strives to continue to learn more about handling and offering the best she can to her students in an online setting as well as in person classes and seminars.
 

Hana Spitz 

Hana started in dogs in 2009 as a professional handler in conformation.   A couple short years later she started in formal obedience with her Aussie, Phoenix.  She is a very skilled and talented formal obedience trainer/competitor.   Phoenix had a very successful career.  At 2 years old she entered her first trial immediately winning on a spot to nationals.  At the 2016 ASCA Nationals she took first over hundreds earning herself a Championship of the open Obedience Finals .  She continued to get on the podium at the ASCA nationals for 4 consecutive years.  Hana went on to train and achieve Obedience Trial Championships on 4 of her personal dogs.  You can see in Hana and her students the compassion and dedication to building a strong, happy, confident, and competitive team.  

Hana is goal oriented and wants to spread her knowledge to others to achieve their long term goals.  

 

With so many years of dog training and handling experience, Hana picked up agility very quickly with, Seriee, her now two year old Border Collie.  Seriee has exceptional speed, commitment, and skill that is executed in excellence through competition. Hana and Seriee are excited to continue their competitive career throughout the country and internationally.  Her newest addition, Funfetti has big shoes to fill at nine months old! Funfetti is currently training in agility and is already proving to be an outstanding agility dog.

Desiree Snelleman

Desiree is no stranger to the field of teaching and coaching.  It is her passion and what she has done all her life.  She has her Teaching and Coaching Credentials from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, and she also holds a degree from San Diego State University in Athletic Training/Sports Medicine.  She is currently the Master Agility Instructor for the It’s A Dog’s World Training and Agility Center (IADW) in Sumner, Washington. She gives seminars around the US and abroad and offers remote coaching as part of her own dog training business, Pace Agility.
 

Desiree has had the enjoyment of working with a variety of breeds, from Terriers, Malamutes and Bloodhounds to Border Collies and Shelties in a variety of dog sports. She

currently shares 4 dogs with her spouse, Daim, Pace, Cru and18 month old Peak, all Border Collies. The 3 older dogs have competed in Agility, Obedience, Rally and Canine Nose Work. Her dogs have earned a number of titles and awards in several venues. Desiree has been involved in agility since 2004.

Peak is the young one in the family at 18 months and is a great addition to the pack. He loves to play and be a typical young dog, run, hike and do foundation training with his mom and his siblings. He is a quick learner and is working very hard on expanding his horizon…He had his agility debut in AKC at 17 months.

Cru is 6 years old. He is an awesome athlete and enjoyable to work with and live with. He is adored by his pack. He loves agility and will jump on any opportunity to compete and show off his skills. In 2017 and in 2019, Cru earned his spot on to the EO Team by winning the ISC class at the AKC National Agility Championships. He loved his first international competition in Milan, Italy in 2017, and asked for more….Well, he did get more…He made it on to the AKC/USA FCI Agility World Championship Team in 2018 in Sweden. Cru was excited that his older brother Pace, who he adores, was on the Team as well, as an alternate. After that event Cru went on to become the 2018 USDAA Cynosport World Games, Grand Prix Champion in the 24” class. Since then he has to Brazil to compete in the American Agility Open where his Team to 2nd place in the Team Final.

Desiree’s almost 11 year old Border Collie, Pace, has been on the top of his agility game for the last 8 years, both nationally and internationally. He has competed on the USA/IFCS World Team 5 times (2014 - 2018) and earned 2 individual gold medals and 1 Team silver medal. He has also competed on the AKC/FCI World Championship Team 2 times (2014,15) and was an alternate on the team in 2018. Pace earned a bronze medal in the Combined Individual Large Dogs in 2014 and he earned a bronze medal in the Team Jumping Large Dogs in 2015. He has competed at Crufts (The largest dog show in the world) in 2014 and 15. In addition, he has been on the podium 5 years at the AKC National Agility Championships. In 2013 and 2015 he took 1st place in the 26” class and in 2014 and 2016 he took 3rd place. In 2018 he took a 2nd place in the 24” class. He is a 3 time USDAA Cynosport World Games National Steeplechase Champion (2011, 13, 15) in the 26” class.  In 2018 he almost did it again, but ended up taking 2nd in Steeplechase, 24” class. Pace and Desiree have competed three times in the European Open (2012, 13, 15). In 2015, her Team ended up in 5th place in the final.
 
Desiree enjoys teaching and coaching and loves to see the lights go on for both the humans and the dogs. Desiree believes that a great handler-dog relationship along with good communication and a strong positive reinforcement history are big parts of setting a great foundation for the team.

When Desiree is not teaching or competing, you can find her and her dogs hiking in the magnificent and vast area surrounding Mt. Rainier in Washington.
 

 

Gillian Crawford

Gillian has been involved in agility and obedience since 1988. She was one of the founding members of Rainier Agility Team, one of the Pacific Northwest's largest agility clubs, serving many times as President, Officer, Board of Director(s) and Training Advisor(s).

 

Training her three Samoyeds in agility and obedience has been both rewarding and a constant challenge. She has trained many breeds, including her beloved Pomeranian MACH “Cowboy” the "Parti-Pom" (1991-2007), a Sheltie “Connor”, Golden Retriever “MACH2 Steal” and Border Collie ADCH/MACH “JJ”.  Gillian is now competing with two Border Collies DJ and Kibble. 

Gillian has been judging AKC agility since 1997 and enjoys both her time as a competitor and the constant learning experience of an agility instructor and international judge. She was selected to judge the AKC Nationals in 2003 in Long Beach, California, and judges many breed specific nationals all over the United States.

Some of her most memorable accomplishments • Multiple Regional Team Placements; Several AKC World Team Qualifications/Attendance; • USDAA Nationals Performance Grand Prix Finalist; USDAA Nationals Speed Jumping Finalist; AKC Nationals Finalist.

 

"One of the things that I love about Agility is there is a place for all of us to have fun and compete with our pets – whether it is to aspire for World Team Competition, goals of achieving an agility championship, or having the determination to make a team the “best we can be” – Agility embraces us, challenges us, and we all share a common passion for our dogs and this sport!"

 

Gillian teaches a handful of classes at Argus Ranch Dog Sports and Training Center, and specializes in power up and problem solving workshops – when a specific performance behavior starts to appear in a competition setting, Gillian has many workshops during the year helping with performance issues specific to agility such as jump clinics, contact power ups and methodology checks, weave pole problems (speed and performance) – to name just a few.  Look for these workshops on our website.

 

When not working at Argus Ranch, she works for 30+ years for personal injury law firm in Seattle.

Karen Beattie Massey

CPDT

Karen Beattie Massey has been involved in dog agility since 2002, when she started training and competing with Maya, her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Maya became the top AKC Agility Cavalier for several years and earned 7 MACH titles, as well as obedience and rally titles. 

 

Karen's Pumi Bella was on the European Open Agility team from 2012-15, the World Agility Open Team 2016, IFCS World Team 2016-18, and finalist in AKC, UKI, and USDAA national events. Her Pumi Aria and Cavalier Teddy were medalists at the Americas and Caribbean Championships in 2017. Karen is currently training and competing with Bella’s grandson Everett. Outside of agility, Karen has competed in obedience, rally, and conformation. 

Karen is an American Kennel Club Breeder of Merit and chair of the Health Committee for her national breed club, the Hungarian Pumi Club of America. 

 

Karen is a Certified Dog Training Professional teaching agility, manners, canine good citizen, and behavior modification. Her university studies in psychology and work experience in staff training and creating instructional materials in the software industry made a career in training people and their dogs a natural fit. 

 

Karen enjoys creating learning experiences that are goal oriented, fun, and rewarding for dogs and handlers. 

Micki Lagrou

Throughout her life, Micki has always had dogs. Her first dog as an adult was a rescue mixed breed cattle dog named Wendell who had some behavioral issues. She started obedience and agility classes as a way to build confidence and learn how to help him. But it really blossomed from there. They started competing in agility in 2001 and added in competition obedience and rally within a few years. Micki also taught basic obedience and agility for a few years but decided to refocus on work. In college, she was a track and cross country athlete and then rediscovered her love of athletics through CrossFit in 2010. After retiring from her work in the biotech industry, she owned a CrossFit gym in Bremerton for 5 years until it shut down due to Covid. She’s now come full circle - back to agility which she has been doing consistently with each of her dogs since Wendell: Wally, a border collie / aussie mix, Ginger, a terrier mix and now Leelu and rescue border collie. Micki has competed at a few national championships but really enjoys putting on local agility shows and teaching agility classes. Helping people discover this amazing sport and method for connecting with their dogs is what it’s all about.

Dominique Hellmich

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