Meet
Our Team
Lydia Yancey (she/her)
CPDT-KA
Lydia has been working in the animal field for over 10 years and is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed. She is a professional member of the Pet Professionals Guild as well as the Association of Professional Dog Trainers. She is influenced by many well known trainers, such as Karen Pryor, Pat Miller, Ken Ramirez, Kathy Sdao, Patricia McConnell, Rise Van Fleet, Sue Sternberg, and Robin Bennett. She found her love for the animal industry when working as a vet tech at Manchaca Road Animal Hospital in South Austin. There she picked up basic husbandry skills, as well as basic dog and cat behavior. She then worked as a kennel technician at DogBoy’s in Pflugerville before becoming Kennel Manager and then a professional trainer.
Lydia has gained extensive knowledge regarding dog body language, behavior, and learning theory. Her experience over the last 10 years has helped her better address the needs of each individual dog and client. She attends multiple seminars throughout the year as well as annual conferences, to ensure she is always growing and learning with the industry. She believes in teaching our dogs to make choices for themselves by using methods that are fun and engaging for both dog and their person. Having a highly reactive dog herself, she really enjoys helping those struggling with a fearful/anxious dogs as well as the hyperactive dog. She does not believe one technique will work on all dogs but believes we need to understand where the behavior is stemming from to address each individual case.
Meggan Porter (she/her)
KPA-CTP CPDT-KA
Meggan's love of dogs started at an early age. Being born into a family who was in equal parts allergic to and afraid of dogs, meant that she was forced to find creative ways to share her life with dogs as a child. Her passion for dogs has carried through all the way into adult life, and she now makes sure her home is stuffed to the gills with dogs by specializing in Board & Trains and Day School held in her home.
Meggan is a graduate of the Karen Pryor Academy, and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer - Knowledge Assessed. She is dedicated to making dog training easy and accessible to clients by pursuing continuing education through webinars, seminars, and conferences, as well as reading. Meggan has been working with dogs since 2008 in a variety of different settings. She has been a receptionist at a vet clinic, a kennel technician at a boarding facility, as well as a shelter, and a head trainer at a training facility and a kennel.
Meggan currently has 3 resident dogs. A very happy whippet puppy, a non stop Border Collie, and a shockingly chill husky mix. She also shares her home with a grumpy old cat, a very tolerant husband, and a very happy toddler.
Meggan likes to focus on teaching dogs to make the right choices without being told what to do, and on mentally stimulating dogs. She specializes in teaching lazy household manners that translate well back to our clients homes, as well as refining obedience skills. She also loves taking dogs on field trips to teach good manners on trails, build foundations for off leash skills, and help her students feel comfortable in stores and on patios. Meggan's goal is to help owners understand their dogs better and help create as many good pet dogs as possible.
Lindsey Thompson (she/her)
CPDT-KA
Lindsey has been fascinated by animal behavior and training for as long as she can remember. She grew up glued to Animal Planet and started volunteering at her local Humane Society in fifth grade! By middle school, she was teaching her dog, and her friends’ dogs, every trick she could think of. Lindsey got her true start in dog training at the Humane Society of El Paso, mentoring under the trainers working there when she was in high school. Since then she has also worked in several boarding and day care facilities, which has given her a wide range of experience with different dogs, including those who are fearful, reactive, overly excited, and those who have a bite history.
Lindsey is a complete nerd when it comes to dogs. She is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer- Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA), and takes every opportunity to continue learning about training and behavior. She loves taking new courses, listening to podcasts, and reading books to grow her skills and perspectives.
Lindsey's goal is to make training fun for both dogs and humans alike. She enjoys working with high energy breeds; however, she has also developed a soft spot for the nervous dogs that need a boost in confidence.
Lindsey shares her life with a lovely bully breed mix who loves to keep her on her toes. She came as a found stray who was highly reactive and selective with dogs. She has made great strides in that area, and has taught Lindsey a lot along the way. They now mostly train for tricks, nosework, and rally obedience. They have dabbled in nosework competition, where she earned her Odor Recognition Test title; however, Lindey's sweet girl wasn’t a fan of the competition environment, so now they continue training for fun!
Giulia Giuffre (she/her)
CPDT-KA SBA
Giulia has been working with dogs, cats, and pocket pets in some capacity for over 10 years. Her professional experience started in a vet clinic and boarding facility and continued to grow in an animal shelter. Her passion for animals started long before this work. As a child, Giulia wanted to learn everything she could about wild and domestic animals. Determined to turn this passion into a career, she studied Animal Behavior at Southwestern University. Then, like many dog trainers, she had a troubled pup that needed some extra attention. Giulia wanted to spend some time helping him to build confidence and teaching him to make better choices. She was so happy when the training really clicked for her dog, their communication and relationship grew and his stress decreased. The more Giulia learned, the more she noticed other dogs' struggles and wanted to help them as well. She took every opportunity to learn and practice dog training and behavior modification. From this, Giulia earned her Shelter Behavior Affiliate with the IAABC, CPDT-KA and Certified CGC Evaluator.
Giulia is always learning and striving to improve her training skills. She loves attending seminars and conferences featuring top behavior experts. Learning about learning and training takes up much of her free time. When not working on continuing education, Giulia spends her time with her dogs; Dristi and Pilot. They get to be guinea pigs for practicing new training and enrichment games! They also enjoy going on hikes and watching TV.
Taylor Cox (she/her)
CPDT-KA
Taylor has cultivated a lifelong passion for caring for and learning about animals and their behavior. She began professionally working with animals after hiking the Appalachian Trail with her dog in 2017.
While working at her first boarding facility, she began to deepen her knowledge and skills around dog training by taking group trianing classes and utilizing what she learned to help teach foster dogs new life skills. Since then, she has worked at boarding and training facilities and has earned her Certified Professional Dog Trainer, Knowledge Assessed.
Taylor enjoys working with all types of cases, as she believes every dog has something to teach us. Her goal is to help build harmonious relationships by helping bridge the gap between human and canine communication through a better understanding of our dogs behavior and needs.
