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Katie Sharp, PhD, has her doctorate degree in clinical psychology and has always been passionate about dogs and dog training. During her undergraduate years, she spent time in an animal learning lab clicker-training shelter dogs to help make them more adoptable and was heavily involved in fostering for the Nebraska Humane Society.

Katie has always loved the sport of dog agility, watching it on television when she was a little girl. However, she wasn’t able to start training a dog in the sport until 2017 when she and her husband bought a puppy together. Katie and her first agility dog, Louie, have been on a wild ride in the sport ever since their first competition together. Since Louie has been playing AKC agility, he has held his spot as the #1 fastest cocker spaniel in his jump height. Additionally, he won High in Trial at his very first Cocker Nationals in 2019 at just 2 years-old. Later that year, Katie and Louie also won “Rookie of the Year” Award at their very first UKI Open. Louie has one UKI championship and two championships through AKC. In 2020, Louie placed third at AKC Invitationals in Orlando Florida, a national event. He ran clean in all of his runs at his first AKC Nationals and placed third in the ISC class (international style course). Earlier this year, Katie and Louie were invited to AKC’s 2nd Annual Premier Cup and made it to finals. Katie’s up and coming little agility star is just under 2 years-old, and he has already earned multiple agility titles.

Katie is also involved in other activities with her dogs as well, and is especially passionate about trick training. All of her dogs have trick titles, and Louie was honored with the cocker spaniel in 2020 with the highest scoring trick routine for the National Trick Dog Competition. She has dabbled in freestyle with him, too, and is currently putting together a dance routine for next year’s national trick dog competition! Katie has also done Fast CAT, and Louie was invited to AKC’s Invitational this year for being the fastest cocker spaniel in AKC Fast CAT. She has also done some Rally, and her youngest has his Rally Novice title.

Katie is passionate about using reinforcement-based training strategies and building a solid relationship with each of her dogs. They include a 12-year-old cocker named Sammy, who was her graduate school, internship, and post-doc companion; her 5-year-old heart dog Louie; a 4-year-old rescue named Winston; and last but not least, her almost 2-year-old up and coming agility start, Ollie. They are all cocker spaniels.

Ollie: Skiboo’s Javalin Oliver Twist Of Fate, RN, OA, OAJ, NF, TKA
Winston (Winnie): ResQ’s Win Tin Tin AX OAJ NF ACT2 TKI
Louie: MACH2 Louie Winston Clumberstein MXS PAD MJG PJD MFB TQX T2B TKE