Have you heard of the AKC Trick Dog program? You can now earn AKC Trick Dog titles right here at WAGD. Each level of Trick Dog class will cover training at least 12 of the tricks from that level’s Tricks Checklist. Each week you’ll get a chance to demonstrate the tricks your dog mastered. If you’ve demonstrated 10 of the tricks by the end of class, you’ll earn your official AKC Trick Dog title!
Checkout the AKC Trick Dog webpage to learn more about the awesome program and to see the Tricks Checklist for each level. Training tricks is a GREAT way to hone your training skills, while building your dog’s enthusiasm for training at the same time!
- Manners 1 (or equivalent) to get started in the first level, Trick Dog Novice.
- Dogs must be current on vaccinations.
- If your dog is younger than 1 year, and they haven’t been in facility in 2 months or more, a new Class Readiness Evaluation is required.
- If your dog is older than 1 year, and they haven’t been in the facility in 6 months or more, a new Class Readiness Evaluation is required.
- Review Be Ready for Group Class and WAGD Policies prior to enrollment.
- Class Fee
- Novice Tricks – 4 weeks, $168
- Intermediate Tricks – 6 weeks, $252
- Advanced Tricks – 6 weeks, $252
- Consecutive weekly 50-minute class meetings at your designated day/time
If you’re unabe to find an in-facility class that works for you, checkout our online training Tricks class options.
Your Instructors
Specialty & Pet Manners Trainer
Gabi Vannini CPDT-KA
Gabi Vannini CPDT-KA joined the WAGD staff in fall 2018. She teaches barn hunt, agility, conformation, rally and manners. She is an AKC CGC, trick, ACT test, temperament test and farm dog evaluator. Gabi competes in a variety of dog sports with her own dogs and has titled in obedience, agility, rally, conformation, lure coursing, dock diving, barn hunt, tricks and herding. She has a particular fondness for rare breeds and has titled multiple “off” breeds in various dog sports, including Icelandic Sheepdogs, Norrbottenspets, Great Pyrenees and mixed breeds. She is heavily involved with her two rare breeds, as the president of the American Norrbottenspets Association and a board member of the Icelandic Sheepdog Association of America and the National Icelandic Sheepdog Rescue Alliance. Her Icelandic Sheepdog, Link, has been among the top ranked in his breed in agility, obedience, rally, conformation, coursing, barn hunt and dock diving. He has won High in Trials, competed at Westminster, the AKC Rally National Championship, AKC Obedience Classic and AKC Agility Invitational. She has a degree in Journalism from Michigan State University, and has worked in marketing for various animal shelters. Most recently, she managed the equine adoption program at the SPCA of Texas. She and her husband Chris have fostered more than 400 animals in the last few years. When she’s not competing or hanging out with her dogs, she enjoys traveling and trying unique new foods.
Victoria Johnson
Victoria is a trainer for Manners classes, Puppy Preschool, Barn Hunt and private lessons. After joining the WAGD team in 2020, she completed WAGD’s Trainer Education Program and the Karen Pryor Academy Foundations course. Absolute Dogs’ Pro Dog Trainer and Pro Dog Trainer Geek programs were completed in 2021 and she is enrolled in their ongoing Training Academy and PDT Club focusing on positive games-based concept training.
Victoria discovered WAGD in 2017, where she worked her rescue Chi/Terrier, Audrey, through Manners, Agility, and Tricks classes and attained several tricks titles. She currently works with Audrey and her other Chi/Terrier rescue, River, in Barn Hunt, Tricks, and Freestyle. River, too, has earned multiple Tricks titles.
Exposure and hands-on experience in dog conformation, breeding, and training of Standard Schnauzers during her early years kicked off her love of working with animals. Numerous dogs (rescues, mixed breeds, and purebreds) have been owned, trained, and cared for. In over a decade of equine riding, training, and competing, Victoria developed an affinity for working with “hard case” horses using natural horsemanship methods. This desire to work with animals who have challenges naturally spilled over to dogs.
While completing a Bachelor of Science degree in Speech—Language Pathology and Audiology at UT-Dallas, she worked at a doggie daycare/boarding facility that also assisted in temporary fostering for a rescue group. She had many opportunities to observe dog behaviors in group settings and help dogs overcome struggles they were facing such as fear and anxiety. Through both formal and informal studying and experiences, Victoria has acquired a particular fondness for working to build confidence and optimism in dogs through utilizing rewards-based methods within a concept framework to build solid relationships between owners, their dogs, and the world around them.