Our Instructors:

Frances Holmes is the owner and head instructor for PAWS 4 THOUGHT. Frances has been teaching competitive obedience and competing in Obedience trials for over 40 years.

Frances has owned, trained and competed successfully with Tibetan Terriers, Golden Retrievers, a Border Collie, a Border Terrier and a Cairn Terrier.

She also competes in Rally, Agility and Field tests. Frances also had several Therapy Dogs over the years. In addition, Frances has trained several of her dogs to do flyball and scent hurdling for recreational and demonstration events. She has also trained several of her dogs to perform in musical productions put on by local theatre groups.

Frances conducts seminars and workshops.

Frances is continually learning new training techniques and applies them to her own training and that of her students

Frances has been very successful with her own dogs and is proud to say that many of her students have won prizes, awards and many Highs in Trial.

Frances is most proud of the hundreds of students who have passed through her classes and have accomplished their personal goals such as having a dog come when called, teaching a dog to stay when needed or just having a well-behaved pet.

Many of these people have gone on to successfully compete in Obedience Trials at Frances’ encouragement.

PAWS 4 THOUGHT retains excellent instructors to teach Rally, Scent and Therapy Dog classes.

Marie Nadeau has competed in Obedience and Rally Trials for many years with several dogs. Her Rally classes are fun, fast moving and very informative. Her students are well prepared to compete in Rally trials after attending her classes.

Deb McPherson competes in Obedience Trials but her real love is Scent. Deb competes successfully and is a scent judge. Deb is very knowledgeable and her students certainly benefit from her knowledge. Her student’s dogs love doing what comes naturally for them under her guidance.

Catherine Mirsky has been teaching Obedience for several years and competes in Obedience Trials to this day. She has been involved in Therapy Dog work for over 20 years and has had several Therapy dogs of her own. Catherine’s Therapy Dog classes introduces her students to situations they may encounter, teaches them how to handle and react to them and gives her students an opportunity to see if they are suited to Therapy Dog work. They are also introduced to the Therapy Dog evaluation process.

This course does not qualify teams to visit as Therapy Dogs.