APDT Foundation Offers Three Members Scholarships to Richmond Conference

Mary Buck, Trudy Garvey and Elizabeth Maupin have been selected by the APDT Foundation Board as recipients of the APDT Foundation Annual Conference and Trade Show Scholarships for 2017.

The scholarships allow APDT members to attend the conference who may not otherwise have the funds available to do so. The scholarship covers the registration fee for four full days, Oct. 18-21, at the conference in Richmond, Virginia, except for additional expenses such as travel, hotel, meals, and workshops.

“APDT Foundation, along with Blue-9 Pet Products, believes in giving APDT members and working dog handlers a chance to grow in their pursuit for better training by attending the APDT Conference,” Foundation Board Chair Khara Schuetzner explained. “It gives someone an opportunity to attend and network with others in their profession and learn from other trainers. We are not just trainers, dog handlers, or dog professionals, we are members in our community who strive to make the dog world a better place.”

While the Foundation funds three scholarships, Blue-9 Pet Products, through the Foundation, sponsors one scholarship to an APDT member who is a working dog handler (See 2017 Blue-9 Working Dog Scholarship Recipient Kristine Hopkins elsewhere in Association News).

This year’s Foundation recipients have a wide variety of interests. In 2016, Mary Buck traded her 36-year career as a special education teacher at Union Public Schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma to pursue a full-time dog training career at K9 Manners and More in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. She teaches group classes and is a Canine Good Citizen (CGC) evaluator.

Mary, who earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in special education and psychology at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma, has also trained service dogs for nearly 10 years and she is the lead trainer for Therapetics Service Dogs of Oklahoma.  Mary’s three dogs have kept her busy with Obedience, Rally, Agility, Trick Training, Therapy work, and Hot Doggies Drill Team.

Trudy Garvey’s passion of training dogs began in 2010 when she joined a local volunteer canine-specialized search-and-rescue (SAR) team. That experience led her to putting two of her dogs in the trailing discipline and she has since certified both dogs in trailing and land human remains detection (HRD).

Trudy has since earned several training titles: Certified Professional Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed; Certified Pet Tech Pet CPR and First Aid Instructor; assistant instructor for the International Bloodhound Training Institute, Certified K9 Handler in Trailing and Land HRD, and an evaluator for the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen (CGC) program.

Earlier this year, Trudy started her own dog training business, Ruff World Training, LLC, in Brookville, Pennsylvania, with the goal of providing quality professional training for all aspects of a dog’s world.

Elizabeth R. Maupin, of Moore, Oklahoma, studied zoology at the University of Oklahoma. Her animal training began with exotics at Little River Zoo in Norman, and later with birds of prey, parrots, and small mammals at the Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville.

This July, Elizabeth celebrated four years as trainer for Second Chance Animal Sanctuary in Norman. There, she implemented a positive reinforcement training program, pre-rescue behavioral assessments, and board member education.

Elizabeth is a CGC evaluator and has experience training therapy and service dogs through an Oklahoma City nonprofit. Her rescue dogs, Zeus, a Minpin/Terrier mix, and Snapple, a Beagle, are therapy dogs. Snapple loves visiting a facility for children with disabilities. Zeus also enjoys lure coursing and tricks training. His tricks have led to acting in three musicals, a film, a university research project about preventing falls, a promotional video for Second Chance, and an episode of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

Eligibility for the scholarship includes all active supporting, professional, and professional premium APDT members. New members are encouraged to apply. Members of the APDT Board of Directors and the APDT Foundation Board of Directors are not eligible to apply, nor are affiliate and subscription members. Previous recipients of the scholarship are not eligible to apply again for five years. For more information about the Foundation’s Scholarship and Awards, please visit www.apdtfoundation.org.

Funding sources may include, but are not limited to institutions, companies, or individuals who wish to donate monies to sponsor the scholarship program. Contributors will be listed as a sponsor to the APDT Foundation Annual Conference Scholarship Program in the conference booklet, on the website, and in the APDT Chronicle of the Dog.

The APDT Foundation was organized to raise funds for scientific research and education of dog trainers.  But the Foundation seeks to achieve the following vision:

• Be more than a funding source but rather an integrated program of research and outreach
• Build academic capacity in applied canine research
• Address relevant issues in domestic canine behavior, care, and training
• Develop a body of applied scientific knowledge on domestic canine behavior, care, and training
• Promote the application of science-based dog care and training
• Be stewards of funds gathered from a broad base of support
• Create an inclusive organizational process that develops valued partnerships that are collaborative and strategic
• Facilitate interactions and collaboration between the academic and canine practitioner communities to better serve and inform their clients and society as a whole
• Support innovative professionals whose work results in greater health and welfare between humans and domestic dogs

The Association of Professional Dog Trainers, headquartered in Lexington, Ky., was founded in 1993 to be an inclusive forum for trainers to network with each other, provide educational opportunities, and grow the profession. Currently, the APDT reaches more than 5,200 members worldwide and is actively involved in ethics issues, business management, research, and continuing education in the professional dog training profession and pet industry.

CONTACT:

Mandy Roberts, (859) 545-0483

mandy.roberts@apdt.com

2365 Harrodsburg Road, Suite A325

Lexington, KY  40504

(800) PET-DOGS