Welcome; I look forward to sharing my books with you! Each book is a labor of love, and I have done my very best to give you the information you need to enjoy many successful years with your canine best friend.I am a lifelong animal lover, artist and writer. My entire career centers around animals, mainly dogs. I have owned Labs, collies, shelties, mixed breeds, and dachshunds, while fostering dozens of different breeds for rescue organizations over the years. I worked several years as a dog trainer, doing private training and classes at a board-and-train facility in Washington State. Since then, I have been pet sitting and boarding dogs in my home for over 15 years. So as you see, I spend a lot of time with dogs! My visiting dogs-whether foster dogs or boarding dogs-have given me a great deal of pleasure and quite an education. I am an almost 20-year member of the Dog Writers Association of America, have received several awards from their annual writing competition, and chaired the contest three times. I have written for Petco, Delta Society, Petdoc.com, and currently serve as the editor for Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue's newsletter "Speaks!"I earned my BA degree from Whittier College and spent 17 years in the retail advertising business before I changed careers. While living with and training dogs, I also paint pictures of them, and have done hundreds of pet portraits. When I lived in Seattle, I served on the Board of Directors for Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue, LabMed and the Humane Society of Seattle/King County. I fostered over 50 Labs a year for several years, which certainly helped me when it came time to write my two Labrador Retriever books. I was a member of Puget Sound Labrador Retriever Association and Washington State Obedience Training Club. My Lab Tank earned several titles, including Junior Hunter (JH). I showed Tank and my first sheltie, Sherman, in obedience. I now live in Southern California with a sheltie, dachshund, three rescued cats, a rescued Shetland pony and two Icelandic horses. I love to ride the local trails or go horse-camping with my friends. I always have an assortment of guest dogs here to keep me busy. Thanks for reading!