Instructors & Trainers
Lark Pollari and Elaine Osmun are the "resident" dog trainers at Yellowstone Dog Sports but we also bring in other top trainers from across the United States and Canada for weekend clinics, summer vacation camps and competitve training camps.
Elaine Osmun
Elaine is the owner of Yellowstone Dog Sports and has been training and competing with her dogs since 1993. Her dogs have earned titles and awards in Agility, Obedience, Tracking, Herding, Conformation and Flyball. She has had two Obedience Champions with multiple Obedience High in Trial Awards and has earned a total of 17 NATCHs (Agility Championship Titles) on 4 dogs. Australian Shepherds are her breed of choice but she has also earned agility and obedience titles on Labrador Retrievers and is currently competing with a Borgi (Corgi x Border Collie) named Tyger.
Lark Pollari
Lark has been training dogs and teaching classes for over 15 years. She is a NADAC Agility Judge and has qualified and placed at NADAC Championships for the past 7 years! She prefers spunky mixed breed dogs with a bit of attitude! Her teaching style is patient, kind and encouraging for beginner to experienced students!
Susan Anderson (South Dakota)
Susan is one of the top "big distance" competitors in NADAC. Her border collie, Vesta, was 2009 Superstakes Champion and second place in 2010. Both Vesta and Flagg are MOD Squad members, rank consistently in Top Ten for Bonus Lines and also have rally and obedience titles.
Susan is a positive, enthusiastic instructor and many of her students have also made it on to NADAC Top Ten Lists.
Lisa Bonker (New Jersey)
with us August 7-9
Lisa is a NADAC certified clinician and gives seminars across the continent. Her dogs are consistently in the NADAC Top 10 with Jet being the Highest Scoring Skilled Dog in 2007 and Moxie the Highest Scoring Skilled Dog in 2008. Lisa and her dogs have earned over 50 NATCHs. She emphasizes foundation training, motivation and consistent, clear handling in a fun and postitive way.
Paula Goss (Maryland)
with us August 14-16
Paula has been competing in agility for 20 years at the highest levels of AKC, USDAA and for the last 10 years, exclusively NADAC. She has been ranked in NADAC top 10 for the last 8 years and her Border Collies have earned over 18 NATCHs and over 10 Platinum Speed Star Awards. Paula is incredibly motivational and her experience and upbeat attitude makes her a pleasure to work with.
Melissa LaMere-Dragovich (Minnesota)
with us June 25-29 and Aug. 27-31
Melissa has been showing, training and competing with dogs for 18 years. She is an ASCA Obedience judge and has put UDs, UDXs, and OTCHs on several dogs. In agility, she is working towards her first MACH and ATCH. In addition, her dog Tag has qualified for 6 World Championship Disc Dog events and she has two dogs with Master Level Titles in Dock Diving! If that's not enough, she has also trained and titled dogs in conformation, flyball and herding! She and her husband are both founding members of Border Collie Rescue of Minnesota.
Amanda Nelson (Idaho)
Amanda has been competing in agility for 20 years and has taught agility seminars throughout North America, Australia and Japan. She is one of the top "big distance" handlers in NADAC and her primary focus is to build dog and handler teamwork both in and out of the agility ring. She uses training tools such as clicker and targeting to help create a thinking dog.
Sharon Nelson (California)
with us for our August Camps
Sharon has been a dog trainer and behavioral consultant since the mid-1980s and is the founder of the North American Dog Agility Council (NADAC). She has done agility seminars worldwide and is well known for her intuitive and innovative training methods. She has an innate ability to "read" a dog/handler team and offer practical solutions for behavior problems. She has put agility titles on over 30 dogs from 14 different breeds and has trained dogs for personal protection, herding and obedience.
Judy Strom (Montana)
Judy started training the family dogs at an early age and put obedience and conformation titles on Golden Retrievers and Brittanys as a teenager. She is a sporting dog enthusiast and has trained and titled six different sporting breeds in hunt tests, agility, tracking, rally, obedience and conformation. She's worked as a freelance dog photographer and her photos have appeared in many books and magazines. She's also an AKC Spaniel Hunt Test Judge, CGC Evaluator and an ASCA Tracking Judge.
Camilla McCullough (Billings)
Originally from Denmark, Camilla is a certified dog trainer and has competed in NADAC Agility, Dock Diving, Rally and MDSA Freestyle Dancing Competitions. She will be teaching Freestyle workshops and summer camp sessions. She believes in fair, fun and motivational training using positive training methods.
Kyle Trumbull-Clark with us June 25-29
herding, in 1988. Bringing out each dog's natural instinct for the work they are designed to do for competition and real life ranch work is the goal. Teamwork and better understanding of livestock are key to training a good working dog and for getting better scores. Training methods are geared toward each dog as an individual. Kyle has trained and trialed several Australian Shepherds, Border Collies and other breeds to multiple Championships in ASCA, AKC and AHBA, plus trialed in ABCHA style trials, earning numerous High In Trials, High Combined awards and competing in ASCA's National Finals. Working with owners of breeds
from Belgian Tervurens to Corgis in order to improve their talents is always fun and rewarding.