Trudi Schoening

Trudi's start began in Chicago with training her dog Wrigely in 2006. Her fascination of training him pushed her to look into further education of dog obedience and behavior. In 2007 she attended the Animal Behavior College. Along with this education, mentorships and many seminars throughout the years Trudi has enjoyed the incredible journey of learning how our best friends think, feel and learn through science based training.

Trudi started her first training business in the North West Suburbs of Chicago called Golden Companion Dog Training. She ran that for 11 years before moving to the beautiful state of Colorado.

Trudi and her husband Dan have two adventure pups. Dixie, and their rescue dog, River. Their favorite pass time involves hitting the trails and camping up in the Colorado Mountains and relaxing at many of the local Colorado Springs breweries.

Trudi also has a big passion in the dog sport of Agility. She has been competing since 2009 earning multiple championship titles with her dogs.

Trudi has worked with a variety of dogs, breeds and behaviors over the years. She is passionate in helping dog owners understand the importance of having a well trained dog. Trudi specializes in family pet dog training. She will show you how a trained dog is the foundation for having good behavior. You will learn good daily habits to make your life much easier and happier with your dog. Everyone should have a long and wonderful life with their pets.

María Plaza

María started working with dogs in 2014 as a Pet Nutrition Specialist for different brands of dog and cat food. She would visit Petco and PetSmart stores throughout upstate New York. In 2016, María moved to Colorado Springs and worked for Petco. They sent her to do their “Petco Positive Dog Training Instructor Program”. A year later she was promoted to the store's full time Dog Trainer position. María was the Head Trainer until January 2021 when she decided to open her own business called “The Treat Lady: Pet Sitting & R+ Dog Training”. María is also a Pet Sitter and a Dog Walker.

In September 2021, María started volunteering at Victory Service Dogs as their Puppy Trainer. Due to her popularity with their students, Victory Service Dogs brought her on as a trainer. María found it very rewarding to work with Service Dogs in Training from Puppy Obedience until they became Canine Good Citizens.

When Mountain Paws opened, María joined many of our classes with her new dog and quickly became one of our best students! We enjoyed having her around so much we brought her on to our training family!

María will be teaching some of our Bow Wow Basics classes in English and also in española and Puppy Kindergarten & AKC STAR Puppy classes. She is also an AKC CGC Evaluator.

LeNore Ralston

LeNore Ralston has over 15 years participating in dog agility, LeNore has participated in scent work for over 10 years with 5 dogs, 4 of whom have achieved multiple titles. From her first nose work class in 2011, she became fascinated with how dogs sniff out odors - whether it is the essential oils used in competitive scent work, drugs, bombs, or humans. LeNore enjoys the science of how odors behave in the environment and how dogs identify and track these odors. LeNore has also been a teacher for most of her life, providing instruction in group and individual settings in a variety of topics, ranging from dance to mathematics, writing, and science to health-related topics to performance dog activities. Most recently, she has spent the last five years teaching agility from foundation through competition levels and providing individual instruction and consultation in scent detection. LeNore is bringing her enthusiasm and joy for scent work to the Mountain Paws team!

LeNore will be our nose work/scent detection trainer and coach.

Julie Summers

Julie's passion for training came after her first foster dog turned into a foster fail with a fear of anything that moved. Working through the highs and lows of being a dog owner drove her continue her education and help share that knowledge with others. Julie graduated from Victoria Stillwell's Academy, focused on positive training, and has her CPDT. She loves helping owners to bond with their dogs through training and creating happy and well-behaved dogs through compassionate training techniques.

In addition to her training background, Julie also has a passion for competing in dog sports. From scent work to conformation and rally, she and her Labrador Retriever Aspen have honed their skills in a variety of disciplines and have achieved success in various competitions. Their dedication to training and competing with her own dog showcases her commitment to continuous learning and improvement in the world of dogs.

Becky Clippinger

Becky's love of animals, and dogs in particular, started at a very young age. She grew up with Vizslas and carried the passion for the breed into adulthood. She adopted her first Vizsla in 2005, and became very active with Colorado Wyoming Vizsla Rescue Group in 2013. Fostering dogs really helped Becky start to appreciate and understand dog behavior and how they communicate with their humans and interact with their environments.

Becky has always had Vizslas in her life, but it wasn't until she got Manny in 2022 that she started getting involved in dog sports. Becky and Manny have had success in the show ring, but it was in the field and in scentwork that Manny really started to shine. Manny has excelled in scentwork over the past 2 years, and Becky wanted to share the sport with others by teaching scentwork to other human/canine teams. Scentwork is an amazing way for a dog to build confidence, work their minds, and really strengthen the human-dog bond.