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.

Her first training business was started in the Northwest 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 three adventure pups. Dixie, River and Willow. 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 competing in dog sport. Her favorite is Scent Work and Agility. She has been competing since 2009 earning multiple Agility 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.

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 is one our nose work/scent detection trainers and teaches group classes and private lessons.

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.

Becky is one our nose work/scent detection trainers and teaches group classes and private lessons.

Emily Carson

Emily has been professionally training dogs since 2019, specializing in dogs with big feelings, whether those present as reactivity or shy, fearful behavior. Her career began working at a dog rescue, training and rehabilitating dogs and then training the humans who adopted them. This grew into providing behavior and obedience sessions to the general public. In 2024, Emily founded Smile & Wag to better support behavior clients through specialized services as they learn to feel safe and comfortable navigating the world as a team.

Emily is continuously learning about canine development, communication, learning theory, behavioral science, and neuroscience to understand how to help humans and dogs thrive together. Her education is rooted in extensive research through seminars, conferences, webinars, and online training programs. Emily's training philosophy centers on fulfillment for both ends of the leash, meeting the needs of both dogs and their humans so they can live a fulfilling life together as a family.

With an emphasis on understanding canine behavior and body language, Emily helps people truly hear what their dogs are telling them and respond with clear, consistent communication to foster mutual trust and understanding.

Emily teaches some of our Bow Wow Basics classes & Reactive Rover classes. She is also a Canine Good Citizen evaluator and assists in our AKC S.T.A.R Puppy classes and our Canine Good Citizen Classes.

Kyla Harrison

Kyla was introduced to the world of dog sports and training after getting her Border/Aussie, Rosie. She is an agility instructor and Certified Professional Canine Fitness Trainer (CPCFT). She has been competing in agility with Rosie for many years, and they have placed on multiple podiums at national and local events! After falling in love with the sport, and learning the ins and outs very quickly to keep up with Rosie’s natural skill, she hopes to inspire other newbies to fall in love with the sport like she did.

To keep her dogs fit and fast enough to be competitive at the top levels of the sport, Kyla found an interest in canine strength and conditioning training. She completed her CPCFT certification in May 2026 and offers group classes, private training, and seminars on canine conditioning through her business Hustle Hounds. She enjoys sharing her knowledge of canine conditioning with owners and helping their dogs build muscle and body awareness to support their health and mobility in the long term.

Kyla is one of our Agility Foundations trainers and canine fitness experts!