Agility

Local Dog Training and Dog Sports

Shake-a-Paw opened its doors in 1998 and has over the years developed into a school where you can start your puppy off on the right paw, create a wonderful canine companion, or work towards competing in dog sports including agility and scent work.

Local dog training in the Kemptville / Winchester area. We also provide dog sports training in scent work and agility at our facilities year round.

Paola Hoger – Head Trainer

With 20+ years of dog training experience, and 10+ years competing with several of her own dogs in agility, scent work and obedience, Paola provides private training packages for puppies, reactive dogs, and dog sports (all levels). Read more about Paola here.

Paola has obtained various obedience and agility titles over the years with her Akita – Yukon, her Siberian Husky – Max and her Border Collie – Iggy.

Most recently she and Iggy won the Eastern Ontario Regionals in the 26” division – a huge and wonderful accomplishment!

Paola believes deeply that one of the most important qualities in any canine companion is that they are well mannered and well-tempered. This has led her to become a certified Temperament Test (TT) and Canine Good Neighbour (CGN) tester.

Paola is a member of the Agility Association of Canada, Canadian Association of Professional Pet Dog Trainers, Canadian Kennel Club, Ottawa Kennel Club and the Ottawa Valley Border Collie Club.

1:1 dog training with Paola can take place locally in the Kemptville / Winchester / Ottawa area or serving clients worldwide via online training and video calls. 

Crys: Scent Work Instructor

This is Crys’s alter ego, D’art.

Crys has been in the dog world for many years working as a vet tech.  Four years ago searching for something to do with her blind Pug/Boston mix she was introduced to scent work and the rest is history.  Since then Crys has spent many hours learning all there is to know about how dogs use their noses.

Alison: Admin

Alison has been involved in dog sports for over 20 years.  She has taught obedience and agility but more recently has been actively competing in dock diving, agility, nosework and is giving flyball a go.  Alison believes that being involved in dog sports whether competitively or just getting out once a week for a class, opens up your world to a wonderful relationship with your dogs and the chance to meet new people, see new places and have so many enriching experiences!

Alison is currently loved by two black labradors, a chocolate labrador and a siamese cat.

Chantal: Admin

Chantal first became involved in dog sports a number of  years ago, when she started taking nosework classes with her Border Collie Shelby. From there she met so many wonderful people, that she couldn’t help but become more involved. She also started taking agility classes with her Australian Shepherds, and has actively competed in nosework whenever the chance has arisen. Chantal looks forward to continuing to make connections with other dog sport enthusiasts, and can’t wait to see what the years bring!

Chantal currently has two Australian Shepherds (a red merle and a black tri), a Border Collie (red), and a sassy orange tabby nicknamed McPudd. She also spends quite a bit of time outside with her farm animals. 

“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell everyone about my precious special skye terrier, Skye. We bought Skye from what we later found out was a puppy mill out of Quebec. She came to us very sick, in fact almost dying in the first week. She was so sick, and I loved her so much I carried her around her first 48 hours not knowing if she was going to make it or not. Well, she did, but we soon found that she was a damaged dog due to abuse and I was the only person she truly trusted. How I loved that little girl! She was so afraid, and bit, hating anyone coming near me. Eventually she let in my husband, and my sister but that was it.

We wanted Skye to be all she could be so we enrolled her in your obedience class when she was 6 months old. What a wonderful time we had and you helped Skye so very much! She did socialize with other dogs as long as I was by her side. What you taught us to help Skye was nothing short of a miracle. She became a different dog, still damaged, but not as worrisome. Without your training classes Skye would not have made it the 4 years we had her.

Thank you for what you did for this dear little dog. You are nothing short of a miracle worker!

Skye had 4 good years of love from me, and if not for you, it would have been much less. Thank you for having such fun interesting classes, they made the difference Skye needed. 

~ Betty and Skye