Kellye McMaster
Kellye McMaster has been competing in, training, and teaching dog Agility for 22 years. She has taken 3 of her dogs to AKC nationals, and has competed in AKC, USDAA, UKI, and NADAC competitions. Prior to teaching Agility in the Austin area, Kellye worked at a kennel board and train program and eventually owned her own training facility in Waco. She is a retired math teacher of 25 years and uses a logical step by step process to teach dogs that she learned from teaching math.
Kellye’s experience comes from many years of participation, observation, and attending seminars on a variety of subjects with leaders in the dog training industry. Kellye is a problem solver and takes a scientific approach to training dogs. She believes in teaching layers of skills with a positive reinforcement-based training system. For Kellye, the joy of training dogs is more important than any competition.
Interests
Kellye has had 4 agility dogs: Jangles (sheltie), CJ (border collie), Jig (border collie), and Skye (border collie).
Kellye has received a MACH title on her dog Jig, qualified 3 of her dogs for AKC Nationals numerous times, and holds many advanced titles on all of her dogs. She has competed in AKC, UKI, NADAC, and USDAA and all of her dogs hold numerous titles in most of those venues as well.
Qualifications
Kellye is in a constant state of learning and her training methods are always evolving. She has studied under many trainers including Susan Garrett, Susan Salo, Hannah Gilbert, and Justine Davenport. Currently, she is studying Canine Fitness and is attending online courses with Bobby Lyons and Anna Leigh Sanders.
Kellye’s training style is most influenced by Susan Garret, and she follows many of her systems of teaching. Kellye was fortunate enough to attend all of the seminars that Susan Garrett taught in Texas and was a part of Handling 360 and Agility Nation when they were first created. Her favorite quotes from Susan Garrett are; "Transfer what the dog loves into what I want them to love." And "Play small to play big."
Kellye shares that working the board and train program at the kennel in Waco was a very influential time for the development of her career. She says, “I really went through a discovery period during that time. They were nice enough to let me do it my way, and it really paid off for those dogs. I usually got the difficult dogs, too. Those dogs were my teachers! They were so successful when I gave them back to the owners!”