ELISABETH "LIZ" CATALANO
Owner & Director of Behavior & Training
Liz has extensive experience teaching and developing specialty classes, including dog-to dog aggression classes and has created varied classroom curriculum to train dogs to all levels of performance. In addition to training dogs and their people, Liz has also mentored and provided instruction to trainers on learning theory, ethology, instruction skills, classroom management, and dog handling as part of a nationally recognized accreditation program.
Dedicated to continuing education, Liz routinely attends seminars, intensive study programs and operant conditioning workshops to enhance her knowledge and increase her skill. She has been mentored by the internationally known trainer Bob Bailey and was privileged and honored to have co-taught two seminars with him in 2017: Effective Coaching for People and Dogs, and Training Dogs and People Efficiently.
Liz is a regular contributing writer to Maryland Dog Magazine. She has also been published in APDT’s Chronicle of the Dog, a peer-review journal on the special considerations in training a deaf dog,“Pet Parent” Magazine, and appeared on NJ’s local Channel 12’s “Pet Stop”. Liz was a featured speaker at the 2011 Hunter College Psychology Symposium and at the 2012 International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants Educational Conference.
Liz’s own dogs are trained as a classroom demonstration dogs, are Certified Therapy Dogs, have earned titles in agility and obedience, Nosework and have even ‘played’ with sheepherding. Her dogs have appeared in books, calendars, commercials, fundraising campaigns and nationally-released training videos. When not training dogs, Liz works on her book and is an amateur photographer. She has enjoyed the company of multiple canine companions for many years and currently shares her life with her husband and their four deaf Australian Shepherds.
Liz is a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT), The International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC), The Animal Behavior Society (ABS) and an AKC Evaluator. Liz holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Management and a Graduate Certificate in The Advanced Psychology of Animal Behavior and Conservation from CUNY’s Hunter College.
