Our Instructors

Barbara Bekker holds a Ph.D in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania with a specialization in animal behavior. She was in private practice as a canine behavior consultant for 12 years, and her special area of interest is puppy development and training. She has been training for over 20 years through the utility level and was the sixth person to train a Portuguese water dog to the highest water trial title. She has chaired the Water Trial Committee of the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America, and taught water workshops locally for puppies and adults. In addition to teaching Kindergarten Puppy Training classes at Suburban, she teaches all-breed water sports in the summer at a dog camp in New York.

Barbara Doering, an AKC Novice and Open Obedience Judge, is Suburban's Training Director and also teaches Utility classes for SDTC. She has been training dogs for 12 years and has put 8 titles on them including an OTCH. She is affiliated with the National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors, and is a Certified Pet Dog Trainer.

Pat Foley teaches one of the Advanced Beginner classes and also the Show Handling class. She has many years' experience, a wealth of knowledge and if she ever submits her biography, there will be lots more about her here.

Tina Hatfield teaches the Beginner Obedience class. Our newest instructor, she has brought some innovative and effective training methods to the school. She has over four years of instructional experience gained while teaching obedience at Horsham Veterinary Hospital. In addition, Tina has over 15 years of experience in Competitive Obedience. She also participates in Agility, Tracking and Therapy Dog work. She believes that to be a successful dog instructor you need to use a variety of training methods because all dogs are different. She currently has two golden retrievers and an obedience trained cat.

Frank Nelson, who currenty teaches Novice and Open, has been teaching at SDTC since 1985. He began training German shepherd dogs in the late 1970s, then went on to rottweilers. He has put advanced obedience titles on six rotties, including one that became the number one obedience rottweiler in the U.S., and continued to rank in the top 10 until retired. Frank has put on training seminars for Colonial Rottweiler Club, for which he writes a monthly column on training and behavior, and is on call as a behavior consultant for the Colonial and the American Rottweiler Club. He is affiliated with the National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors.

Dottie O'Donnell is a retired schoolteacher who trained her first shetland sheepdog to American and Canadian Utility titles in the 1960's. She soon began teaching dog obedience classes and taught all levels of dog obedience in adult evening school, 4H classes, kennel club classes and private classes over the years.

She has shown her own dogs to over 40 titles in both breed and obedience in the United States and Canada and has titled a number of friends' dogs as well.

Dottie is currently a member of NADOI - the National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors, and of APDT - an international association of pet dog trainers, and of several local training clubs. She has written for several dog-related periodicals and has attended seminars led by most of the noted dog training authorities of the past and present.

Dottie has worked with dogs of every one of the seven AKC variety groups, although she now concentrates on dogs from the toy group. She is involved in rescue, animal-assisted therapy, and showing her own little guys in obedience and rally trials.

Jeanne-Anne Polichetti teaches the Rally Classes and has completed the Obedience CDX and the Rally RAE with her Great Pyrenees. She has been an Officer on the Board and is now a member of the Training Committee at Suburban. Jeanne-Anne is also a director for the Penn-Dutch Great Pyrenees Club.