Featured
Meet the Trainers at HROTC
Here at HROTC, our instructors are all dog owners, who have participated in many training classes with their dogs and have gone on to earn titles with their dogs in one or more areas of interest. They routinely take more classes to hone their skills and spend more time with the dogs they love.
Many of our instructors go to seminars to expand their skills for the classes they teach. Our trainers do not train dogs for a living. They are here solely to help you learn to train your dog and help create a deep bond with your dog based on friendship and fun!
Carol DeLuca
Contact Info: Click here to email
Breed: Shetland Sheepdog
Ever since I begged my parents for a dog as a child, I’ve had a dog my whole life. My first dog was a German Shepherd and then a black Lab was my friend through adulthood. For the past 25 years, I have owned Shelties. I love Shelties for their intelligence, loyalty, and desire to please. Oh, and their faces! Due to my condo rules, I can only have one dog at a time or I would have plenty more. I recently lost my 11 year old bi-color Sheltie named Mr. Right. I now have a sable Sheltie named Blaze.
Mr. Right had earned a few titles for himself - Agility and Rally, Achiever Dog, and all levels of trick dog up to Trick Dog Performer. He had his CGC (Canine Good Citizen), CGCA (CGC Advanced), and was a registered Therapy Dog for over 9 years. We visited nursing homes and other facilities, and for most of his years as a Therapy Dog, he participated once a month in the city’s Pawsitive Reading Program at the Virginia Beach Libraries. I'm hoping to have Blaze follow in his pawsteps and become a Therapy Dog as well.
I’m an AKC evaluator and qualified to train and test for AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy, AKC Canine Good Citizen and Trick Dog. I am also an ATT Judge and an AKC Fit Dog Instructor. I have an ACSA certificate in Working with Reactive Dogs.
I enjoy helping dogs learn basic manners. A well-behaved dog can do more, enjoy life more, and have more fun. Let’s not forget the other side of the relationship – the owner. I have had a lifelong involvement in training and teaching people. I have a Bachelors Degree in Education and Psychology and a Masters Degree in Computer Science. My whole life I have enjoyed teaching children, college students and adults as an elementary school teacher, college teacher, social worker and software developer of training courses. Through all these experiences I have mastered training the other end of the leash and will help you to build better communication and a stronger relationship with your dog.
Marietta Marston (HROTC Training Director)
Breed: German Shepherd
Contact Info: Click here to email
I began training in NW 2016 due to the adoption of my reactive German Shepard Sadie. During this time frame, I had adopted another German Shepard Fawn who got into the NACSW within the 6 months of owning her she got her NW1 title. We moved into SW Nov 2016 when HROTC began holding AKC SW trials locally and both GSDs have excelled in SW with their titles. We have been enjoying the sport since and I eventually began teaching SW. For me one of the most important aspects for me is your knowledge is powerful thereby building confidence and understanding of your dog’s perspective vs human perspective. Because of my interest in achieving this goal I have taken quite a few on-line classes and webinars to complement the HROTC SW classes. From all these classes I have put together a class called Alert! From Trusting your Dog to Knowing your Dog. In the SW sport the saying “Trust your Dog” is used so much and it just never really resonated with me because I need the logic behind methods so I have also taken classes that would help me achieve more knowledge, understanding and confidence in both the handler and the dog thereby building a stronger team.
The classes and webinars are:
Filtering Through the Noise: Is my Dog on Odor or just being a Dog
Building Reliable Commitment to Odor
Pro Receipt Shaping Patterns for Interiors
NW Incredible Interiors & Confident Containers
Confidence & Stamina: Two Ends of a Training Spectrum
Alerts How to Develop and How to Avoid Dangerous Pitfalls
Alerts - Developing & Problem Solving
Essentials of Focus in NW
Developing the Essential Elements of Focus in Nosework
A Problem Solving Approach to Solve Reading Your Dog Problem
Reading Your Dog Series: Working with Multiple Hides
Reading Your Dog Series: Blank Search Areas
Assessing Hide and Search Difficulty
How Our Behavior Affects Dogs
Scent Puzzle Sampler
Loose Lease Walking
Canine Body Language
Dealing with the Bogeyman – Helping Fearful Reactive & Stressed Dogs
Workshops:
Search Like A Pro
Exteriors and the Wind (On the Eastern Shore)
Pet First Aid & CPCR Certification (valid until 2027)
While still working on Sadie’s reactivity in 207 both GSDs got their CGC, CGCA & CGCU titles as well as Sadie’s Novis Buried and Fawn’s Novis Container Titles. What a happy day especially for Sadie the SW classes had gradually built her confidence and now she had her first SW title as well as all 3 CGC titles.
2018 was even better and between the 2 GSDs they earned 13 titles that were a mixture of AKC Novis SW Containers, Interiors, Buried, Exteriors, Handler Discrimination, Trick and Achiever Dog Awards.
In 2019 Sadie and Fawn got their Advanced Containers as well as Novis and Intermediate Trick Titles. We have channeled down to only competing in one or two areas so can focus and train on those specifically.
We are presently working on Virtual Novice Rally Titles and are venturing into competing in Novice Obedience. AKC HROTC FAST CAT is another sport that my GSDs participate in. It is more for fun as they just absolutely love it. I like for my GSDs to be exposed to a variety of classes and situations and this is one of the great things about the HROTC is that our instructors teach a variety of different classes. I take advantage of this and put my GSDs in the classes: Trick, Flyball, Treball, CGC, Parkour, Novice Obedience, Rally, Agility, Dog Photography, Variety of SW Classes, SW Travel Classes and Loose Leash Walking.
I hope you enjoy the sport as much as I do and I look forward to seeing you
Michelle Kane
Contact Info: Click here to email
My name is Michelle Kane and I have been actively involved in dog sports for almost eight years. My black lab mix, Sasha, and I love participating in so many activities. We've taken agility classes, participate actively in dock diving and scent work, and have recently retired from Fast CAT. I get so much joy out of working with Sasha and participating in classes and sports and I hope to help others enjoy some quality time with their pups. 
Beverly McGhghy
Breed: Manchester Terrier, Chinese Crested
757-773-4282 or click here to email
I discovered AKC obedience trials in 1985 in Lincoln NE after taking my Sheltie “Lady” to an obedience class to learn not to pull me down the street. Lady got her CDX. Four more Shelties and a Manchester Terrier followed, with each acquiring their CD and various agility titles at the novice and open levels. My current Manchester “Riley” has his nosework NACSW Elite 1 title; AKC Scentwork SWM and SHDE; lure coursing CAA title; agility NA, NAJ, NAP and NJP titles; and AKC/UKC championships. We are currently working on rally and nosework/scentwork.
I am an AKC ScentWork Judge. I am also Pet First Aid and CPCR Certified until 2027.
Bernese Mountain Dogs
• Murphy 12/2/99-4/25/11 My heart dog.
• CH Shasta's Antidote to D Blues (Emma) CD RA CGC TDIA 1/2/02-5/08 Gone way too soon
• Shasta's Anodyne V Panther Mtn (Annie) RN BN CGC TDIA 6/8/08-
• Kaibab's Fortune Smilz On Me (Maya) CD RE CGCA HCT-s DD RATI 9/2/08-
Portuguese Water Dogs
• Seaworthy's Backstroke Boy (Dillon) RN CGCA CGCU JWC 6/18/14-
AKC/UKC Scent Work - Judge
UKC - SOPT - Evaluator & Rally Obedience/Obedience - Judge
WCR (World Cynosport Rally) - Judge
HROTC member since 1995
SPECIALIZATIONS
Scent Detection, Obedience, and Rally
PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
Dedicated canine sports professional with over 30 years of experience in performance and conformation. Expertise in training, trialing, and judging across multiple registries (AKC, UKC, WCR, NACSW). Established track record of adapting training techniques to the unique needs of individual dog-owner teams, centered on the philosophy:
"Dog training is not brain surgery."
Click here for detailed personal bio: Silke Satzinger Bio
Maria Schiefer
Breed: Rescue Pit Bulls
Contact Info: Click here to email
As a professional photographer, around 2009, I started photographing the dogs at local shelters to help them get noticed online. My husband and I adopted 5 dogs during that several year period, and I quickly realized I could do more by forming my own pit bull rescue.
I founded and operated Bully Advocate and Rescue Collective (BARC) for 10 years before recently turning it over to one of my fosters folks. Through the rescue, I worked with pretty much every local force-free trainer in the area, and with their guidance, I have become a huge advocate for science based training. Since turning over the rescue, I’ve been concentrating on learning and competing in multiple dog sports with my best boy, Bravo, who I adopted as a BARC puppy in 2018.
Bravo and I have taken over 40 training classes so far. Our favorites, hands down, have been the classes we’ve taken at HROTC! Positive Reinforcement is really the only way to go!!! (Science Rules!) This is how I eventually got sucked into…err…asked nicely…to teach Rally classes here, and I’ve recently taken over the Training Director position.
Bravo and I compete and have so far titled in Rally, Fast CAT, NADD (Diving Dogs), Scent Work, Barn Hunt, and we dabble in Agility. Bravo has his Advanced Trick Dog title, as well as his CGC and Farm Dog Certificate. Bravo is my high-drive soul dog! We are having so much fun together! You are welcome to follow our adventures on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FunWithBravo
Bravo, as of early 2024, is BARC’s Round of Applause RI FDC FCAT8 ACT2J SWA SCE RATO DJ DSX AJ ASA HDJ HDS CGC TKA. That’s 41 AKC titles so far, and I look forward to adding more letters after his name. I also look forward to meeting you and your dog in class soon!