Instructor & Life Member
Carole Bryant has been a DogsNSW (formerly RNSWCC) qualified dog obedience instructor since 1968 and is a Certificate IV Behavioural Dog Trainer (Delta Society CGC Instructor). She has been a member of Grafton Dog Obedience Club since 1973.
Carole is also an accredited Tellington TTouch practitioner (Companion Animals) and an Australian Traditional Medicine Society (ATMS) accredited Naturopath who works with people, pets and livestock. She has a special interest in using natural therapies to improve behaviour and performance in animals.
She occasionally breeds German Shepherd Dogs under her Tristania prefix and over the years has competed with her dogs in Obedience, Rally, Tracking, Track & Search, Agility, Jumpers, Herding and Endurance competitions, and occasionally shows her dogs.
Carole’s animal “family” includes dogs, cats, birds and poultry and previously included horses, donkeys, goats, sheep, cattle and rabbits. Her property is basically a retirement village for aged, infirm and unwanted animals.
Other interests include walking, swimming, kayaking, art, jewellery making, cooking, the environment – and anything else arty & crafty. She plans to live to 100 to do all the things she still wants to do.
![Judy[1]](/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Judy1.jpg)
Senior Instructor & Life Member
Judy has been training dogs since 1966 and currently competes in Obedience, Rally, Agility, Jumpers, Tracking, Endurance, Herding and Conformation with her German Shepherd Dogs. She has an RNSWCC (now DogsNSW) Obedience Instructor’s Certificate and has been instructing Obedience, Rally, Tracking and Agility/Jumpers classes for the Grafton Dog Obedience Club for over 20 years
Judy’s most recent German Shepherds include:
Dual Ch (T) Tristania Derniere Nee CDX, AD, JD, HT, ET
Dual Ch (T) Tristania Emelyne CD, RN, AD, JD, HAS(s), ET
Dual Ch (T) Tristania Fionuir Aodh CCD, RAE, AD, JD, PT, ET
Aust Ch Tristania Heilyn RN, ET (Heidi is currently training for obedience, tracking, agility/jumpers and herding)
A personal highlight for Judy was to be presented with an Outstanding Achievement Award by The German Shepherd Dog League Inc for her successes in training her dogs.
Instructor
Mandy has bred, trained and competed with her kelpies (under the prefix Callicoma) for 28 years and owned kelpies for years prior to that.
Her dogs have attained over 125 titles in agility, obedience, rally, scent work, conformation showing, tricks, dances with dogs, herding, and endurance. Mandy has been a Dogs NSW qualified dog obedience instructor since 1994 and has a Certificate IV in Behavioural Dog Training (Delta Society CGC – 2001). She has a Bachelor of Science (Honours) majoring in zoology which she applies to her training and
breeding. She is also a trainer and assessor for the national assistance dog program – “mindDog”, and an assessor for “Story Dogs”. Mandy is a strong advocate of positive reinforcement training and believes you can train any dog, you just have to figure out how to explain to them what you want them to do.
Little steps and lots of rewards is the way to go.
Chief Instructor & Life Member
As I reflect it is evident I have lived in a household where there were dogs almost all my life. The breeds I have owned have usually been a minority breed and I have loved them. I didn’t own my own dog until 1975 after our marriage when we bought our first French Bulldog Diwali Beau Pierre, fondly known as Beau.
We had moved into our own home and decided it was time to have a dog. I went searching for a British Bulldog and acquired a French Bulldog puppy. I bought Beau as a pet. When I visited the local Pet Store for supplies Dianne Bremner (the proprietor) invited me to bring my puppy to Obedience classes and to show him. We joined GDOC and began Obedience classes, our instructor was Barry King. We also joined Clarence Kennel Club and became involved in breed showing, we are still members of both clubs to-day.
Click here to see Mary’s full profile
Instructor
Yvonne grew up on a farm in Switzerland where she had all sorts of animals including dogs. She first attended the local dog club in Switzerland with a Bernese Mountain Dog where they had success with obedience training.
Yvonne has also successfully competed with both dogs Flash and Yana in Tracking, Rally and Agility. Rally and Agility are her favourite dog sports. Yvonne became an instructor in 2007 and gained a Certificate as Pet Obedience Trainer.
These days she just enjoys teaching young dogs and the handlers Basic Obedience and passing on her knowledge in agility training as she finds it very rewarding seeing dogs successfully passing the basics and joining the higher classes.
Instructor, President
Jenny has been a member of the Grafton Dog Obedience Club for well over ten years, initially handling and training her own Border Collies, and has been an instructor with the club since 2007. Jenny’s philosophy is that you “never stop learning” and is always keen to learn more by attending various workshops (e.g. tracking, tricks and herding clinics). Prior to joining the GDOC, Jenny had not experienced positive reinforcement training. She believes that this approach produces better results as the dogs are happy and choose to perform for you. Jenny particularly enjoys teaching new handlers and watching their dogs progress from unmanageable to lovely companion dogs.
Jenny has experience trialing her dogs in Obedience, Rally and Tracking. Her Border Collie, Zeke, attained his Tracking Championship Title, two qualifications in Novice Obedience and his Herding Instinct Pass. Pebbles, another Border Collie, also attained her Herding Instinct Pass, Tracking Championship and Community Companion Dog Titles. Jenny is currently working with Jazz – pictured (another Border Collie!) towards her Tracking Dog Excellent Title and is looking forward to competing in the new Tricks trials in 2020.
Angela Clark
Instructor
Angela cannot remember a time in her life without a dog. Growing up her constant companion was a little Australian Fox Terrier cross called Jolly. Angela would rush home from school to teach her new tricks. The only down side to their relationship was once when Angela decided to see if she could swim. and put her in the garden pond. Luckily Jolly was saved by Angela’s mother and wen on to live on to live to the great age of seventeen.
He next dog was a yellow Labrador called Lisa who was a failed Guide God. Lisa often attended university lectures and wen to work with Angela at the research farm at Ingleburn where Angela worked after university.
Angela joined GDOC in 1981 when she moved from Sydney to Grafton with he six month old puppy Poky, a German Shepherd Samoyed mix. Poky was a very clever little dog who soon learnt the skills necessary to graduate as an obedience. Later when mixed breeds were allowed as “Associate Register” dogs Angela registered Poky and started competing in obedience. Angela still has the prizes Poky won back in the 80’s.
After a break from training (but not dogs) while her son Scott was young Angela rejoined GDOC so her son could train their Labrador Kayok. Kayok was a beautiful soul who competed in obedience, rally and agility. He was a wonderful ambassador for the club, doing lots of met and greets at demonstration days, when he used to bow to the audience.
After retirement Angel had time to indulge her love of training and competing with dogs as well as travelling to workshops covering scentwork, tracking, obedience and rally.
A university degree in science and animal behaviour and a teaching background have drawn Angela to especially love the science behind scent related dog sports. At present she has two Labradors competing very successfully in tracking and scent work as well as rally, obedience, agility and tricks. Angela has completed Vicki Austin’s Puppy Class Instructors Course and since 2023 is an accredited ANKC Scentwork Judge. She is also a GDOC instructor in scentwork.
Leisa Williams
Instructor
Leisa finds immense joy in the company of happy, smiling dogs, describing it as a wonderful experience she truly cherishes. Having been involved with dogs and dog sports for most of her life, she has grown up with and owned a wide variety of pure and mixed breeds. Over the years, Leisa has trained and competed in various dog sports, with a recent focus on scenting sports. She strongly believes in the power of positive training methods and reinforcement, encouraging others to share in the journey of enhancing both their own lives and those of their dogs.