Elise McMahon
Head Trainer/Behaviourist
Elise has been working in animal behaviour with both domestic and wild canids since the early 1990s. Elise has worked with a number of captive and wild canids including crab-eating foxes in Venezuela, African wild dogs at the Philadelphia Zoological Garden, and grey wolves at Wolf Park. She began working with domestic dogs in Philadelphia, PA where she worked at the Veterinary Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania in the Behaviour Clinic. She held a position there for 2 years and while there Elise co-developed a Puppy Problem Prevention Program with Lois Hall. During this time Elise was also studying Animal Behaviour and Learning at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as working with a local trainer, Steve Lindsay. Elise and Anne Marie Forde developed the Puppy Head Start program which is implemented in classes at Canine Head Start. Prior to moving to Massachusetts where she pursues her Ph.D. in Animal Behaviour, Elise worked as an animal behaviour consultant. Since 1996 Elise has been located in Montage, MA. After completing her fieldwork on Chilean foxes, she opened her training center and began providing both private and group classes, as well as individual evaluations and consultations.
Elise believes that anyone working in the field of dog training and behaviour must have a solid knowledge of animal behaviour and learning theory. Her work is based on positive reinforcement and behaviour modification training.
Elise shares a home with Christian Munoz Donoso, a cinematographer, and four Briards. Elise enjoys working in agility, obedience, rally, herding and conformation with her dogs.
Canine Head Start is located in Montague, MA on a 55 acres farm. Classes are held indoors and outdoors in a large fenced in area and the surround property. Come and join us train in this beautiful setting.
Olga Botcharova
Intern
Olga developed a passion for training dogs 25 years ago when dog training, as a profession, did not yet exist in Russia, outside of a circus ring. Encouraged by the early success with her own pets. At every opportunity, Olga began to enthusiastically train the pets of all of her friends (and friends’ friends). She read anything she could find about dogs, cats and other animals but with literature on pet training almost non-existent there, she had to continue sharpening her skills creatively “experimenting on humans”. With her degrees in liberal arts and social psychology from two leading universities in St. Petersburg she worked in the Management Training Center at the St. Petersburg University at the time as a group trainer for business leaders to help them to improve their cross-cultural communication skills.
After moving to the Western Massachusetts, Olga took the opportunity to resume her work with dogs – pet sitting, pet walking, showing, breeding (here are tons of pictures of the cutest pups: http://europoodles.blogspot.com) and training. She is a member of the AKC Poodle Club of Massachusetts and American National Apricot and Red Poodle Club. Her own miniature poodles are certified Canine Good Citizen and therapy dogs. For the last few years, Olga began to assist Elise in some of her training classes. She is both an intern and student at Canine Heads Start.
Erica Coutu
Intern
I first began learning about animal behavior and canine obedience training through taking various classes with my two Labrador retrievers, Douglas and Winston. While Douglas was not the studious type, Winston was and it was through my work with Winston that I quickly developed an interest in wanting to become a professional trainer. At Canine Head Start I have had the opportunity to work with numerous breeds in all levels of obedience training. I received my B.A. in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. I have had my work published in Just Labs Magazine and would like to do more writing in the future on animal-related issues. In my free time I enjoy spending time with Winston, my constant companion.
Intern
Kim lives and works at The Farm School in Athol, MA. She is the mother of two young girls, and a two-year-old Brittany, all of whom provide ample opportunity to employ behavioral modification! Kim has been working with both pets and livestock since childhood, and she is increasingly fascinated by the rewards of positive reinforcement methods of training.
She looks forward to learning more about canine behavior and the canine/human relationship.