Pet Trainer Spotlight - Erinn

PetSmart’s trainers are highly skilled and specialized at their craft. Often, they hold many prestigious titles, accolades, and certifications that have taken hundreds and sometimes thousands of hours to complete. Meet Erinn, an Area Trainer at Store 2023.

Above: Erinn is pictured on the far right with her show dog, Torch, and two judges (left and center).

Erinn began her pet training journey when she was just 13 years old, assisting a family friend with show dogs.

It was clear Erinn had a special talent for dog shows, since she won her first prestigious award only one year later, at the age of 14. She won a Specialty show (where dogs of all the same breed compete for titles) with her friend’s dog, which was especially impressive because this dog hadn’t participated in a show before. They won Best of Breed, meaning the judges deemed them the best performer out of all the competitors. Ever since, Erinn has been hooked on training dogs, and has continued showing dogs for the past 17 years.

Above: Erinn’s dogs, Torch and Cash, show off a few of their show ribbons and awards.

One of her favorite memories was winning Best of Breed at a National Specialty show with her dog, Torch, as a class dog. “Class dogs” are dogs that haven’t earned any titles yet. Torch had to be selected by the judge over every other dog in his class three different times before competing against experienced dogs who have held titles. Torch competed against 30 other dogs in the White Shepherd breed and won.

They also won High in Trial in 2019, a performance event where participants are scored while running a timed course. Torch entered his second-ever performance, and he was voted the fastest and most accurate dog out of all the breeds entered. That year, Erinn and Torch also earned their very first Best of the Best title, which means they were selected as the top dog of the weekend out of 200+ dogs in all of the other breed groups from the weekend.

Erinn loves working with all herding dogs but her favorite is White Shepherds. She also loves watching dogs figure things out and learn new tricks. One of her favorite tricks was teaching her dog, Cash, to fetch a Kleenex when somebody sneezed, then putting it in the garbage. Erinn encourages aspiring dog trainers to go out and explore the world of dogs. “We dabbled in so many tricks and challenges, ultimately finding where each dog thrived… It’s all about adapting and trying new ideas,” she said.

Erinn would do anything for her dogs, and she knows they would do anything for her too. Thank you, Erinn, for being a great example of Anything for Pets!