Our Team
Chelsey
Founder
Head Trainer/Behavior Specialist
Chelsey decided early in her career to follow her love for dogs and studied dog training and canine psychology. Chelsey attended schooling and hands-on training for 2 years under the tutelage of two different top rated training programs - being exposed to a wide variety of dogs and behaviors. She quickly recognized that some dogs need more than basic obedience and started immersing herself into behavior modification where she perfected more advanced techniques to help address behavioral issues.
For 10 years she has pushed herself to becoming an expert in many different training methods in order to be able to effectively manage more difficult cases, such as: counter conditioning, desensitization, habituation, Behavior Adjustment Training, Constructional Aggression Treatment, LAT Protocol, Relaxation Protocols, TBTE Triad Protocols, confidence boosting techniques, stress coping mechanisms and Cooperative Care for Vet visits and groomer handling.
Tony
President
Tony has vast experience building serviced-based companies. He has founded and grown two companies in the medical industry, helping hospital systems improve efficiencies within their operating rooms. By challenging the status quo of the medical industry, he was able to create new solutions, previously never attempted.
After years of building his own companies, he joined Chelsey in helping her create a new standard in the dog training industry. He’s passionate about focusing on the customer experience, and ensuring processes are in place that create the best possible outcome for you and your dog.
Lynne
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Behavior Assessment Specialist
Lynne has been training dogs professionally since 1985. Her experience and accolades are among the most impressive you'll find anywhere in the country.
Lynne has been a certified dog trainer with the International Association of Canine Professionals since 2004, as well as NADOI certified. Both are prestigious national certifications. She is also an AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator.
She has trained thousands of dogs in her career, holding a number of impressive positions including being Head Trainer at California K9 where she worked alongside the top trainers in the world on a regular basis. She spent time as a studio animal trainer, training and working on studio sets for commercials, television and movies and has even worked at Six Flags Magic Mountain performing in the Animals in Action show!
Lynne also has a profound competition record in dog sports including Schutzhund/IPO where she earned multiple titles with a dog she trained personally, as well as IPO3 titles. She then competed in SDA (now WDA) earning multiple wins. She also served as training director for both Der Hundesport Performance Klub then Desert Winds Working Dog Association. She then went on to form her own multisport team and led several students to the titles of their own.
On top of all of that, she also is an Animal Behavior College mentor trainer where she also worked as their Externship Coordinator, while acting as subject matter expert and writing major curricula.
While her experience is quite extensive, Lynne is extremely passionate about utilizing her knowledge to help people understand their dogs behavior in order to unlock a happy and healthy relationship with their best furry friend. Most importantly she is warm, kind and energetic. She loves talking dogs and is absolutely amazing at helping people understand the root causes of their dog's behavior. We are so happy to have her as part of our team!
Rebecca
Behavior Specialist
Being a Behavior Specialist for over 20 years, Rebecca has seen and worked with almost every imaginable scenario in dog training. She loves working with dogs that have tried “every other option” and yet still seem to be “stuck” in their bad behaviors. Before joining Command Canine, Rebecca had her own business for 15 years, working with dogs from all over the country. She worked with some extremely challenging cases, including working with one of the dogs rescued from Michael Vick and rehabilitating him into a therapy dog.
“I don’t believe there are bad dogs, just bad behaviors. All behavior is moldable, they just need to be taught how.” Rebecca is also actively the Behavior Specialist for a Great Dane rescue - training all of the foster parents and adoptive parents in order to start the dogs down the path of rehabilitation. Today she lives with her husband and dog "Buckley" on a farm in Mooresville. When she isn’t working with dogs, Rebecca is working with her other passions; working with veterans and tutoring disadvantaged children.
Sydney
Obedience/Behavior
While completing her neuroscience degree at Temple University, Sydney worked as a dog walker and pet sitter where she discovered her love for working with animals. After college, she began her career as a behavioral neuroscience researcher for 2 years before she realized that wanted to get back to working with animals.
"I knew I needed to find a way to combine my love for dogs with my education in behavioral neuroscience."
She was able to find her passion by working as a full time dog trainer in Philadelphia for 2 years with one of the region's leading dog training companies, working with dogs of all types of obedience and behavioral needs. Her love of dogs along with her understanding of neurology brings a very unique understanding of how dogs think and act.
When Sydney isn't training dogs, she is out hiking with her golden-doodle, Piper. She also loves riding horses. We are very fortunate to have Sydney on the Command Canine team.
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Maggie
Obedience/Behavior
Coming from an academic family and having a passion for dogs, Maggie aspired to be a veterinarian early in life. However she quickly realized that being a vet wasn't the right fit for her. So she found herself detouring away from her love for animals, and attending Oberlin College in Ohio, graduating with several majors, none of which were related to animals.
During college, Maggie adopted her first rescue, Ryder, which was extremely under-socialized. Working to help Ryder become a mentally healthy and happy dog reignited her desire to work with dogs for a living, which convinced her to pursue a career working with animals.
Maggie began working at the largest doggie daycare in Cleveland, and by 2013 she assumed the role of General Manager. Maggie loved every bit of her daycare experience, but also found herself wanting more - more challenges, more opportunities, more ways to positively impact dogs. In 2015, Maggie was offered the opportunity to mentor with a professional dog trainer with over 40 years of experience. This opportunity quickly fulfilled many of the things she’d been looking for, and she spent the next six years working closely with seasoned trainers and helping as many dogs and families as possible, before moving to Charlotte in 2021 for the next step in her training career.
Since then, Maggie has trained hundreds of dogs, focusing primarily on behavior modification and obedience cases. Additionally, she has experience training service dogs, therapy dogs, object retrieval and personal protection dogs.
In her free time, Maggie enjoys baking (always vegan!), board games, hiking with her pack, and spending time with family and friends, especially her adorable toddler nephews.
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Shanty
Obedience/Behavior
Growing up with English Mastiffs and Poodles, Shanty has always been very involved with dogs.
She paid her way through college by caring for and training dogs. After graduating she began volunteering with shelters such as PSPCA and taking in behavior/rehabilitation cases. She worked closely with the behavior team to help dogs work through trauma and become good candidates for adoption.
Working with shelter dogs inspired her to become more educated and experienced in the field in order to help people understand their dog’s behavioral challenges and find ways to work through them so owners didn’t feel they had re-home their dog.
“I love digging deeper into why dogs act or react the way they do. I believe helping dog owners understand the way dogs think and interact with our world is key in having a long lasting happy and healthy relationship with their pets.”
While working as dog trainer in Philadelphia, she gained a ton of experience working with dog with behavioral issues, as well as working with obedience. She developed and lead classes in a wide range of subjects; including puppy seminars, STAR Puppy, Canine Good Citizen, obedience and trick training.
She is a Canine Good Citizen test administrator for the AKC, and a member of a competitive dog training club, actively competing in conformation, dock diving, and ACK scent-work.
When she isn’t training or competing, Shanty raises a working and show line Dogo Argentinos.
Justine
Obedience Specialist
Justine started her career in the dental field, working closely with children and adults. However, after seeing how dog training dramatically improved her relationship with her own dogs, she became obsessed with learning more about dog behavior and psychology. She decided to turn her passion into a career. After training and working with dog training companies, Justine eventually started her own dog training business, focusing on basic and advanced obedience. Joining Command Canine allows Justine to focus on doing what she loves most, while having a strong team to support her.
"I love to see the expression of my clients face when they see the change in their dog's behavior. It reminds me what got me into this industry in the first place. It makes me so happy to help people experience that same feeling I felt when they start a new relationship and bond with their dog."
