We’ve built the best team.
(not that we’re biased…)
About the owner
Sara Brueske KPA-CTP has been training dogs since she was just 11 years old. Falling in love with watching dogs play sports like frisbee and agility, Sara knew she wanted to pursue dog training as a career from an early age. She began that career by entering the pet-industry at just 16 years old. Having experience working in grooming, the veterinary and hospitality fields, Sara began her career as a professional dog trainer in 2010.
Sara now teaches other dog trainers world-wide via online classes and in-person seminars and conferences. She loves to develop unique motivational-based techniques to help further the bond between dog and handler so they can be successful in a variety of applications. Sara has worked with sport dog teams in nearly every sport as well as with protection, search and rescue and detection dog teams.
In 2014, Sara and her family moved from Minnesota to Missouri to work for Purina as a dog trainer. Her team of dogs performed daily for audiences and they traveled all over the country promoting responsible pet care to thousands of people. Sara also launched the Adoptable Pets Program at Purina Farms during this time, helping hundreds of pets find their forever homes. This partnership with Purina has continued: Sara and the Happy Dog Lodge are both sponsored by Purina Pro Plan.
Sara continues to compete with her dogs, winning many titles in agility, dock diving, nosework, protection sports and has multiple international champions in disc dog. Sara also continues her passion for helping rescue dogs by fostering, training and finding them their perfect homes.
Emily Sanford
Day Camp Trainer
Hello! My name is Emily, and I have just over 6 years of experience in the dog industry. From daycare, boarding, veterinary assisting, and now training! I love helping families create better relationships with their pets, as well as training fun games and enrichment activities for our furry friends. I adopted my first personal dog, Krys, July of 2023. He has taught me so much about the dog’s mind and how to better communicate. He loves learning new tricks, running, chasing, shredding, rollerblading with me, and all the fun stuff most dogs love. He will be starting agility foundations, as well as learning disc. He is so incredibly loyal and the best boy I could ever ask for, I cant wait to continue this journey with him!
Skye Piersz
Day Camp Trainer
Trainer Skye is an Isanti County resident stewarding a small holding of woods, fields, waterways and farm critters, including horses, sheep and geese. She Competes in agility and AHBA herding with a personal pack of herdy-type dogs ranging from CattleMutts, Border Collies, a few tiny dogs and a Koolie. Skye holds a special interest in sport foundations, and building trusting partnerships between dog and human.
Paige Curtis
Trainer
Paige found a passion in dog training at the age of 15, when she started volunteering at her local animal shelter. She collected as many trick training books as she could and taught simple tricks to the shelter dogs. This quickly grew to training her own family dogs, friends’ dogs, and neighbor’s dogs as many tricks as she could think of. After moving to Missouri from Mississippi, Paige began working at Purina Farms and became immersed in the world of dog sport. She fell in love and began competing with her own dogs. At Purina Farms, Paige found a rewarding job in training the adoptable shelter dogs that were housed there, teaching them basic obedience and fun tricks in order to help make them more adoptable. She also performed with her own dogs in the daily shows at Purina Farms, demonstrating canine sports to hundreds of guests a day. Paige competes in the sports of agility, disc, dock-diving, and nosework with her two Australian Koolies, Bandicoot and Betcha.
Ashley Haynes
Kennel Tech/Assistant Trainer
Ashley Haynes has owned and trained her own dogs for 12 years and has been training dogs professionally for one year. She is passionate about building the bonds between owners and dogs and helping them live harmoniously together. Ashley has three dogs: an Italian Greyhound, a German Shepherd, and an Australian Cattle Dog mix. She plans to compete in agility, disc dog, and herding.
