Libby Young is kennel manager and trainer for Doggie Rescue where she has been for over five years. She has a wealth of experience working with difficult behaviours including timid, fearful, aggressive and reactive dogs within the shelter and in adoptive homes. She runs puppy classes at Riverview Animal Hospital and Bilgola Vet and group training classes at several venues around Sydney. Libby also trains and handles dogs on set for TV and is currently under commission to train truffle detection dogs for the Australian truffle industry.
Libby has qualifications in dog behaviour, scent detection and puppy class instruction. She considers puppy class to be a major factor in keeping dogs out of shelters and is passionate about helping new puppy owners get started on a path that will prevent future problems for both owner and the dog. She has seen first hand the damage that ill-informed trainers and those with poor understanding of dog behaviour can cause and actively educates the dog owning community on the pitfalls of many methods advised both on the internet and on television by self styled dog behaviour 'experts'. She alerts people to the fact that dog training is an unregulated profession and how to identify a good trainer.
She is committed to further education and continually updates her knowledge by attending seminars and training camps both in Australia and overseas and constantly reads and researches the latest science and new information. She is dedicated to using modern, humane methods and keeping training fun for our dogs so they love it! She is an active member of APDT and Dogs NSW.
She has four dogs of her own, Hans the pug, Angel a Hungarian puli, Ray a rescued pug cross long haired chihuahua and Ben a rescued wolfhound cross who had such extreme fear of humans that he would physically injure himself to get away from them and was deemed 'unhomable'. He has given her a special passion for working with fear and reactivity.