Tyler Obedience Training Club (TOTC)
We teach YOU to train your dog!
Tyler Obedience Training Club | PO Box 7396 | Tyler, TX 75711
TOTC Instructors
Mandy Bergakker
Mandy's love for dogs started at a young age with her family, raising chow chows and doing fun shows with her dog, Cooler Bear.
Mandy started her training journey in 2007 when she got her first Rottweiler puppy named Logan and became close friends with a trainer in Parma Michigan, this is where she fell in love with training and started competing in Schutzhund and personal protection trials with Logan!
Since moving to Texas, Mandy's love of training and dog sports has grown to include Agility, Dock Diving, Flyball and Fastcat!
Rich Imfeld
Rich received his first dog, an Aussie named Normandy in 1992. Not knowing what to do, he managed to get help and title her to a UDX.
By then he had caught the training bug and started with another Aussie, Niner who earned an ASCA OTCH2 and RTCH3. He also earned a UD and RAE in AKC. His current dog is James Dean, AKA Rebel who has been wonderful, earning his AKC UDX, OM1 and RACH. He has also has earned a ASCA OTCH RTX and RTCH in the past two years.
Rich is married to his wife Sheril for the last 32 (what's that in dog years?)years and the have 3 Aussies, Niner, Rebel and Pickles. His training philosophy is to learn as much as you can from as many as you can. Ask questions and many handlers will help you. Remember, at the end of training, you are still bringing your best dog home
Karen Pollard
Karen Pollard caught the training bug as a young child, teaching the family Golden Retriever a number of tricks. Throughout her life she has enjoyed training a number of different horses and dogs. She joined TOTC in 2018 to meet other dog people who also love spending time with their four-legged friends!
Karen currently has a Smooth Collie named Teddy and an Australian Shepherd/Lab mix named Captain. Karen and Captain compete in rally and obedience and have earned a Rally Master title as well as a Companion Dog title. Captain has his Canine Good Citizen, UD and also his Advanced Trick Dog title.
Karen lives in Tyler with her husband and two sons, who love to help train the dogs any chance they get.
Carly
Shotts-DeArmond
Carly Shotts-DeArmond is an avid dog sports lover born and raised here in Tyler, Tx. From doing agility for fun as a kid with TOTC to now competing and trialing, Carly LOVES to get new people into doing more with their dogs.
Carly currently owns a German Shorthaired Pointer named Archer who has multiple titles in a variety of different sports such as field trials, dock diving, barn hunt, agility, lure coursing as well as advanced CGCs and Trick Dog titles.
Carly and Archer are currently working on obedience and rally titles as he gets older, but still love to play all the high impact games!
Archer has attended several Dock Diving Championships, multiple years in a row with high placements and holds the record for one of the top 3 GSPs for extreme vertical.
"I'm here to encourage and show people you CAN do more than you think with your dog. Together, let's make them great"
Angela Hudson
Angela started training dogs when she adopted a border collie from the Athens shelter and wanted to get some manners on her new dog. Many classes and seminars later, along two agility championships and some obedience titles, the training bug took over.
Angela is a CGC and ACT evaluator with AKC. She lives in the Lindale area and teaches S.T.A.R Puppy, Canine Foundations and Canine Foundations 2 classes with TOTC.
Kim Paetzel
Kim Paetzel and Maxwell (Max) enjoy training for both Obedience and Hunt Trials. Max has his AKC Companion Dog title, a Junior Hunter title, a Trick Dog Novice title, and his Canine Good Citizen title. Kim has had four yellow labradors over the past 25 years (yellow labs are my breed), three (Hank, Gracie, and Radar) were certified with Therapet of Tyler and certified Reading Education Assistance Dogs, two (Hank and Radar) have also received their Companion Dog Excellence title and another his Junior and Started Hunt titles. Kim enjoys the different challenges that come with each dog and their unique personalities, including her one Lab Gracie with Dwarfism, but even Gracie worked and enjoyed being active out in the community. Helping teach different dog classes with TOTC, doing CGC Exams, and being involved in other fun dog activities continues to be a great way for Kim and Max to stay active in the local dog community. Training is about working together as a team to have fun and to keep the relationship positive.
Sonja Asido
Sonja Asido began her dog training journey in 1988, with a Yorkie, who excelled in its class and went on to earn Obedience titles.
In 2001, her dog training journey led her to join the Tyler Obedience Club with her new breed of choice: a Papillion. She and her dog Kiko earned not only a Utility title, but also competed in Rally; she has also competed in conformation with her Papillions. Her love of the breed grew into conformation and obedience. She was given the opportunity to train a Border Collie and took it. So needless to say, she was hooked on training.
Sonja has been a robust contributor to the Tyler Obedience clubs teaching classes, holding office and chairing committees; her efforts were recognized in 2023 with a lifetime achievement award.
Janell Dahms
Janell, from the age of 3 (where she tried to teach her boxer/Lab mix to read the comics), her life has been made better by many, many dogs. As an adult, she (along with her husband) trained and trialed Labs in AKC Hunt Tests and Field Trials, as well as hunted ducks, geese, grouse and pheasants with them.
Her current dog, a very petite Lab named Stormy, competes in both Obedience and Rally and has recently been certified at a therapy dog through Therapet.
Leslie Parks
Starting with the family dog, a schnauzer mix named Purdy, and homemade agility courses in
the front yard, Leslie has always had a passion for training dogs. She was raised around dogs,
mostly Toy Poodles, but when she got her first Standard Poodle, Riley, in 2020, Leslie
developed a love for the breed.
Leslie now has three standards, Marty, Loretta, and Sage. Sage has earned titles in FASTCat,
scentwork, as well as her Intermediate Trick Dog title. Marty has earned his Novice Trick Dog
title and she competes in agility with both Marty and Loretta.
Leslie is a CGC Evaluator with AKC, a Psychology major at UT Tyler and also serves on the
TOTC board as secretary.
Mary Dick
Mary has been teaching classes at TOTC for almost 15 years. She started out as a pet owner who wanted her Boxer, Toby, simply to have some manners.
Her four Giant Schnauzers, Zoya, Quest, Frankie, and Vince earned their conformation championships. Zoya was a certified therapy dog through Therapet of Tyler. She also made a star appearance and performed with the Tyler Junior College Apache Belles. All three have earned AKC Utility Dog titles. Frankie has also earned numerous AKC obedience titles including UDX4. She was the number one Obedience Giant Schnauzer in 2017. Mary and Frankie also competed at the AKC National Obedience Championship in 2019 and were also invited to compete at Westminster obedience every year since 2020.
Mary currently teaches Canine Foundations 1 and 2 and Companion Dog classes.