Aries Maiden
trainer, kennel

Lindsay Carlson
business coordinator, trainer

We first met Aries as a little girl and knew right then and there she would grow up to work with animals. Aries helps run our playgroups and train our puppy day camps. She can frequently be seen holding a shy puppy in her coat for extra confidence building. 

Aries started her studies at Michigan State University in the fall, where she hopes to study to become a veterinarian. In her free time, she dances with Imprint Dance Company.

Lindsay graduated from Central Michigan University in 2009 with her Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and Biology. In her degree program, Lindsay studied animal learning and volunteered in a rat and pigeon behavior laboratory, deepening her interest in and knowledge of learning and behavior. After graduation, Lindsay worked in the veterinary field for a few years before leaving to pursue education, working as a special education paraprofessional and as an elementary teacher. When an opportunity to work with canine and human learners presented itself, Lindsay jumped at the opportunity!
Lindsay is so excited to be at A Pleasant Dog teaching dogs and their human handlers and is eager to help people deepen their relationship, communication with, and understanding of their canine companions. Lindsay is pursuing her CPDT-KA certification and completed her FPPE license and looks forward to helping people and their pets grow together! In addition to working on our training team Lindsay also coordinates our human team and heads up our internship program.

Cole Sweda,
Trainer

Cole graduated from Calvin University with a degree in social work and psychology. He has always taken interest in caring for others, whether pets or people. Cole found APD first as a client, but quickly took interest in the methods and science behind dog training. After interning at APD to hone his skills, he is excited to be joining our team as a trainer. Cole is currently pursuing his CPDT-KA. In his free time, Cole likes to cook, play fetch with his dog, Claude, and hang around the house doing a whole lot of nothing.

Alex Dunn
Trainer

Alex cannot recall a time when she did not have a dog in her life. She has always grown up with small and large dogs. Once she completed her Master's in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, she knew it was time to raise her own puppy. She rescued a sweet, little border collie mix at that time and discovered A Pleasant Dog. 

Emmy is different from any dog Alex had in the past. She had anxiety, so Emmy started researching more and more about positive reinforcement training to provide Emmy with the most secure, loving and happy life possible. Emmy has given Alex so much purpose. Not only can she help teach kids in schools, but she discovered her passion for helping dogs learn as well. 

Alex and Emmy are involved in a variety of dog sports including without limitation disc, agility, and nosework. They love going on adventures to new places to hike. In her free time, Alex also enjoys playing soccer, listening to music, and traveling with friends and family around the world! 

Tara Atkinson,
CPDT-KA(she/her)
Trainer

Tara has always had a drive for helping people and pets. She graduated from Saginaw Valley State University with degrees in Psychology and Criminal Justice. After working in pet retail for two years, she fell in love with training. Tara is compassionate, empathetic, and bright. She believes all dogs, any breed or age, are capable of reaching their full potential. Tara lives in Holland and is part of our Lakeshore training team.

In her time off, Tara loves to spend time with her fiance, and their home zoo. With three dogs, two cats, a ferret, and fish, she's never short on things to do. She loves reading, advocating for human rights, true crime podcasts, cooking, and relaxing evenings with friends. 

Roxanne Grady,CPDT-KA
(She/they)
Trainer
Stay + Train Manager

Roxanne grew up fascinated with horses and rode religiously for ten years. After her dog Oakley found her, though, her passion for dogs and training emerged. Oakley suffers from anxiety and separation anxiety, which drove Roxanne to study positive reinforcement and science based methodology to help him and others. Through this work she learned that science based methods were the only way she wanted to work with animals (and we love her for it).

Roxanne worked in doggy daycare for two years fine tuning her knowledge and skill in dog behavior and management prior to joining our team.

In her free time, she enjoys taking her dogs, Oakley and Timber on Decompression Walks, playing Fallout 76 with her partner, cooking and in summer, attending music festivals.

Virginia Brophy (she/her)
CPDT-KA & AKC Evaluator
Trainer 

Gin has a diverse background, but when she adopted her first dog, she discovered her passion and has been training ever since. Gin will try out any sport she can with her mixed breed rescue dog, Ferris, who is titled in Rally (RA), Lure Coursing (CA), Trick Training (TKP), Barn Hunt (RATN), Canine Musical Freestyle (W-FDX), and recently earned his C-ATCH title (CPE Agility Trial Champion). With Ferris and her other dogs, she has also dabbled in parkour, flyball, tracking, dachshund field trials, and disc. She is currently exploring the exciting world of Nosework with her dogs, and officializing some of her parkour training with her longhaired dachshund, Rizzo.

In addition to Ferris and Rizzo, Gin also owns a feral rescue dog Charlotte (beagle/rat terrier mix). She has a passion for shaping and confidence building, and loves watching for that moment when it just clicks and the dog starts to figure out what they are learning! Some of her favorite things to train are anything dog sport related, retrieves, and loose leash walking. Her mission as a trainer is to build trust and connection between dog and handler teams.

In her free time, Gin enjoys training and competing with her own dogs, renovating her home, and bird watching. 

Carlos Brown
LLMSW
Trainer

Carlos is awesome in so many ways. We first met him after working through a difficult foster dog case, and we knew he would be an asset to our team right away. He shares his passion for behavioral science with us by teaching classes and private lessons. Carlos is currently pursuing his CPDT-KA certification. We count ourselves very lucky to have him on our team.

Carlos is a social worker by day, which makes him an excellent people trainer. He is owned and loved by Rocky, his canine doppelganger, whom he adopted from Hearts of Hope. The two of them make an excellent team.

Pat Parker(She/her)
Trainer

Pat has been around dogs throughout her life. Beginning with training them for her father (a dog breeder) as a child and then teaching her first 4-H class at 15, her experience is varied and well rounded.

Pat has been training dogs in agility since 1996 with her first competitions in 1997. She has titled several dogs in conformation, obedience, and agility. Currently she trains regularly with Jen Pinder, international team member, regular contributor to Clean Run Magazine and internationally known agility instructor.

She loves to teach her agility students and loves for her students to do things they never could have imaged themselves doing. Her students have earned numerous titles in all venues. For Pat, teaching people and their pups life skills and agility teams to work together is the most fun thing you can do in life. 

Jenn Gavin, CPDT-KA, FPPE is the owner and founding trainer at A Pleasant Dog. She has been rescuing and training dogs for over twenty-five years. For the last ten years, Jenn has focused her practice on anxious and aggressive animals, and has become one of the most trusted trainers working with aggressive animals in our state. Jenn works extensively with veterinarians and veterinary behaviorists.

Jenn is passionate about learning and sharing what she has learned. She presents frequently to the training and veterinary communities. She has conducted research in animal behavior, and that research has been selected for presentation at the Veterinary Behavior Symposium by the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists.  Jenn has also been an invited speaker before the West Michigan Veterinary Medical Association, The American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, The Science of Animal Behavior Conference, West Michigan Therapy Dogs, and others. She has spoken on a variety of topics including "Helping Fearful & Aggressive Animals - It Takes A Village", with Kathy Sdao and Dr. Jill Sackman, DACVB; "Risky Business - Assessing and Managing Risk in Aggression Cases"; "How to Choose A Trainer" with Dr. Jill Sackman, DACVB; "Covid Puppies"; and "Body Language and Therapy Dogs" and more.
Jenn is a licensed Family Paws Parent Educator! She adores working with families and their dogs.

In her free time, Jenn enjoys camping and hiking with her family and their dogs. She has a thing for old houses and served on the Grand Rapids Historic Preservation Commission from 2017-2021. 

Jenn Gavin(She/Her)
Founder + Head Trainer

say hello to our pleasant people