Barb Mattes, owner and
training director of Coal
Dogs, has a solid reputation
in Northeast PA for
excellence in puppy training, basic and
competitive obedience, agility, AKC and TDI
evaluations, and various seminar offerings. She
bases her classes on over 2 decades of personal
experience, as well as utilizing the latest methods
and techniques from classes and seminars she
attends regularly in all venues she teaches.
Barb specializes in puppy training - providing
young dogs with the best foundation skills
necessary to achieve goals in basic manners in
the home and community. Creating good
training ethics in pups strengthens the bond
between the dog and handler, setting the path
for future activities and performance sports.
Some of these include: competition and rally
obedience, conformation championships, agility,
tricks, canine good citizen and therapy dog work.
Having earned a BS in elementary education,
Barb has always been driven to make her
students, human and canine, successful in every
skill they incorporate into their current level of
training. She achieves this by applying techniques
she has learned to make training fun and simple
to understand so every student can attain their
goals quickly.
Barb has achieved numerous personal
accomplishments with her dogs over the past
20+ years including breed championships in AKC,
UKC, CKC and International. Her dogs have
earned Competition obedience and Rally
obedience titles in AKC, CKC and APDT. Each of
her dogs in the past 20 years have been CGC -
Canine Good Citizen awarded/titled, as well as
TDI - Therapy Dog International certified/titled.
She also holds titles on her canine companions in
hunting and tricks. Barb’s English Setter dogs
have been featured in the J&J catalog, English
Setter Calendars (from 2008 to current year), and
International books on English Setters. They have
also been awarded multiple Championships and
Nationals Placements in CPE agility, HIT (High in
Trial) awards in AKC agility many years in a row,
participated in the Westminster Dog Show, AKC
Agility Invitationals, numerous CPE agility
nationals and English Setter specialty dog shows
with prestigious wins.
As training director of Coal Dogs, Barb has been
annually awarded the Best of the Abingtons -
Readers Choice award for Best Dog Trainer from
2012-2017.
Barb Mattes has been an evaluator for AKC to
promote their AKC S.T.A.R. puppy and Canine
Good Citizen programs for over a decade. Her
goal for each student is to achieve the CGC
certificate/title so every dog owner confirms they
are a responsible owner/dog team, proud to be
in the community.
She has also been an evaluator for Therapy Dog
International (TDI) for over a decade, training
dogs for the skills necessary to become a therapy
dog. All of Barb personal dogs have been
Therapy Dogs since 1996 when her first English
Setter HOLDYN proved how rewarding it was to
give love to every person, young and old, willing
to accept it. Therapy Dog work with the elderly
and children with challenges has proved to be
the most rewarding volunteer work for Barb and
her dogs.
An accomplished photographer, writer and
seminar/workshop speaker, Barb’s enthusiasm
for dog training excels far and beyond others.
Her certification in Reiki 1, Animal Reiki and
Animal Communication prove her love and
dedication towards all animals and humans.
Endless hours of communication with students
who are in need, class reports with handouts, a
full sense of humor during training sessions,
have students coming back and referring their
friends to this family-like positive training
atmosphere that is so successful.
Barb's favorite statement is: “I train the student,
not the dog. I train MY dogs, because they live
with me. It is my students job to transfer the info
I present to them in each session to their
personal dog training routine. If they can do that,
they will become wonderful dog trainers with the
capability achieving all their goals for their canine
companions!”
MEET THE TRAINER
WNEP TV Paul Epsom visits Coal Dogs
with his pup Lilly to begin her agility training.