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!”

WNEP TV Paul Epsom visits Coal Dogs with his pup Lilly to begin her agility training.