Barbara Davis CDBC

President

Barbara Davis, CPDT-KA, CDBC, owner of BADDogsInc Family Dog Training & Behavior, is a certified dog behavior consultant. Barbara specializes in working with families to resolve serious behavior problems with their companion dogs; she also works extensively in rescue dog rehabilitation and integration with fosters and permanent placements. Her company also offers a wide range of individual, group and boarding training programs, as well as a comprehensive trainer development program.

Barbara is a Professional Member of APDT and holds a CPDT-KA from the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers. She’s an Advisory Board Member of AABP,and an AKC CGC evaluator.

Barbara has been a contributing columnist for the APDT Chronicle of the Dog’s "On Behavior”, which featured several of her challenging case studies. She’s also been featured as a contributor to the IAABC Journal.

Barbara has been actively involved in large breed dog rescue, and supports many canine rescue organizations in her region. She has served on the boards of two charitable foundations supporting large breed dog rescue and the local county animal shelter, and has accumulated 20 years experience volunteering for 3 local animal shelters.

Image: Barbara Davis and a Golden Retriever

Barbara’s been with IAABC since 2004, motivated to join by her desire to contribute to an organization poised to promote standards and professionalism in the field of animal behavior consulting. In her tenure with IAABC, she has served in a number of volunteer roles, including Regional Coordinator, Exam Committee, RPC/ARC, and Dog Division Chair.

Barbara lives in Corona, CA with her husband, Wayne, and the family’s three golden retrievers.

Dot Baisly CDBC CCBC CSBS

Executive Director

Image: Dot Baisly and a Smiling Bully Breed

Philip Sun

Secretary

Beyond a plethora of oddball skills and experiences, Philip joins the IAABC as a certified dog trainer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, but can also frequently be found in the shelters of Taiwan. Having grown up in Taipei, Philip is focused on further improving animal welfare programs among municipal shelters and private rescues. Stateside, Philip works with local and international rescues, hoping for the day when dogs no longer need to fly halfway across the globe to find a home.

A lifelong learner, Philip’s area of emphasis revolves around alleviating fear for his own Taiwanese mix, Alisa. Philip strives to further his mechanical skill and theoretical knowledge, with eyes set on becoming a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) with the IAABC. Besides animals, Philip is a reluctant activist, as well as a bonafide gearhead and music lover.

Image: Philip Sun and a Rescued Taiwanese Street Dog Relax in the Sun

Suzanne Turner CDBC IAABC-ADT

Vice President

Image: Suzanne Turner smiles while gently cuddling a patient mule

Suzanne has worked and volunteered within animal welfare and local communities for several years and has experience as a Board member of the oldest animal welfare organization in Australia (Est 1935). She also successfully managed a local shelter volunteer program of over 250 volunteers in accordance with the goals and vision of the organization. Suzanne was a clinic lead managing free kerbside clinic providing the community with free wellness examinations, vaccinations, and heartworm / combo tests for over 100 cats and dogs per event, and has been an Executive Committee member for a local not-for-profit sporting organization.

In addition to her experience of animal behavior and training, Suzanne has a Masters with Distinction in Engineering and Business Management and European Studies. She has worked internationally as a professional engineer and project management specialist for over 15 years and can bring on board knowledge and experience in project management, communications, financial management, compliance, stakeholder management, and extensive global experience. She also speaks fluent French, intermediate German, and very basic Japanese.

Barbara Deg CDBC

Treasurer

Barbara Deg has worked in some fashion in the animal and pet related industry since graduating as an Animal Health Technologist and becoming a Registered Veterinary Technician. Her experience has taken her from Nova Scotia, to Malawi, and back to Nova Scotia. She has worked with a variety of species from farm animals to companion animals. Barbara owns and operates Front N'Scenter Animal Behaviour & Consulting which works with clients and their pets, collaborating with their veterinary teams. She has also collaborated on educational projects delving into sporting scent detection and animal behavioural wellness. She currently sits on the Sporting Detection Dog Association Ombuds Committee and shares her life with 2 parrotlets, a budgie and 2 dogs.

Image: No Details

Dr. Erica Feuerbacher

Board Member At Large

Dr. Erica Feuerbacher is an Associate Professor in the School of Animal Sciences at Virginia Tech and director of the Applied Animal Behavior & Welfare Lab, where she focuses her research on dogs and horses. She also coordinates the online Masters program in Applied Animal Behavior & Welfare at Virginia Tech. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Florida in the UF Canine Cognition and Behavior Lab and her Master’s in Behavior Analysis at the University of North Texas in the Organization for Reinforcement Contingencies with Animals. She is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer. Her research focuses on understanding domestic animal behavior and learning from a behavior analytic perspective, using applied animal behavior to solve behavioral issues in dogs and horses, and identifying interventions that improve shelter dog welfare.

Image: Dot Baisly and a Smiling Bully Breed

She has published her research in a variety of scientific journals and has won awards for her research. She is passionate about humane, effective animal training, and working with owners, trainers, and shelter staff to improve our interactions with animals. She currently shares her life with her German shepherd, Iorek, Belgian malinois, Leica, her clicker-trained horse, Magic, four cats, and an assortment of barnyard animals.

Alice Chau

Board Member at Large

Alice Chau is a cat behavior consultant, writer, radio host, and educator. She speaks 4 languages: English, French, Cantonese, and Mandarin. She’s the founder of the longest-standing, award-winning pet sitting business in Ireland – Maow Care – and the founder of Ireland’s first cat-centric festival, Dublin Cat Fair. She’s also a Pet First Response instructor and Missing Animal Response Technician, and she’s working on a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Animal Behaviour.

During the pandemic, Alice obtained a Postgraduate Certificate in Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. She then used her new skillset to start an online school on cat behavior that helps the public to learn about all things feline. We look forward to having Alice’s expertise to help the IAABC reach a wider audience, especially in French-speaking and Chinese-speaking countries.

Image: Renee Hall and a Joyful Golden retriever heel as one in the obedience ring

Sara Ondrako CDBC

Board Member at Large

Image: Sara Ondrako proudly stands with a grey pit bull in a shirt that reads veterans and pit bulls

Sara is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant with a background in veterinary nursing. Sara began working with and learning about wild animals, zoo animals, and domesticated animals from an early age having family falconers, family farmers, and being naturally drawn to animals above everything (and everyone) else.

Sara's love for teaching sparked at age 12 when she became the youngest volunteer at a zoo where she was fortunate to have two very impactful mentors from the education department.

Under their guidance, Sara began teaching educational classes with live animals to the public. Since then, Sara has gone on to train veterinary staff members, pet parents, volunteers, and other professional teams on a plethora of topics such as emergency response, low stress handling techniques, reading behavior in group play environments, and canine communication. In 2019, Sara started her YouTube channel for pet parents encompassing a "Whole Dog" approach to behavior and training to help navigate life with canine family companions.

Sara has been involved in rescue, the sheltering system, and emergency response for dog fight busts and hoarding cases since 2004. Her love for animal behavior, while always present, really took off when Sara began working with pet parents one-on-one through her nonprofit organization, the American Pit Bull Foundation, to help reduce shelter intake and euthanasia due to behavior concerns. Sara pioneered a Shelter Dog to Service Dog program with the organization beginning in 2015 to rescue, raise, and train pit bull type dogs as service dogs for veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Sara considers herself an open-minded knowledge junkie and enjoys learning from and collaborating with peers and experts, especially as it pertains to elevating behavior practices.

Lisa Stemcosky CCBC

Board Member at Large

Image: Sara Ondrako proudly stands with a grey pit bull in a shirt that reads veterans and pit bulls

Lisa is a Certified Cat Behavior consultant and Certified Professional Dog Trainer with over 12 years of experience in shelter behavior and private behavior consulting / modification. She is the Feline Behavior Manager at Humane Rescue Alliance. Lisa creates training plans for and performs behavior modification on cats and dogs in HRA's. Lisa provides support to adopters, fosters and the public by offering remote behavior consultations and teaching group classes, in person and online.

She created and runs two volunteer based behavior programs at HRA. Lisa has also given talks and workshops to other area animal shelters, at animal welfare conferences and behavior conferences. From 2017 through 2021, when the program concluded, Lisa was a mentor for the Jackson Galaxy Project, Cat Pawsitive Pro. As a mentor for Cat Pawsitive Pro, Lisa advised and mentored staff members and volunteers in shelters across the US on how to implement feline behavior modification programs in their shelter. Lisa also owns Pawlitically Correct, and in-home cat behavior consulting business. Based in Washington, DC, Lisa provides behavior modification plans and support to clients in the DC metropolitan area, nationally and internationally.