Karen Thompson

Karen Thompson has been very active in dog sports for over 20 years with multiple breeds. She has had success in many venues, but has a passion for teaching and training Competition Obedience and Rally. Karen has extensive experience and is regionally uniquely qualified to teach competition obedience and rally classes given her great multiple successes on a national level in both sports.

Karen’s Golden Retrievers Katie and Kirby taught her the ropes and helped her learn how to read dogs. This became an integral skill because her training style incorporates fun and games in which it becomes the dog’s idea to happily work with you. Karen also makes training fun for the handlers as well! This style of training makes it fun for everyone. If you have the chance to see Karen’s dogs in the show ring, you will see how they dance across those rings and love to compete. Its all in the training folks!!!

     Some of Karen’s great accomplishments with her dogs include:

    • Katie–UDX3 and OTCH pointed. Katie also earned her Rally Excellent title with all top scores
    • Kirby–Finished in 5th place in the Open class nationally at the first AKC Orlando Classic in 2013. Kirby went on to be the 2013 AKC Top Open Dog of the Year and was featured on the cover of Front and Finish magazine.
    • Kalli–Finished in 5th place in the Novice class nationally at the 2015 AKC Orlando Classic. Kalli went on to become the 2015 AKC Top Novice Dog of the Year and was featured on the cover of Front and Finish magazine. In 2017 Kalli was invited to the AKC Rally National Championship in Perry, GA and placed 7th. Kalli is an amazingly happy, high scoring and consistent girl. She attained the very challenging Obedience Trial Championship title (OTCH) –the only OTCH title ever earned in the Chippewa Valley– at just 3 years of age. Kalli also was invited to the lucrative 2019 AKC National Obedience Championship in Tulsa, OK-this honor is only offered to the top 150 All Breed obedience teams in the nation. Kalli finished #26 out of all those top dogs. Kalli is invited again to compete at the 2020 AKC National Obedience Championship in Orlando, Florida in December 2020. More recently Kalli completed her Rally Championship title in the minimum amount of shows with Top Honors in more than half of those shows–making Kalli not only the only OTCH dog, but the only performance dual champion dog in this area.