Shelby was born into the dog world, growing up with litters of English Cocker Spaniel puppies her mom bred and a large pack of dogs in the house. She began competing in agility with her first dog, a Papillon, at age 5 in 1999. Shelby spent most of her early childhood observing/learning dog behavior and training from many different professionals across the state of Texas. Over her teenage years, she and her mother, Rene, often traveled across Texas and the US to agility trials and National events. In 2016, Shelby moved to Colorado for a few years and began her teaching journey, learning many new positive reinforcement and behavior modification skills. Through these experiences, Shelby gained the knowledge and skills necessary to become the trainer, handler and instructor she is today.

Over the years, Shelby achieved many different titles with her dogs, Swift and Joy, including 10 AKC Master Agility Championships. She attended the AKC National Agility Championship 6 times, making the finals with her 16” border collie, Swift, in 2011. She attended the AKC World Team Tryouts with Swift in 2011 and 2012 and aspires to be a team member someday. She is currently competing with her 16" sheltie, Chakra. Her other two dogs, Missy (terrier mix) and Diesel (11 y/o border collie) play agility just for fun. Shelby often handles other people's dogs at agility trials!

At Top Dog, Shelby does a little bit of everything! She teaches agility classes & private lessons, helps manage the social media and aides in IT for the website. She is the chief course builder at the AKC & UKI Agility trials, and helps run and Secretary the AKC Fast CAT events when they're in season. Last but not least, she helps keep the turf and building clean with endless vacuuming!