Nancy Gagliardi Little
Nancy has been training dogs since the early 1980s when she put an Obedience Trial Championship (OTCH) on her first competition/Novice A dog, a Labrador Retriever. Since then, she has achieved many advanced obedience accomplishments, including 4 AKC OTCH titles (one CKC OTCH), 6 UD titles, 3 UDX titles, a 2009 AKC National Obedience Invitational invite, and multiple placements in National obedience tournaments.
In agility. Nancy’s dogs have had numerous advanced agility accomplishments including 5 AKC MACHs, 1 AKC PACH, 2 USDAA ADCHs, 3 USDAA MADs, qualifying and competing in Cynosports, 9 AKC National Agility Competitions with 4 different dogs – including many individual top 10 placements and running in the AKC Finals in 2017.
In herding, Nancy has 3 Herding Championships on her dogs as well as 2 HXBs (advanced B course sheep) titles, 2 HXBd (advanced B course ducks) titles, 3 HXAs (advanced A course sheep) titles and 3 HXAd (advanced A course ducks) titles.
Nancy is a retired obedience judge, having judged all obedience classes from 1986-2008. She enjoyed judging around the country and was privileged to judge 3 National obedience tournaments in Florida, Kentucky, and North Carolina. She retired from judging to spend more time training and competing with her own dogs in the sports of obedience, herding, and agility.
Nancy draws from her experience training and competing in multiple sports. This has given her the ability to find create creative solutions for training and handling dogs. She feels that many trainers lose sight of little details that are the foundation in the communication and harmony with their dogs. Nancy loves working with different types of dogs and training issues. There is nothing she loves more than obsessing about training and handling. Then developing a plan to help both the dog and the student build that behavior.
Nancy moved from a more traditional obedience training background towards reward based/positive methods in training dogs in all areas. She uses classical conditioning and shaping in both obedience training and in agility.
Nancy’s father, John Gagliardi, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as the “Winningest Football Coach of all time”. He won 489 college games by using non traditional “kind” methods – techniques that were criticized and claimed they couldn’t possibly work. Nancy learned – from his example – to never question what you believe in. Nancy also loves “coaching” dog trainers.
