Joan is one of three living Charter Members of the Kalamazoo Dog Training Club. She has been its Puppy Instructor since the club's inception. Joan has also served as a 4H Leader for both the Dog Project and Leader Dogs for the Blind Puppy Project for more than 25 years. Today many of her students are returning to train their second and third puppies in her classes. Former 4H members come to train family pets and to bring their children who are raising Leader Dog Puppies.

Joan's love of dogs can be traced to a family pet, an English Setter, which was her father's hunting dog. While raising her own family of three, Shetland Sheepdogs were family pets. Seeking to insure that the first Sheltie would be a welcome addition to the neighborhood, Joan entered a training class. The instructor was an Army Canine Corps product and each class was two hours long! She hopes that that Sheltie forgave her for such unconscionably long lessons.

Later, Joan's son, then 14 years old, raised a Leader Dog puppy, a Golden Retriever and the whole family fell in love with that breed. Goldens in ones and twos have been in residence ever since and became the first breed Joan titled in obedience. Her current Golden, Dancer, is pictured. Meadowpond Dances with Feathers (Dancer's "real" name) has completed three Companion Dog titles, one Companion Dog Excellent title and is working on finishing up the other two. Joan likes to show in AKC and UKC and finds working on CKC titles a good excuse to travel to Ontario where Dancer earned both a Dog World Award and a High in Trail.

Joan holds a BS degree from Western Michigan College of Education (now WMU) in Medical Technology. As an Air Force officer's wife, she lived in West Germany and the Philippines and 10 US states before moving to the Kalamazoo area in 1971. Two of the Shelties accompanied the family to the Philippines where Joan assisted in offering obedience classes to families living on the air base.

KDTC has been fortunate that Joan has been very involved in running the club. She has been secretary, co-training director and has served on the Board of Directors numerous times. She currently teaches competitive classes but most enjoys helping turn young puppies into valued family companions whose owners understand their puppy's temperament and how to train and care for it's health. Joan firmly believes that while winning titles and ribbons with her own Goldens broadens the scope of her dog loving hobby, it also creates a dog who is a delight to live and travel with.