Liz Alakszay

Liz is an avid dog lover, outdoor enthusiast, horticulturist, engineer, business process analyst, project manager and educator who has also been involved in teaching many topics for over 40 years. She started working with dogs when she was assigned to train the family German Shepherds at age 5…. she was about as tall as her canine ‘students’. The neighborhood quickly noticed how wonderfully well behaved the GSDs were and she was recruited to train a household filled with Scottish terriers. The owners were happy, but Liz decided to focus on Malamutes. Original plan was to get 13 and do sled dog racing, but that was not approved by the ‘Bank of Dad’. Instead, with only one Malamute, she went into Ski jorring and obedience and got her first AKC obedience blue ribbon with a dog called Smokie. During her college years she trained and owned labradors and All American rescue dogs, primarily doing disc dog, therapy, dabbled in agility and public demos. Then Rally came on the scene and she was hooked by the dog-handler teamwork required in doing a variety exercises and the building of foundational skills to improve performance, reliability and accuracy – especially the nuances and challenges of the higher level off leash exercises.

She is a big believer in making everything with dogs fun and games, but also expects 100% focus and connection when interacting with her dogs. Liz is the trial chair of the Philadelphia Dog training Club’s obedience and rally trials. She also stewards rally trials for the Valley Forge Kennel Club, and trains and assists with trials at the Dog Training Club of Chester County. She is often requested to do workshops on basic dog manners by Chester County Lifelong learning. Currently she competes with Pansy her English Setter and Lily her All- American, in AKC Rally and AKC Obedience and other events. Her dogs are AKC Ambassadors, have numerous titles, awards, trick titles, do demos, visit camps and local schools.