Hi, I’m Ashley
Let me tell you how I got here.
I’m a mother, a wife, and a retired university professor. I’m also the founder of Ashley’s Dog Sports. But before any of that, I’ve spent my whole life around animals & education … and I’ve never stopped wanting to understand them better.
Learning has always been something I love to do.
If there’s one thread running through my entire life, it’s this: I’m always learning, and I love nothing more than sharing knowledge with other people. Education is my deepest passion. It’s why after spending my early adulthood in college I returned as a university professor, and it’s why I still can’t help but dig into every new question that lands in front of me.
Along the way I have earned various graduate degrees, and I studied in the college of veterinary medicine clinical and academic. I’m a certified canine fitness trainer, rehab therapist and a canine behavior specialist. Those letters and certifications matter … but only because of what they let me do: understand animals more deeply, and help the people who love them.
Animals were the beginning, and movement became the obsession.
I grew up working with animals. I trained horses & dogs and competed with them, that early hands-on work taught me to watch movement closely … to read body posture, gait transitions, a hesitation in weight shifting etc. Over time that curiosity narrowed into something specific: biomechanics. How dogs actually move and function.
Understanding the way a dog carries themself; where the strength comes from, where the strain hides, is endlessly fascinating to me. It’s where science and instinct meet, and it’s at the heart of everything I do now.
Then everything changed.
After years in academia, my son was diagnosed with leukemia as a toddler. I won’t pretend this was anything other than earth shattering. It was the kind of moment that loudly rearranges everything you thought you knew about what matters most.
Perspective is the one thing that hit me the hardest. It gave me a clarity I didn’t have before … about how I wanted to spend my time, and who I wanted to spend it helping.
So I left the university and turned to dogs full time. I founded Ashley’s Dog Sports to bring everything together … the education, the science, the years with animals, and the perspective that only comes from living through something hard. This work isn’t a second career for me. It’s the thing I was always heading toward.
I’d love to meet you and your dog.
If any of this resonates … if you want someone who’ll pay close attention, keep learning alongside you, and genuinely care about the animal in front of them … let’s talk. I’d be glad to hear about your dog and show you how I can help.