About Diane

Diane Gallagher has been enjoying the company of dogs her entire life; her active involvement in training started around 1967 with the TriState Kennel Club in Joplin, Missouri. Very early on, she decided to be involved in dog shows as a professional handler, and worked towards that end by apprenticing with leaders in the field-Dora Lee Wilson, Roy Murray and occasionally, Bill Trainor. This handling career spanned about 15 years, and included wins in the United States and Canada with a number of different dogs. She finished many Championships in both countries, on dogs from all seven groups, at both All-Breed and Specialty shows. Highlights include Best in Show at Detroit Kennel Club in 1981 with a Lhasa Apso, Am/Can/Ber CH Bihar’s Revenger of Sammi Raja, a top ten Non Sporting dog that year. Diane also won Best in Show with her own Lhasa, Am/Can CH Thudpucker Zehnacker at Ottawa Kennel Club in 1980. At this same time, she was collecting numerous group wins and placements with other dogs in her care.

While showing dogs was a passion, grooming dogs was a day to day endeavor when not on the road, at her grooming business “Especially Dogs”, near Syracuse, New York. With this daily immersion in dogs from the time she was a teenager, Diane learned a great deal about how to manage and modify canine behavior, then took this a step further when she started teaching classes in Obedience training to the general public in the early 80’s. Diane and several of her students won titles on their dogs in both conformation and obedience during this time, and she gradually slowed the pace of dog showing down and concentrated on the training and grooming businesses.

While still showing dogs, Diane attended her first Retriever Field Trial for something to do between dog shows. She was completely taken by the Retriever work she observed and decided to learn more about that world by volunteering to work at a local Field Trial. Later she joined the Central New York Retriever Club, eventually becoming secretary, working hard to help make their annual field trials successful. Diane was also instrumental in getting the Club involved in the newly hatched Hunt Test program.

In 1991, she and her husband Steve relocated to Wilmington, North Carolina where Diane took up training promptly, soon making the acquaintance of Barbara Eagles. The two women started working together in 1993 to build DOGTRAIN into a successful training business. In 1998 Diane bought Barbara’s share of the business from her, and has been at the helm ever since. She enjoys training her Labrador Retrievers in the field, and helps those who wish to train their own gundogs with Sunday morning field work sessions.
DOGTRAIN • 1038 South Kerr Avenue • Wilmington, NC 28403 • 1 (910) 395-4399 • dgtrain1@bellsouth.net