Our Team
Cold Nose Companions is founded on the belief that Positive Methods yield Positive Results. We can develop a deeper bond and mutual trust when we reward behavior we want and use brain over brawn to reshape nuisance behavior into polite manners. Your dog already knows that you are in charge and there is no need to establish pseudo-“dominance” over your dog or use aversive methods that can have very bad side effects.
Training can absolutely be joyful for both ends of the leash!
Meet the Trainers:
Christine Good
trainer and owner
Christine Good, started her career as an animal trainer in 2005 at a wildlife center with raccoons. She became hooked on dog training when she used the clicker working with her reactive dog Marvin who needed her to step up her game. Today, Christine shares her home with her human family and her pitbull Willy who she adopted from City Dogs Cleveland and she calls “the easiest dog ever”.
Christine is a registered veterinary technician (RVT) with over 16 years of experience in the veterinary field. She became a Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA) in 2012. Since then she completed countless hours of continuing education including Michael Shikashio’s Aggression in Dogs Mastercourse. Through her work in veterinary hospitals she had a long-standing professional relationship with Cold Nose Companions and finally joined the team. After Cold Nose Companions’ founder Carol Peter retired in 2021, Christine assumed leadership.
Having kids herself, she adores working with young families to prevent miscommunication and strengthen the human-animal bond. She also enjoys the challenge of working with reactive and challenging dogs and as a veterinary technician, Christine loves helping dogs rebuild trust for veterinary care.
Holly Krueger
trainer
Holly Krueger used to visit children with autism and other special needs, as well as local nursing homes with her CGC-Pet Partners therapy dogs Moses and Grace. While working on Canine Good Citizen and therapy dog certification, she began looking into other dog and handler activities and found Rally Obedience. She participated in Rally with her Brussels Griffons, Moses and Twizzler. Moses and Twizzler became the top winning Brussels Griffons in World Cynosport Rally.
However, Holly considers her greatest training accomplishment to be helping Twizzler to overcome her, at times, paralyzing fearfulness. She was able to help her find the joy in life again and live out the rest of her long life with her little tail wagging and happy gait.
Today, Holly teaches our Rally Fit for Fun course, a fun team sport for dogs and their handlers that emphasizes canine fitness. Dog and handler teams navigate a course with challenges and obstacles, requiring dog-handler teamwork and confidence. She enjoys the emphasis on positive reinforcement, communication, and interaction between handler and their dog and recently had her 10 year anniversary with Cold Nose Companions.
These days Holly shares her home with her very spunky little Brussels Griffon girl Peluche. You can find the two of them at Nose Work trials and of course doing lots of Rally.
Carol Peter
founder
Carol Peter, founder of Cold Nose Companions, LLC discovered her passion for training dogs as a shelter volunteer. There, she saw countless dogs surrendered by their humans due to behavioral issues that could have been addressed through proactive training and positive reinforcement techniques. Carol became one of the inaugural trainers in a local shelter volunteer trainer program many years ago, which helped thousands of dogs find — and stay in — loving new forever homes by modifying problem behaviors.
Her commitment to compassionate, positive training methods led her to achieve accreditation as Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA). She has honed her skills through continuing education and practical hands-on work with dogs that have complex behavioral issues such as separation anxiety, fear, reactivity, aggression and destructive behaviors.
Carol shares her life and her home with her dog Chipper and Steve, her husband of over 45 years. After retiring in 2021 Carol moved away but continues her work with shelters around her new home. Carol and Chipper are also a common sight at nosework classes and trials.
John Swaney
trainer
John Swaney has come to dog training after a full career in construction engineering — a change he delights in. John started his dog training pursuits when he adopted a German shepherd, named Ginger, at which point he looked into becoming part of a search and rescue team that uses their dogs to assist area law enforcement in finding missing persons. In 2010, he became a member of a local volunteer K9 search and rescue team and realized this was where he and Ginger were meant to be. In 2014 Hogan joined the family and the mission of bringing home those who have gone missing. Even after Ginger’s and Hogan’s passing John continued to volunteer with the group standing ready with his team members when called upon as needed by law enforcement agencies. And little shepherd girl named Inge recently joined John’s family and we are expecting wonderful things from her!
John is a 2016 graduate of the CATCH Canine Trainers Academy and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA). John teaches a variety of classes including basic obedience on different levels and canine nose work.
