Kristen Collins, CPDT

Kristen Collins, CPDT

Kristen is the full-time trainer at the Richmond SPCA in Virginia.

She oversees all behavior modification and enrichment programs for shelter animals and creates educational programs for staff members.  She also supervises the “Green Team,” a special group of volunteers taught to provide training for shelter dogs, and trains adoption counselors and veterinary interns interested in dog behavior.   Additionally, she counsels adopters, works one-on-one with dogs in need of intensive attention and rehabilitation, and teaches obedience and beginners’ agility classes for the public. Kristen also frequently team-teaches with Sarah Babcock, the Director of Education and Training at the Richmond SPCA. Together they offer lectures on shelter dog training for other local Richmond animal shelters and courses on canine body language and learning through the University of Richmond’s continuing education program.

Kristen holds a BA from the University of Georgia and graduated Valedictorian with honors from the San Francisco SPCA’s Academy for Dog Trainers.  Before joining the Richmond SPCA, Kristen worked as a group class instructor and private behavior counselor in Brooklyn, NY, and Atlanta, GA.

Kristen happily shares her home in Richmond with Juno, a six-year-old pacifist American pit bull terrier, and Wink, a three-year-old border collie.  Juno, who earned her CGC in 2002, frequently acts as furry assistant for dog safety presentations and appears in the Richmond SPCA’s obedience, agility and trick-training demonstrations for the public.  Wink, a former Richmond SPCA “inmate,” spends his time chasing rapidly retreating objects, hurling himself around agility courses, yodeling and bothering his big sister.

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