Meet Our Trainers
Ethel Mercer
Ethel has been teaching Puppy Class for Lomita Obedience Training club for more than 20 years. She also teaches Beginning and Intermediate Companion Dog Manners, Intermediate Competition Obedience and Dog Tricks. The sport of Canine Freestyle has also been a passion of hers for a number of years. Ethel is a certified Canine Good Citizen evaluator and a force free trainer.
Ethel has bred and shown Miniature Pinschers and achieved three breed championships with them. In addition she has shown the “Min Pins”, her border collie and her Papillon in Obedience, Agility, Canine Freestyle and Dog Tricks achieving advanced titles in each sport. As if that weren’t enough, her dogs are also Delta Certified Therapy Dogs making hospital visits to cheer up the patients.
Continual learning is important to Ethel. It keeps her and her dogs sharp. She regularly attends seminars to keep up to date on ideas and techniques and belongs to the Association of Professional Dog Trainers, Inc. She also shares her expertise by serving as a mentor for the Animal Behavior Collage Student Externship Program. She wants to make learning fun for her students and believes: “Make the training process rewarding for both the dog and owner by using force free positive training techniques, and try to never lose your sense of humor!”. As a result of this philosophy, she has seen a number of students repeat her courses every time they get a new dog.
Vita Allison
Vita Allison grew up locally participating in many dog sports and has titled over 30 dogs of different breeds in AKC and other venues, often achieving the highest awards and national rankings. She is teaching AKC Rally and a variety of other classes for LOTC.
Vita has enjoyed tracking with a number of dogs of various breeds, especially in urban situations. She has written numerous articles to help people get started tracking, many of which were published in Dog Sport Magazine. Vita is fascinated by the science of scent and would really enjoy introducing you & your dog to tracking!!
Vita is also one of AKC’s first Southern California Rally judges. She continues to exhibit and do all she can to popularize the sport. She has been successful in many sports, including Rally, with Borzoi, Whippets, Boxer, Doberman, Schipperke, Parson, and most recently her Australian Shepherd. Vita is always learning new training techniques and would enjoy helping you master the sport of Rally.
Vita was interviewed for the AKC Family Dog Magazine January 2022 issue and she discusses her experiences with scent work and the AKC’s Virtual title. You can view the issue here.
Carolyn Peter
Carolyn has been around dogs her whole life. As a young girl, She developed a deep love and connection with a variety of breeds both large and small. Dogs always seem to gravitate to her, which makes working with them come easily. She enjoys making training fun and enjoyable for both the dog and its owner. She has worked with Lomita Obedience Training Club for several years teaching and co- training Puppy Manners, as well as Beginning Dog Obedience classes.
Carolyn attended Animal Behavior College, where she became certified as a Dog Trainer. She is also an AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Evaluator, and can administer the AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy program, CGC, AKC Community Canine (the advanced level of CGC), Urban CGC, Video Home Manners and Trick Dog tests. She has worked with shelter dogs and rescues, and through the years has adopted a Boxer, an American Bull Dog, as well as a Miniature Pinscher/Chihuahua mix. Her education and knowledge of dogs continues to grow through attending Seminars, listening to Podcasts, and reading all the newest books and articles on Positive Training techniques. She is enthusiastic about learning and helping teach others how to work with their dog in order to achieve their training goals through praise and encouragement.
Jack Thourot
Jack has been training dogs in obedience for 30 plus years. He began with casual training classes and very soon became interested in competition obedience. Through Lomita Obedience Training Club he has trained his Australian Cattle Dogs to the Utility Level of Obedience and Novice level in Rally. He has supported other LOTC trainers in Puppy Manners’ Classes and Beginning Obedience. In addition, he has conducted LOTC Intermediate and Advanced classes and provides instruction in the bi-weekly LOTC Advanced Obedience Workshop on Saturday mornings. More recently, through the Australian Cattle Dog Club of Greater Los Angeles, Jack and his dogs have been very successfully competing in AKC Herding Trials and Conformation.
Along with his hands on training and competition experience, he has attended a number of workshops, seminars and training sessions including: Clicker Expo, seminars by Kathy Sadao, Sue Sternberg, and Kay Lawrence. He has studied herding with Kathleen Smith of Diamond Dogs K9 Events and Cappy Pruett.
His goal is to provide practical support and information to help you build a joyful relationship with your dog.
Dog Training Classes
New training classes starting soon! All levels – puppy through adult, AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) and Competitive Obedience.