Emily Eastham
Emily Eastham, CPDT-KA
Senior Trainer
She isn’t from a “dog family,” but that didn’t stop her strong desire to get involved as soon as she could. In 2016, her family added a German Shepherd (Renegade) to their home, and Emily quickly began training her dream dog. In 2017, she also added an Australian Shepherd (Rio) and her interest in sports and training matched her dogs’ need to work. Currently she is training in obedience, weight pull, agility, flyball, disc, tricks, and anything else her pups want to try!
Emily is a founding member of the SAVE US club at Tenn Tech, and has assisted with training shelter dogs for 3 semesters. The goal of the program is to improve adoption rates. She also received an CISE undergraduate research grant to examine the potential of training shelter dogs to be therapy dogs. This resulted in the adoption and training of Krypto, who spent 6 weeks at a children’s reading camp – dedicated to improving literacy. Though the correlation is not statistically published, the camp had its highest retention of participants, with most students stating that Krypto was their favorite part of camp.
Emily’s knowledge in Animal Behavior has quickly made her into a valuable asset on the Thunderhawk team. She is meticulous in her husbandry skills, aiding the crew as a kennel tech. She also participates in daily training of the in-board obedience dogs, and will soon been assisting group classes. Emily has really taken an interest in the Force Free Philosophy, and furthers her education by participating in classes through the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. In Fall of 2020, Emily plans to sit the Certification test, CPDT-KA, through the Association of Professional Dog Trainers.
We look forward to Emily growing with Thunderhawk, and can’t wait to continue putting her ideas into practice as we help the community.