Meet Our Trainers

Animal Attitudes prides itself in the quality of its trainers. Most of our trainers were clients that had their dogs trained and became so enthused with the training they came to us to learn how to become a trainer. You will find that they are all compassionate and knowledgeable.  Each trainer is constantly learning different aspects of training such as service dogs, protection dogs, police K9, aggression, agility, show obedience, tracking, and detection (explosive, drugs).

Tawni McBee, married, two sons, four grandchildren. Tawni has worked with dogs and other animals (particularly horses) most of her life. Tawni has been working with Animal Attitudes for five years. Tawni has two standard Poodles and one miniature poodle. Her dogs are active in agility and one of her standards is in protection training and the other does therapy dog work at a local hospital and a nursing home. Tawni does rescue adoption work with various breeds, but especially Poodles. Tawni teaches agility as a volunteer instructor for Good Dog Agility. She is a certified Canine Good Citizen evaluator for AKC. Tawni is a member of Association of Pet Dog Trainers, a volunteer with the Mesa Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association. She teaches Judo at Traditional Martial Arts Academy and holds a 4th degree black belt in judo as well as a national certification as a referee and coach. she is president of AZ State Judo Inc. and AZ Yudanshakai, delegate to the USA Judo meetings, chair of the USA Judo Technical Officials Subcommittee, and a member of United States Judo Federation Law and Legislation Committee. Tawni works with all breeds on obedience and behavior problems and specializes in working with rescued and fearful dogs and also enjoys preparing dogs for protection training. She finds training the dogs easy but sometimes has to rely on her 20 years of Judo experience to train the owners.

Mat Cleveland started training when he was 9 years old and his father took a bloodhound pup through training to become a search and rescue dog. By the time Mat was 10 years old he was working for Animal Attitudes working dogs that had aggression problems towards kids. At just over 10 years old with the encouragement of his parents Mat started learning to train protection dogs and police K9’s. On February 9th, 2002 just before his 16th birthday Mat was certified as a trainer and decoy having passed his final test in December working both Arizona Association of Protection Dogs and Chandler Police K9’s.

Jodi Spargo has worked with animals her entire life. She has been with Animal Attitudes almost 2 years and works with owners and their dog on obedience and behavioral problems. Jodi is a full-time firefighter and works with Animal Attitudes on her off days. Jodi finds dog training very fulfilling, she enjoys helping owners understand how to communicate with their dog and work positively through behavioral difficulties.

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