How it all started...
Melinda’s career started out as a Civil Engineer, but in 2010 her passion for training animals became a dream come true as she ventured into the dog training world. In 2013, Melinda decided to open her own training center “Lucky Dog Training”, a positive reinforcement-based training center that focused on the human side of dog training. In January of 2017, Melinda and her staff moved to their current location and rebranded to “Lucky Dog Training Center”. Melinda is a true believer that “Dreams do come true” when you are dedicated and keep looking forward!
Interested in growing with us? We’re always looking for dedicated, positive people to join the Lucky Dog team! Send your resume to mel@luckydogtrainingcenter.com.
Meet the Team
Melinda Meche
Owner/General Manager/Trainer – Puppy, Manners, Nosework
Melinda has been training dogs (and their people) since 2010 and has helped thousands of clients learn to live a better life with their dog! As well as owning Lucky Dog, Melinda also likes to teach some classes, like puppy and manners, advanced and nosework! Her passion for training dogs and helping owners communicate is the joy to success.
Mikayla Kincaid
Trainer – Puppy, Manners, Tricks, Agility and Specialty/Focus Classes
Mikayla is a life-long animal lover who first discovered the world of dog training at 15 years old through tricks with her chihuahua. After joining the Lucky Dog Team in May of 2019, Mikayla has advanced exponentially in experience with puppies, manners, agility, Canine Good Citizen, and more! She’s curated and implemented several curriculums and courses such as Intermediate Manners, Place Master Class, Holiday Manners, and Ongoing Advanced Manners. She is a strong advocate for building bonds and trust between guardians and dogs through the use of positive reinforcement. She is currently pursuing her CPDT-KA certification with plans of testing in early 2023 as dedication to staying up-to-date on ethical, science-based training methods. Mikayla currently has two border collie demo dogs, Aramis and Venture, and still loves trick training as much as ever. In the next year she hopes to continue competing in Agility and debut in several other sports with both dogs.
Ciara Schreiner
Assistant General Manager
Ciara graduated from Texas A&M University in 2019 with a B.S. in Animal Science. She and her dog, Belle, love training in the agility ring and hope to start competing in the future. She is a firm believer in the power of positive training to help build a lifelong bond with the dog and owner. Ciara manages Lucky Dog’s marketing, scheduling, and retail center.
Lea Pfeiffer
UNT Grad ABA/Animal Science Trainer - Puppy and Basic Manners
Lea graduated with a Bachelor Degree in ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) with a field of study in Animal Science and Behavior Training fromUNT. While she attended college, she was the chairman of O.R.C.A. (Organization of Reinforcement Contingencies for Animals) and taught animal training to other underclassmen. She has been a part of many animal training projects since graduating such as teaching husbandry behaviors for exotic, farm and domesticated animals. Most recently she worked at the Fort Worth Zoo as a zookeeper where she trained armadillos and goats. Lea has always had a love for animals and currently has several pets to include a 14 year old female orange tabby cat named Pumpkin, a 4 year old American Bully named Mac and a 2 year old Blue Heeler/Chihuahua mix rescue named Scarlett.
Beth Martin
Trainer - Agility Trainer and Specialty Classes
Beth Martin started agility in 1996 with her rescue cattle dog mix Rysa, and very quickly became hooked on the sport. She has been competing and teaching all levels and venues since 1997 in the Atlanta area until moving to DFW in 2019. She has had many successes at a high level with multiple dogs over the years. Most notable are being a 3 time USA world team member with her now retired Sport Mix Keen (twice with USDAA and once with UKI), and has also made semi-finals and finals several times at USDAA's Cynosports and at the UKI US Open with multiple dogs. Keen also was the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge Southeast champion in the 30 Weavepole challenge event. Beth is now bringing her 4 year old Jack Russell terrier Yeti up through the ranks, and has already had some good success locally and regionally with him. She has hopes of trying out for the UKI team soon, and competing with him this year at USDAA Cynosports. Beth competes in all organizations , but she really enjoys the training and handling challenges offered by UKI and USDAA.
Teaching others to enjoy agility as passionately as she does has always been important to Beth. She enjoys the challenge of helping people get the most out of their relationship with their own dog, and to be successful at whatever level each team is interested in, whether it's just a recreational activity to do with their dog and compete at local trials, all the way up to being able to being competitive nationally or internationally with their own dog.
Beth also has trained and competed in Nosework, flyball, barn hunt, disc dog, and dock diving, and enjoys the diversity as well as similarities of the training in each sport."
Joy Matthiesen
CPDT-KA Trainer - Puppy and Basic Manners
Joy’s dog training career formally began in the summer of 2007, but she has always had a strong love for dogs and a passion for teaching. Her goal when training is to strengthen the relationship between owners and their dogs by helping owners understand the why behind canine behaviors. Joy has a wide variety of training experience ranging from therapy work to protection sport (IPO), and more recently started competing in AKC Rally with her four year old Rottweiler, Akira. Joy is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) and an AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator, and she graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in Elementary Education. When she isn’t teaching dog training classes, she can be found teaching fifth grade science and social studies for a local school district.
Kathryn Metcalf
Trainer - Puppy and Basic Manners
Kat has a passion for working with both dogs and people. For her, positive reinforcement training promotes stronger bonds and overall well-being for both dogs and their owners. She has loved dogs since childhood and began her formal involvement with dogs when she served as a prospective home evaluator in 1996 for an Italian Greyhound rescue group in Minnesota with her IG, Cappuccino. Since moving to DFW she has been active with her current dog, Maggie, who is a large mixed-breed rescue. As a team they have been involved in a variety of dog sports and training including rally, tricks, agility, nose work, and Canine Good Citizen.
Kat began on-boarding with the Lucky Dog team in February of 2022 with the Puppy Kindergarten and Basic Manners classes, and has found a second calling in dog training. She hopes to work toward her CPDT-KA and pursue further studies to support the relationship between dogs and their owners. She graduated from Saint Olaf College with a degree in Secondary Social Studies Education and earned her Master’s from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota with an emphasis in learning and cognitive processes. When not at Lucky Dog, she can be found teaching high school history in a local district.
Salem (Heather) Luethy
Behaviorist, AKC evaluator, Trainer
Salem has been professionally training dogs for over ten years. Her passions started at a young age, having been born into a family of dog loving individuals. Even her first ever library book happened to be on puppy training. She has trained dogs across the country, starting at just 18 years old in Colorado where she began working under another trainer. From there, she has dedicated the rest of her life to furthering her training skills and the understanding of positive reward and trust based training, centering her focus on behavioral training and management.
While she can train from puppy to advanced manners, her passion rests in understanding and educating others about reactivity and helping owners understand, manage and overcome fear and anxiety in their beloved dogs.
Salem spent a lot of her time working with her former Border Collie and Therapy Dog, Raphael, who aided in her work with other reactive and fearful pets until his recent passing. Her newest addition, Omen the Golden Retriever, is working hard to take on the work Raphael left behind!
Maggie Louiselle
Trainer - Puppy and Basic Manners
Maggie is currently a graduate student at UNT studying to earn her M.S. in Behavior Analysis. She has always been passionate in understanding behavior and how it can be applied to helping aninmals and their owners alike.
Experienced in training both dogs and cats, Maggie has ultimately found her passion in dog training. She loves working at Lucky Dog as it has allowed her to get more hands-on practice and has introduced her to different techniques for teaching behaviors. She is currently onboarding to teach Basic Manners and Puppy Kindergarten classes, but would love to someday work with fearful dogs in behavior modification.
Stacy Bols
Trainer - Agility
Stacy has 20 years of dog training experience and more than 14 years of agility training experience. Stacy has competed successfully with both large and small dogs in various venues over the course of her competitive career and her students range from Border Collies to Labradors to Pugs and many in between.
Kermit is her newest agility dog, a miniature schnauzer imported from Russia. Just starting out in her agility career is already taking 4 venues by storm competing in AKC, USDAA, UKI and ASCA. So far in her young career she has achieved the following, 2017 USDAA Cynosports Grand Prix champion, 2017 USDAA Cynosports Steeplechase Finals 2nd place, completed her UKI championship, MACH4, ADCH, competed in the 2017 UKI US Open, 2018 AKC Agility Nationals in Reno, 2018 and 2019 AKC Agility Invitational.