Meet Our Team

Your Camano Island Kennels hosts are Dianna and Jason Young. Dianna is a certified professional trainer and canine behaviorist with more than 20 years of experience who combines the best of European and American traditions in her dog training programs. She was born and reared in the Pacific Northwest, but began her career in Germany in the 1980s, where she served three years of apprenticeship under several skilled master trainers. There, she studied and participated in the European style of training dogs for police-service work, security work, scent detection, personal protection, tracking and search and rescue. Dianna returned to the United States, where she enrolled in a nationally accredited school for professional dog trainers and also studied all facets of animal husbandry. Upon completing her studies there, she worked and studied for several years in animal-related fields on the East Coast, including six years as a veterinary technician in New York and several years as an apprentice trainer at one of the top working-dog kennels in New England. She is an approved evaluator for the American Kennel Club's Canine Good Citizen Program.

Jason's introduction to highly trained canines and many of their uses came in combat in the Middle East, where he served multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan as a U.S. Army Green Beret. He and the men he supervised came to love and appreciate these dogs for their valuable contributions to the combat team and to the safety and security of the people on it.

Camano Island Kennels’ professional dog groomer, Sheena Murphy, has had about a decade-and-a-half of experience working with domestic animals and wildlife. She started as a youngster with a wildlife rehabilitation center operating under contract with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to rescue and rehabilitate swans and eagles that suffered from lead poisoning.

Sheena started out life in Snohomish, Washington, then moved to Camano Island as a child, and has lived in the Stanwood-Camano area ever since. Starting in 2009, Sheena interned with a local grooming shop where she perfected her professional skills. Her services range from simple dog-bathing to bathing and trimming around feet and face, to full-blown grooming. Her grooming experience has covered a multitude of breeds, ranging from French poodle to bichon frise to shih tzu, and she not only is able to work with different coat types but knows how to identify and treat skin problems that she might encounter.

She believes in working with all-natural products, she says, to ensure the safety and comfort of her animal clients.

Sheena grew up around animals, and even as a child she had a personality that enabled her to work successfully with them. Animals bond well with her, and she knows how to identify their behavioral traits and respond accordingly. She has a warm and friendly demeanor that dogs relate to, and they find it easy in her presence to relax and remain calm.

Sheena’s relationship with canines extends beyond bathing and grooming, too. In her free time, she enjoys doing obedience and agility work with her own dogs.

Sheena is one of those fortunate people who discovered her career direction early in life, around the age of 11 or 12. She didn’t know then that she wanted to become a groomer, she says, but she already was certain that she wanted to spend her life working with animals.

The newest addition to the Camano Island Kennels training staff is far from new to professional dog training. Becca Graham comes to us from a highly respected Western Washington training facility where she began several years ago as an apprentice and rose through the ranks to Senior Trainer. She worked with some of its most aggressive canine clients in its board-and-train program and in group classes, and is skilled in using her own behavior to calm anxious dogs.

Becca has worked with a wide range of canines representing many breeds, from Yorkshire Terrier to Great Dane to the more obscure Swedish Valhund and Fila Brasiliero. Her experience encompasses not only the American Kennel Club breeds and designer breeds however, but includes pound puppies as well. In 2009, Becca was asked to develop a canine behavior-evaluation test for a Western Washington chapter of the Humane Society to aid in its adoption program. Adopters are able to use the evaluations to consider the temperament of potential adoptees and select the dog that’s right for them. Her system not only helped boost the number of adoptions, Becca says, but – more importantly – has helped boost their success rate. Becca worked with the chapter for a year before stepping down, but remains on call as an expert consultant to potential adopters, to shelter staff and to their new evaluator.

Becca is active in the dog-show world, where she has trained and titled multiple breeds in Rally Obedience, Obedience, Agility and Conformation. She also has trained her own German Shepherd Dog in Personal Protection, and has won several obedience titles with a variety of breeds. The American Kennel Club has designated Becca a certified official evaluator in its Canine Good Citizen Program. As such, she is authorized to test dogs and formally recognize those that meet the AKC’s ten-part standards of good manners both at home and in the larger community.

In addition, she volunteers with Canine Companions for Independence as a puppy-raiser. A puppy-raiser’s job is to take an eight-week-old pup, socialize it and teach it 30 preliminary commands, such as “Sit,” “Down” and “Visit.” At 22 months of age, the puppy returns to California for advanced training. Becca currently is raising Giles, a male Labrador Retriever whom you may see learning social skills in local shopping centers or just hanging out and holding a down-stay in our office.

Controlled socialization is the goal, so by all means ask to pet him when you see him! Giles will be here until May 2011.