Diane Blackman, IACP-CDTA/PDTI, CTDI

Owner and Head Instructor

Diane with Rory, Vista, & Taylor

Diane has over 25 years of dog training experience.  Diane started All Dawgs in 2007 when she moved from North Carolina to Upstate New York. She is a certified evaluator for the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen program, and has been a therapy dog evaluator since 2004. In 2015, Diane became a Certified Trick Dog Instructor (CTDI). Diane is also a member of the International Association for Canine Professionals and holds the Professional Dog Training Instructor & Certified Dog Trainer Advanced certifications, is certified in Pet First Aid and CPR, and is an AKC Mentor for the sports of obedience and Rally.

Diane teaches group classes, private lessons, dog/dog aggression behavior modification, and professional competition handling at All Dawgs. In North Carolina, she was an instructor for seven years at the Bon-Clyde Learning Center, a large dog training facility in Sanford, North Carolina. Diane has trained her own dogs (Tiger, Hershey, Skye, Eagle, Duncan, Rory, Vista and Taylor) to do therapy dog work and they have won many titles in obedience, Rally Obedience, agility, and trick dogs. They have also competed in conformation and hunt tests.

Diane graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science. As a professional dog trainer, she uses her reporting skills to ask owners the right questions about their dogs, and her education in politics to find diplomatic solutions to behavioral problems. Diane also breeds preformance Golden Retrievers under Southstar Golden Retrievers, her professional kennel.

Book a Group Presentation

Diane is a public speaker on dog training topics at schools, clubs, businesses, and other organizations. Learn more here!

The Dawg Who Started It All

TigerAll Dawgs’ story starts way back in 1997 with Tiger, who was my six-month-old Golden Retriever. I couldn’t get Tiger to sit, get down, walk on a loose leash, or do pretty much anything else for me. So we took a Beginner Obedience class, and it changed both our lives forever.

Tiger not only learned the basic behavior skills I wanted him to – he also became my first therapy dog and my first dog to win Obedience and Rally titles. As a direct result of training Tiger, I became a professional dog trainer, and started All Dawgs.

Tiger passed away in 2005, but his spirit lives on. Every year we celebrate his birthday, July 12th, as Inspiration Day, because of all he inspired me to do. My loving memories of Tiger still inspire me, every single day, to help other dogs and people get the most joy out of their time with each other.