Meet the Crew

Side Kick Dog Training is made up of a group of people who care about dogs and love teaching people about dogs.  Carolyn Krause is Misti's mentor and counselor.  She started the positive puppy training in Springfield Missouri teaching Positively Puppies at several veterinary offices.  As Carolyn slowed down her business, Fire Dog Enterprises, Misti Fry MS CPDT began the company Side Kick Dog Training in 2008.  She has gathered around her people who enjoy learning, teaching, sharing, and helping dogs and their people.   Carrie Galvan CPDT has been passionate about dogs her entire life and has found her calling teaching people about dog behavior and training.  Erica Marshall is one of the newest instructors and is very good at getting owners to mold their puppies into polite family members.  Carolyn, Misti, Carrie, and Erica are the core group of instructors but cannot  do it alone.  Assistants and apprentices love teaching just as much and are as dedicated as the instructors.  

More About Misti Fry MS CPDT

Misti Fry MS CPDT teaches dog owners how to mold their pet into their ideal family member.  In 2006 Misti began working closely with Carolyn Krause of Firedog Enterprises teaching her Positively Puppies Classes.  Since then, Side Kick Dog Training has grown and offers classes for dogs of all ages.  Misti also offers in home private lessons focusing on the specific needs of each client and their pets. 

In 1989 Misti’s Mother brought home a Siberian Husky that needed training to become a functional member of the family. This was her first experience with training a dog and she watched many of the obedience classes that her mother attended with Sebastian.  After graduating High School, Misti adopted a Cocker Spaniel from the Humane Society and trained her in upper level obedience earning a Companion Dog Title through AKC. Since then she has earned two Tracking Dog titles, a Tracking Dog Excellent title, trained in Search and Rescue, Retrieving, Agility and Rally. 

During college, Misti apprenticed and became an instructor with a local dog training club.  For 6 years she worked as a veterinary technician and earned money doing private dog training and pet sitting. 

Misti earned a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Biology with a minor in Chemistry then went on to earn a Master of Natural and Applied Science.  Her graduate work was with Dr. Dennis Schmitt testing different protocols for freezing African Elephant semen.  During her time with Dr. Schmitt she was a graduate assistant teaching lab and lecture classes in reproduction, companion animal science, and animal behavior and training.  After graduate school Misti began work at the Missouri Department of Agriculture Veterinary Diagnostic Lab.  Entering as a Serologist, her job changed when the Missouri Meat Inspection Program needed a lab to test for E. coli, E. coli 0157, Salmonella, and Listeria.  She built the lab from an empty room to a program “equal to” the Federal Food Inspection Service labs.  In 2004 she left the Missouri Department of Agriculture to have two children. 

Currently Misti divides her time between family, teaching puppy and dog classes, private training, volunteering at the Humane Society of Southwest Missouri. Teaching people how to teach dogs is the perfect challenge for her.  While teaching owners of puppies her goal is to build positive relationships with trust and communication. Even if the dogs aren't trained early there is still hope and private in home training has unique challenges and rewards.  Behavior and how it can be modified is of special interest to her. All of the training with pet dogs is rewarding, but working with the Humane Society of Southwest Missouri is especially so. Keeping dogs in their homes with training is the first line of defense in rescue work.

More about Carrie Galvan CPDT 

See her Website for even more...

Carrie’s love of animals started around third grade when her parents adopted a beagle mix from the Humane Society.  Two years after graduating high school she bought her own house, so she could have all the animals she wanted. After her first dog Nakita, a German Shepherd puppy, ate half her house her mom suggested she take a puppy class. That is where she met Carolyn and Mike Krause. After passing the class with flying colors, Carrie was hooked. Soon after, she inherited a Staffordshire Pit Bull Terrier, who was an under socialized girl who didn’t like to share the couch. That’s when Carrie started reading about dog behavior. After making friends with her, she spent months teaching her that the outside world wasn’t so bad.  Months later, Carrie found the perfect 12 week old Rottweiler in the paper. And Harley was perfect… for the first two hours…  Over the years, Carrie has rescued and rehabilitated many animals, from baby squirrels to Pit Bulls out of organized fighting. A year ago Carrie decided to look up Carolyn Krause and became determined to become a Professional Dog Trainer. (After all she’s spent the last 12 years teaching her friends and family how to “fix” their dogs.  Why not do it professionally some day?)  Misti Fry answered the email to Carolyn, and told her she could tag along with her and her trainers. Dream come true… working with dogs, playing with puppies, and sending them home with their owners at the end of the day!  She has been working for Sidekick since…Going to private lessons, teaching Puppy and Tricks classes, and training dogs at the Humane Society.  

Pets currently in training:

Athena (“The dog I needed, not the one I wanted.”-Carolyn Krause).

She is an American Pit Bull Terrier that has been in classes at local training facilities since she was 10 months old. She has been training for the last year to compete in agility; and recently Athena and Carrie have been working toward their tracking certification. Athena hopes to be CGC certified soon.

Precious- An America Pit Bull Terrier that has been through two classes at a local dog training

                  club.    

Achilles- Her Chihuahua/Rat Terrier mix that has taken the Tricks and Come class and is working

                toward his CGC in the Kick Start class.

 “V” - He is an 8 yr old Pug rescued from a puppy mill in June 2010. 

More About Erica Marshall (CPDT in Training)

Erica is a transplant from the Northeast, having moved to Springfield in 2007. Erica has been working with animals in one capacity or another for over 13 years. She began her work with Misti assisting in the Positively Puppies class and is currently assisting  Misti at the Humane Society with the Kick Start class as well as training shelter volunteers to work with the shelter dogs to increase their adoptability.

She began her work with dogs in a boarding facility and from there moved into working at a Humane Society in Vermont. There she worked closely with the shelter trainer and learned to observe and decipher dog body language as well as how to work with behavior problems and help owners teach their dogs basic manners. She also ran her own pet-sitting business; relishing the opportunity to care for many different animals and assisting their owners in reinforcing training. She worked as a technician and receptionist in a veterinary office in New Hampshire, which gave her insight into the medical side of animal care. Currently she is owned by a Great Pyrenees Green Bean, as well as three cats. She and Beanie, as he is called, have gone through puppy training and tricks class with Misti Fry and Carolyn Krause. She has also taken Beanie through Home Manners and Public Manners and Beanie received his Canine Good Citizen title. Currently they are working on getting their therapy title and have been training for that this summer. Erica also works with numerous rescues in the area doing Home checks and foster care. She currently has a Great Pyrenees and Siberian Husky foster dogs in her home.