Gay became involved in obedience in 1980, initially with German Shepherds and later with Golden Retrievers, and has taken several dogs to CDX titles.  One of her current dogs (Gemma) has two legs towards her UD title and her other Golden (Piper) was well advanced in his UD and DWD training when epilepsy – or more specifically the epilepsy medications – intervened.  Gay has also competed with her Golden Retrievers and her new Kelpie (Talli) in conformation showing.

Gay's first introduction to DWD was a video clip of Carolyn Scott and her amazing dog Rookie that took her breath away – particularly since Rookie was a Golden.  Gay was then lucky enough to be able to attend the first Mary Ray workshop conducted at Camp Tailwaggers.  Since then, Gay has been hooked on DWD and has been an eager participant at a variety of DWD training workshops.

Gay claims that she only "dabbled" in DWD for the first few years, putting most of her training efforts into obedience.  She started working Gemma more seriously in DWD at the end of the 2008 obedience competition year, and in 2009 she qualified in all the competitions she entered, gaining her DWD Freestyle Novice title and two legs towards her DWD HTM Novice title.

In 2008 Gay was a member of the national consultative group working on the development of rules for DWD, leading to recognition of DWD as an official, ANKC sanctioned, canine discipline. 

At the beginning of 2009, Gay initiated a meeting of people interested in DWD, which resulted in the formation of the Dances with Dogs Club, Queensland (DWDCQ).  Gay was elected as the inaugural President of the Club.

In 2009 Gay also undertook her DWD judges’ training and has had a number of judging appointment so far, which she found both enjoyable and challenging.  Gay is looking forward to more competitions – both as a competitor and as a judge – during 2010.

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Sharon started training with her first dog, Murphy, in 1998 with the aim of doing a few classes and having a well behaved pet.  She became a bit of a dog training junkie, blown away by the amazing bond that develops between
dog and handler when they work together.

It was Sharon's second dog, Casey, who inadvertently instigated changes in training which would eventually lead to doing Dances with Dogs.  Traditional training methods were not a good match for this little border collie, so Sharon started seeking other training strategies which may assist, and discovered positive reinforcement training.  The seeds of interest were first laid for dance at a Mary Ray training camp a few years ago - but at first Sharon didn't plan to get into this sport as she felt it was too difficult and she didn't have the skills to train her dogs to this level.

Gradually though, as she continued training and learning with her dogs (including the newest addition to her border collie family, Cian), she started to link moves together and see a picture of what could be, and some basic dance routines were born.

Sharon has competed her dogs at Starter and Novice level for a year, and hopes that their skills and routines will develop and grow to enable them to further advance through the levels in this fun and challenging sport.

Taking on a role that she has done for other clubs in the past, Ann brings a wealth of experience to the positions of Trial Secretary and Trophy Officer.

Robyn first started training obedience at Logan Dog Obedience Club in 1993 with her GSDs and competed regularly in obedience before taking a break when her children were born. In 2003 she got involved in obedience again, this time with Redlands Dog Obedience Club and after getting her rescue kelpie Jarrah she also became involved in herding. But her passion for Dances with Dogs was lit when she saw a video of Richard Curtis and his border collie Jazz perform their famous Thriller routine at Coventry and she became hooked. She and husband Eddie were lucky enough to attend a seminar held by Richard Curtis in Sydney in 2006 and have also attended workshops held by Mary Ray and Maree Field. Robyn currently trains at VIP and her dogs Jarrah and Whisper are both competing in DwD Freestyle.

At the moment the club's equipment consists of the sound system and external speakers, and being able to lift the sound system pretty well guaranteed Eddie the role of Equipment Officer.  Since taking on the job of lugging the system to trials, Eddie had to work out how it goes together and how it works, which means he has also been talked into acting as music steward as well.  This offers a perfect excuse for not entering competitions and sounds a lot better than the truthful reason (lack of training).  Eddie also looks after the Qld updates on this website (which is why it is often out of date).