Meet the Staff

Every day dogs rush into the doors of Pawtropolis, never looking back at their owners. They are excited and absolutely love being here. Owners tell us that the dogs know the way to Pawtropolis and start going crazy when the make the turn onto our road. Why is this? Well, though the paw prints on the walls are cute and the floors always get cleaned and sanitized and we have a catchy name...it's the employees of Pawtropolis that create an environment that brings the dogs in, tails wagging, every time. We thought you would like a chance to meet the team that are many of your dogs' best friends.

Just who is taking care of your pets?

Pawtropolis runs with a staff of 18-25 employees. Most employees are part-time and also college students. Once they begin working at Pawtropolis they are required to complete the Pawtropolis Training Program. This program is designed to help them learn about animal care, dog behavior, pack behavior, emergency procedures, discipline procedures and more.

What you may not have known is that many of our employees go above and beyond the training included in our program. The American Boarding and Kennels Association (ABKA) offers different levels of certification for kennel/daycare employees. We currently have 8 employees that have reached the level of Certified Pet Care Technician and three additional employees that are in the training for it.

Because the health of your pets is of up most concern, we also encourage employees to participate in the American Pet First Aid Class. This class goes into far more details than our program here. It even offers participants a chance to practice CPR on dummy dogs. This is an amazing program that is also offered to the public. Keep your eyes open for upcoming opportunities to take the class. The top picture shows Megan and Lauren receiving their certificates for becoming Certified in Pet First.

Amanda Rodriguez Crook
Owner

-PCSA Certified Level 1 Animal Care Technician
-PCSA Certified Level 2 Animal Care Technician
- AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator
- Certified Pet First Aid

Amanda is the owner of Pawtropolis. From the age of 15 she always dreamed about a career working with animals. She began doing competitive obedience at age 16 and her love for dogs only intensified.

After obtaining a degree from the University of Georgia, Amanda began the process of opening Pawtropolis. Her dream came true grand opening day December 1st, 2001.

Amanda continues to do obedience, placing multiple titles on her own dogs as well as others she trains. Her training style is to incorporate and learn about as many techniques as you can so that you can find what will work best for your dog. Rescuing a dominant dog with aggression problems herself, Amanda has a special love for dogs with behavioral problems. This "aggressive" dog became the sweet lovable Dalmatian Tyler that before passing away greeted everyone at the door of Pawtropolis.

Amanda currently owns four rescue dogs. Kenzie is her Dalmatian. Kenzie is the most titled of all of her dogs, excelling in obedience, agility, rally and even dabbling in flyball. Kenzie has over 14 titles (including a Master Agility Excellent and a Master Agility Excellent Jumpers and is still competing. She's been ranked in the nation's top 5 dalmatians in agility. We estimate Kenzie's birthdate to be June 23, 2002. Click here to be directed to our Dogs in Competition page to follow along on the competitive dogs' updates.

Bailey (the adorable brown mix pictured here) has been part of Amanda's family for the longest of the bunch. She is an amazingly balanced dog. Being rescued as a puppy we know that her birthdate is January 1, 2000.

Heidi is the smallest of Amanda's gang. She was rescued from a puppy mill bust. Since Amanda swore she would never own a small dog or a chihuahua, you can guess that Heidi must be very special to have wiggled her way into Amanda's household. Don't let her small size fool you, Heidi has to have good manners and training just like her big sisters. She is happy to do so and is proud to be a good ambassador for the chihuahua breed. We estimate her birthdate to be September 13, 2006. Heidi competes in agility, obedience and rally. As of July 2010 she had obtained 8 titles. She has been ranked in the top 20 chihuahuas in the nation in agility.

The most recent to be added is Jersey. Jersey is a standard poodle born March 4, 2009. She was rescued when she was only 3 months old. Amanda is excited to have a young puppy (as opposed to rescuing them after adulthood.) She is able to thoroughly socialize her and train her young making her an excellent little dog. She is eager to learn and is going to be an excellent companion for Amanda to train and compete with. She is in the top picture with Amanda. So far Jersey has obtained two AKC Rally titles and seven AKC agility titles.

So far Amanda has obtained the following number of titles:
CD (Companion Dog): 4
CDX (Companion Dog Excellent): 1
RN (Rally Novice): 3
RA (Rally Advanced): 3
NA (Novice Agility Standard): 3
NAJ (Novice Agility Jumpers): 3
NF (Novice Fast Agility): 2
OA (Open Agility Standard): 3
OAJ (Open Agility Jumpers): 3
OF (Open Fast Agility): 1
XA (Excellent Agility Standard): 2
XAJ (Excellent Agility Jumpers): 2
MX (Master Agility Excellent): 1
MXJ (Master Agility Jumpers): 1
Various NADAAC Titles

John Crook
Manager/Handy Man

-Customer Service

John's been around since the very start of Pawtropolis. Being a long time friend of Amanda means he's put in sweat and tears in order to build Pawtropolis to what it is today. Now not only is he the husband of Amanda but an integral part of Pawtropolis. He helps with managing and also making sure all the maintenance is taken care of.

He is pictured here with all of our girls; Bailey, Heidi, Jersey and Kenzie.

 

 

 

 

Jessica Watkins
July 06 - Present
Kennel Manager

-Animal Caretaker
-PCSA Certified Level 1 Animal Care Technician
-PCSA Certified Level 2 Animal Care Technician
- Certified Pet First Aid
- Home Alone Pet Sitter

Jessica began working at Pawtropolis in 2006. From the day she walked into the doors she was like a sponge soaking up as much knowledge about dogs and dog behavior as she could. She took every opportunity to increase her skills at dog handling. Because of her superior work ethics, positive attitude, wonderful customer service, ability to lead the staff and much more, Jessica became our kennel manager in 2007. She has rose to every challenge I have presented her and continues each day to amaze and impress me. Pawtropolis couldn't have been luckier to find such a great person to head our management team.

Jessica continues to have a quest for knowledge. She enjoys learning more about every type of training method and being able to distinguish what to use with each dog. She loves working with the "difficult kids" because of the challenge and the opportunity for her to grow as a handler. She loves rehabilitating dogs especially who have trust issues and enjoys the experience of watching them become happy balanced dogs. One of her goals as a handler is to educate our clients on how to help them and their dogs become a balanced pack and why it is so important to do so. She embraces the responsibilities that come with being the kennel manager.

Her favorite daycare kids are: Blue, Remy,The Dorsey Gang, Kari&Tish, Sunfire& Starfox, Buster, Oscar, Bugsy, Tiki, and the Brewer Kids.

 

Sara Beth Pinson
May 06 - Present

-PCSA Certified Level 1 Animal Care Technician
- Certified Pet First Aid
- Home Alone Pet Sitter

Sara Beth is a graduate student at the University of Georgia working towards her Doctorate in Poultry Science.  As a graduate student, she no longer has the time to work regular shifts at Pawtropolis, but she still stays involved by doing Home Alone visits, volunteering with Helping Paws Rescue, and working in the Pet Boutique.  She enjoys performing Home Alone visits and loves having the opportunity to go into homes and care for all of the great dogs and cats (as well as the occasional bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, or goat) while their owners are away.  She considers herself lucky to be able to continue her relationship with Pawtropolis even though she can’t commit to working shifts. 

When not on campus or working with Pawtropolis, she enjoys volunteering at Athens Animal Control (where she takes pictures for the athenspets.net website), cheering on her beloved Bulldogs, and training her own dogs as well as foster dogs.  She has recently started competing in agility with Icey and is currently training Bailey and hopes to have him competing in the near future.

Even though she loves all of her Home Alone critters and would take on every scheduled visit if she could, she has a few who are near and dear to her heart.  She especially enjoys caring for  the Strickler boys (Loki, Balder, and Floyd), the Millers (Jake, Tessie, Pip, and Margo the bird), and sweet Sammy Smith.

 

 

Nicole Glowaz
October 06 - Present

- Animal Caretaker
-PCSA Certified Level 1 Animal Care Technician
- Certified Pet First Aid

Nicole is one of the most popular employees with the customers. The reason? Nicole is the one that takes the adorable pictures that you see on the blog and on our Paw Prints board. She has the best skill of catching the pets' at their cutest moments. Nicole has such a delightful personality. She is smiling and always upbeat. Other staff members look forward to working with her.

When not at Pawtropolis Nicole likes to take Dignan to the beach, photography, Reiki, cook, write screenplays, read non-fiction, Art Nouveau,  and watch movies. She'd like to someday travel to Prague, France, and Bali.

Her favorite daycare dogs include; Riley, Soy, Annie and Mia.

 

Anna Krueger
April 07 - Present
Office Manager

- Animal Caretaker
-PCSA Certified Level 1 Animal Care Technician
-PCSA Certified Level 2 Animal Care Technician
- Certified Pet First Aid
- Home Alone Pet Sitter

Anna is a ray of light here at Pawtropolis. She is such a wonderful asset to our staff. Even as a child, watching the Westminster Dog Show was a yearly tradition. Anna enjoys reading, watching movies, shopping and most of all learning obedience with her dog Angel. Angel was adopted from Helping Paws Rescue shortly after Anna started working here. Anna has worked wonders with this very shy dog.

Her favorite daycare dogs include; Bear, Moonpie, Blue, Tiki, Bugsy, Jake & Maddie, Moon Doggy, Brady, Annie Nelson and Abby Rozier

 

 

Shane Allen
October 07 - Present

- Animal Caretaker
- Home Alone Pet Sitter
- Pet Taxi Driver
-PCSA Certified Level 1 Animal Care Technician

Shane says his favorite thing in the world is dogs. What a perfect fit to work here! He jokes, "They are so much smarter than cats..or people, for that matter." He is currently training to be an internationally accredited dog obedience trainer with Animal Behavior College. He loves Danish butter cookies and Kahluah so much he could live off them (not at work, of course, lol.) He has two dogs, Mya, pictured here, and a Siberian husky named Blaze. Shane's hobbies are martial arts (he is a teacher,) playing guitar and hopefully one day the drums. Shane has been a great addition to our staff.

His favorite daycare dogs include; Molly Brown and Rocky.

 

 

Alison Wilbanks
January 08 - Present

- Pet Stylist

Alison attended the Internation Academy of Pet Design in Alpharetta, GA. Then she worked for a year in the Sandy Springs area. The three years before beginning at Pawtropolis Alison lived and groomed in Asheville, NC. She has experience with all breeds and does a wonderful job. She lives here in the Watkinsville area with her husband and her two furry babies, Scrappy and Zeus.

 

 

Emily House
May 08 - Present

-Animal Caretaker
-PCSA Certified Level 1 Animal Care Technician
-American Red Cross Pet First Aid Certified

Emily has been part of the Pawtropolis team since 2008. She attends Gainesville State College with a major in Biological Sciences/Pre-vet. Outside of working with the dogs at Pawtropolis Emily has two dogs of her own. Riley is a 3 year old Brittany mix (pictured here) and Rimie is a terrier/bassett mix about 2 years old.

Her favorite part about working at Pawtropolis is getting to work with the dogs. She loves being able to build relationships with the dogs that come often, plus there's always new experiences everyday when you work with animals.

Some of her favorite daycare dogs include; Annie Nelson, Riley Smith, Austin Mercer, Archer, Moonpie and the Akins gang!

Kelly Phillips
November 08- Present

- Home Alone Pet Sitter
-PCSA Certified Level 1 Animal Care Technician

Kelly has been working for Pawtropolis for quite some time now. She came to us owning zero dogs and now she has two. Kellie was here to help us when we rescued the pregnant yellow lab named Dixie. She also helped us take care of her 13 puppies. After a few weeks she decided she wanted to adopt one of the pups. Then after a couple of months she decided she wanted to adopt another. She explains that they are easier to train in pairs. She is actually pictured here with foster dog Sierra.

Her favorite daycare dogs include; Tillie, Moonpie, Hoppy, Wrangler, Maddie, Dog and Scout Stewart.

 

 

Lisa Collings
May 09- Present

- Animal Caretaker

Lisa started working at Pawtropolis in May of 2009. It took her no time to realize one of her favorite things would be helping the foster dogs. She is pictured here with her dogs Zima and Dakota, both previous Helping Paws fosters. She often volunteers her time taking fosters home or just spending extra one on one time with them. Lisa adopted Zima (pictured to the right) from Helping Paws Rescue back in July of 2009 and Dakota in April of 2010. Lisa wasn't deterred by the fact that Zima and Dakota have a few special needs.

Lisa is a graduate of the the University of Georgia, with a degree in Social Work. She'd love to be able to do animal assisted therapy as part of her career.

Her favorite daycare dogs include; Pudge, Punkin, Hardy, Rosie and Petey, and Lily.

 

 

Amanda Schilling
June 09- Present

- Animal Caretaker
-PCSA Certified Level 1 Animal Care Technician
-Home Alone Pet Sitter
-American Red Cross Certified Pet First Aid

Amanda started working at Pawtropolis the summer of 2009. Even from the start she enjoyed working with our fosters. In 2010 Amanda was also trained for our front of house position and does a great job with helping clients. She is pictured here with Franklin. Amanda rescued Franklin from Circle of Friends Rescue. Amanda has been accepted to the Veterinary Technician Program at Athens Tech and is excited to start.

Her favorite daycare dogs include; Ellie Whitfield, Millie Hughes, Rosie and Petey, Lexi and Stella....well, basically any pug that comes to daycare too!

 

 

Leigh Ann Epps
September 09- Present

- Animal Caretaker

Leigh Ann attends school at Gainesville State College studying business administration. Leigh Ann wanted to work at Pawtropolis because of her love of animals. She has her own pet named Riley, a little chihuahua. When not working or doing school work she enjoys going to the movies or just relaxing with Riley. Her favorite thing about working here is that it always seems like everyday is different. She also likes getting to do the hikes and bedtime stories.

Some of her favorite daycare dogs include; Kari & Tish, Abby Morris, Brady and Sophie and Prissie.

 

Amber Butler
September 09- Present

- Animal Caretaker
-PCSA Certified Level 1 Animal Care Technician
- Certified Pet First Aid

Amber is a college student. She is majoring in nutritional sciences/ dietetics. She is pictured here with one of her dogs Jasper. He is a young black lab that Amber and her husband enjoy doing obedience with. She has one other dog named Dixie plus helps with all of our foster dogs. Amber has really enjoyed learning as much as she can about dogs and dog behavior. She is definitely an asset to the Pawtropolis staff.

Her favorite daycare dogs include; Jake and Maddie March, Lucy D., Tiki, Ella Williams, and Abbagale

 

 

 

Amy Maxwell
September 09- Present

- Animal Caretaker
-Home Alone Pet Sitter
-American Red Cross Pet First Aid

Amy started working at Pawtropolis is September of 2009. She is a student at the University of Georgia majoring in Wildlife. She is pictured here with Montana and Sierra. After this picture Amy decided to adopt Montana. She enjoys spending time and training Montana. She loves being able to build relationships with both the pets and clients of Pawtropolis.

Some of her favorite daycare dogs include: Scout Stewart, Jake and Maddie, The Akin Gang, Rosey and Petey and Riley.

 

 

Kristina Black
October 09- Present

- Animal Caretaker
-PCSA Certified Level 1 Animal Care Technician
-Customer Service
-American Red Cross Pet First Aid Certified

Kristina started working here in October of 2009. She is a student at the University of Georgia. She has a double major of History and Classics. Her goal is to become a professor after graduating, and to continue helping animal rescue groups in any way she can!

Although she is pictured here with her favorite foster dog Derby, Kristina has two dogs of her own. Jet, an akita like mix, was adopted from Helping Paws Rescue, and she also has Brooklyn, a black lab/beagle mix that was also rescued. Kristina and Jet are constantly working on advanced obedience skills so that they can perfect having him off-leash.

Her favorite daycare dogs include; Spud, Hurrican, Rosie & Petey, Eli, Atticus, Puma and basically any goofy happy lab who walks through our doors!"

 

Morgan Hayward
January 10 - Present

- Animal Caretaker

Morgan is a student at the University of Georgia. She is majoring in Criminal Law. Moran is pictured here with Bowser. She adopted him from the Madison-Olgelthorpe animal shelter in 2008. She continues to help foster animals for both Circle of Friends and Pawtropolis. When Morgan isn't busy working or in school you can usually find her studying, taking Bowser to the dog park, going to the movies or just relaxing.

Some of her favorite daycare dogs include; Moonpie, Otto Butt, The Akins Gang and Belle Devaney.

 

 

Tara Helwig
October 10 - Present

- Animal Caretaker

Tara was actually friends with Amanda prior to working at Pawtropolis. She is a fellow dog agility addict. Tara competes in agility with her pug Paqui and her little jack russell/chihuahua mix Emmy. She's earned not only several AKC agility titles but USDAA as well. Paqui's the fastest agility pug I've seen. As pug owners will say, "you can't have just one," and it holds true with Tara, she owns two other pugs, Gavin and Bonnie.

Tara is loving working with the "pack" at Pawtropolis, getting to learn hands-on about dog behavior, dog training, pack leadership and how to help dogs with confidence or anxiety issues. She's even helped us with the fosters of Helping Paws Rescue.

Dogs aren't her only passion, Tara graduated from Berry College in 2007 with a B.A. in Spanish. She's taught Spanish here at Cedar Shoals High School for a few years and plans on finding another local teaching job in the coming years.

Some of her favorite daycare dogs include; Eli the Frenchie, Punkin, Ellie the pug, Winston the pug and Millie the pug (of course), Layla, Truman, Willis, Violet, Emmie and the giant Dinker.

 

Lauren Tharp
October 2010- Present

- Animal Caretaker

Lauren joined us right before a Thanksgiving, meaning she was thrown right into the busy season and handled it fabulously. Being here only a short time Lauren has already made herself a huge part of Helping Paws Rescue. She began fostering for us as soon as she was allowed.

Lauren really enjoys working with puppies and small breed fosters. She is currently studying Wildlife at the University of Georgia and really hopes to be doing something with animals for the rest of her life. She is pictured here with foster dog Hester, whom she thinks is a total joy. Hester has some special needs but that doesn't stop Lauren from playing with her in the playgroups.

Lauren currently helps trains her sister's chocolate lab named Oliver and will soon be the co-owner of a dalmatian puppy. Her two toy poodles Blaze and Chrissy and her cat Toulouse stayed at home with her parents.

Her favorite daycare dogs include; Rhodee MOMMAA, Wendell (wanna hotdog?!) and Cooper Gomer.

 

Nan Dove
November 10 - Present

- Grooming Assistant

Even though at the time all of our animal caretaker positions were taken, we knew we wanted to have Nan on our staff. Alison had been looking for a grooming assistant and Nan was more than happy to give it a try. It was a perfect fit! Nan has become a tremendous asset to our grooming department. She assists Alison however is needed and is learning more and more about grooming everyday.

Nan is the mother of two human children plus many animals on her farm. Nan's favorite ways to spend her off-time is barrel racing, spending time with her dogs Darla, Dubie, Gracie, her cat Patches and her birds. She also enjoys reading and spending time with her family.

Nan has thoroughly enjoyed working with us at Pawtropolis. When asked to tell us a few of her favorite dogs she replied, "I love and enjoy all the dogs at Pawtropolis. It is hard to have one favorite, they are all special."

Not all staff are pictured here.