Julija Kinghorn

BSc (hons) (Melb Uni)

National Dog Trainers Federation (NDTF) accredited behaviourist

Julija has been training dogs at a professional level for the past 18 years.

Always being interested in animal behaviour, her BSc Honours project involved studying the diving behaviour of Little Penguins at Phillip Island.  She completed the Dog Trainer Certification Course through National Dog Trainers Federation the same year.

Julija instructed at a leading dog training company for four years before starting her own business, Southern Cross Animal Stars.  She developed training programs for dogs of all ages and abilities at a big veterinary clinic for 8.5 years before taking a break for family.  Continuing to conduct private lessons and run puppy classes at some veterinary clinics during this time her passion for training and canine bond building hasn’t wavered.

Always having a strong interest for training tricks and ‘all things different’ when it comes to dogs, Julija developed her ever popular Beginners Tricks and Advanced Tricks training programs.  She also developed and instructed fun and interactive Puppy Classes and all levels of obedience training for the everyday pet dog.

In addition to classes, she also does behaviour consults for owners of dogs with issues ranging from fears and anxieties, over-reactivities and dog-to-dog socialisation problems.  As training benefits not only the dog, but also the owner/dog bond, she has seen how important is to make training fun, enjoyable and surprisingly easy.

Julija has also built Southern Cross Animal Stars into an animal agency, providing animal wrangling services for TV, film and commercial photoshoots.  She has 14 years experience of having animals on-set and doing live performances.  Running the occasional workshop, you could join her for a rare insight into this special area of training and learn some important tricks of the trade.

As well as having fun with tricks, she loves teaching pre-performance skills for competitive agility.  Also competing with her own dogs in agility, she is a registered ANKC agility judge.