About Power Up Pups
Power Pups will give you personalized attention to address the issues that matter to you the most. We want you to enjoy the pet you have in your home and help you have a compatible and happy experience. We can help you learn what your dog’s needs are and help you learn to communicate what you expect of them.
Who We Are
Liz Purkaple CPCFT, VSA-CDT Online is the owner and head trainer of Power Pups. Liz is currently working on a Master of Science degree in Animal Science and Behavior to understand the research of how dogs learn and how to effectively train them. In 2019 Liz completed the course to become a Certified Professional Canine Fitness Trainer and in 2021 she became a graduate with distinction from the Victoria Stilwell Academy online dog trainer course. She has been working with other people’s dogs for over 5 years and has been training and trialing with her own dogs for 10 years. She has learned to observe dogs and their owners and can provide feedback to help these teams find success.
She has successfully competed with her English Springer Spaniels, Magic and Ergo, in musical freestyle, scent work, rally obedience, barn hunt, and agility. She is mostly focused on musical freestyle and scent work at this time and is hoping to grow the sport of musical freestyle in the St. Louis area. After growing up with many cats and no dogs, she has also successfully taught tricks to felines.
It is thrilling to watch owners when they see their dogs do things they couldn’t imagine. After being an accountant for several years, Liz decided to change course and start Power Pups, driven by a desire to teach people to communicate and coexist with another species. Working with sports dogs and seeing injuries from unconditioned dogs prompted Liz to learn about fitness and conditioning to help prevent injury to her own dogs and her students’ dogs.
Liz’s first dog, River, taught her the importance of positive reinforcement training in dealing with her resource guarding and medical issues. Her priority in dog sports is to compete well with a happy dog in the ring. She has worked with world class trainers to learn methods of teaching dogs to perform precision behaviors without corrections. Liz is dedicated to continuing her own education and doing the very best for her students and their dogs.
Thank you so much for working on fitness with me and Brady. I really mean that. I learned a lot, and Brady was the one who really benefited. Him and any other dog I may have in the future. Plus, it was fun.
— Patty and Brady