Instructor Adele Yunck

Updated June 2024

Adele began teaching obedience for the Ann Arbor Dog Training Club in 1987 while still working as a Software Engineer. She left the world of computers to start Northfield Dog Training in 1990. She teaches group classes and private lessons at her training facility in Ann Arbor. She is NDT’s head obedience instructor. Her main passion is teaching competition obedience classes. Her classes are made up of dogs from a large variety of breeds, from toys to giants. She really enjoys helping people learn the details that makeup competition obedience and rally. She also occasionally teaches beginning field training for retrievers. She has been teaching 2-day training seminars around North America since her first one sometime in the 1990’s. You can read more about her seminars here.

Adele earned her first CD in 1986 on her little Austrlian Terrier Casey. Her dogs and their titles:

Australian Terrier Casey (U-CD Hott Pursuitt on the Farm Am/Can UD) 1984-1997
Flat-Coated Retriever Tramp (Am/Can CH OTCH U-CD Grousemoor Some Like It Hot TD WC) 1985-1994
Australian Terrier Rio (CH OTCH U-CD Free For All on the Farm UDX TD; Can CDX) 1989-1996
Flat-Coated Retriever Treasure (CH OTCH U-UD Grousemoor Forget Me Not UDX RN OA OAJ WC; Can UD; RL-2; 1 leg on her JH earned at 11.5) 1993-2006
Border Terrier Java (OTCH U-CDX Riversides Magen’s Starbucks UDX2 RE AX AXJ; Can CD; RL3) 1997-2011
Border Terrier Joker (Kandu’s The Joker Is Wild UD RE; RL2) 2001-2014
Flat-Coated Retriever Gryffin (CH OTCH Grousemoor Gryffindor UDX OM1 RE MH WCX; RL3) 2003-2012
Flat-Coated Retriever Ty (CH Grousemoor Timeless UDX OM2 RE SH WCX; RL2) 2004-2017
Flat-Coated Retriever Sonic (CH OTCH Coastalight Primetime UDX3 OM7 GN GO RE MH WCX) 2011-2021
Border Terrier Jag (GCH CH OTCH4 Riverside Jaguar UDX4 OGM BN GN RE NA NAJ RATN) 2014-
Flat-Coated Retriever Tigger (CH OTCH Northfield Quantum Leap UDX3 OM5 RM MH WCX) (Sonic’s son) 2016-
Flat-Coated Retriever Clipper (CH Northfield Total Eclipse of the Moon CD BN RM JH WC) (Sonic’s daughter, co-owned with husband Fritz Yunck) 2018-
Flat-Coated Retriever Seven (Shootingstar Seven Sisters over Northfield JH WC) 2023-

Adele has titled 11 dogs (6 Flat-Coated Retrievers and 5 terriers) to the UD level, and earned 8 OTCH titles: five on Flat-Coats, one on an Australian Terrier (the breed’s first), and two on Border Terriers, as well as earning numerous High In Trial & High Combined awards and tournament placements over her 35+ year obedience career. Her 10th dog, Border Terrier Jag, went from CD to UD in 12 months, and completed his final title, the OGM (Obedience Grand Master) in May 2024. Her 11th dog, Sonic’s son, Tigger earned 2nd place in the Advanced Division at the 2018 Rally National Championship. He finished his UD on February 11, 2022 and his OTCH on February 10, 2023. He has four of five needed passes for his Master Hunter. When he completes that, he will be Adele’s 3rd CH OTCH MH, a rare combination of titles earned by retrievers.
Adele has competed at the AKC National Obedience Invitational/National Obedience Championship numerous times, and has been invited several more times, placing in the Terrier group with three different dogs, made it to the top 50 with Sonic in 2018, and placed 4th in the Terrier group with Jag in 2022 and 2023. Adele has also competed with her dogs in conformation, rally, agility, tracking, barn hunt, and hunt tests, earning the Master Hunter with her 1st hunt test dog, Gryffin, and Sonic. She is working hard in 2024 to complete Tigger’s Master Hunter and Clipper’s Senior Hunter, and prepare youngster Seven for many future titles.
Adele is the co-author of the book Competition Obedience: A Balancing Act (1998) and the video Positively Fetching: Teaching the Obedience Retrieves Using Food (1995). She self-published The Art of Proofing: Preparing Your Dog for Obedience Trials (2010), and in January 2011, she released an update of the retrieve video on DVD, now called Totally Fetching: Teaching and Proofing a Reliable Retrieve. She released Musings on a Balancing Act Volume 1: Essays on Competition Obedience during the pandemic shut down (2021).
Adele was an AKC Rally and Novice Obedience Judge (now retired) and served on the 2007 AKC Obedience Advisory Committee.
When Adele brought Sonic home in October 2011, she started recording training sessions with Sonic and began to release short training videos on YouTube that came to be called The Sonic Videos. There are several videos starring Border Terrier puppy Jag on her channel as well.
Adele has several on-line courses available for competition trainers, including her foundation course, FCOOL (Fundamentals of Competition Obedience On-line), which introduces all of the exercises she starts with her own puppies when they first come home. The courses are hosted in the Thinkific website @ https://northfielddogtraining.thinkific.com/
During COVID, Adele created her COPS (Competition Obedience Practice Sessions) program, doing Zoom sessions Monday-Friday of a 30 or so minute training session with one of her dogs. The Zoom sessions inspired a lot of people to get off their couch and train the dogs, Adele included! Although she stopped doing the Zoom sessions in April 2021, the Facebook group with links to all the YouTube recordings is still available here.
When Adele brought Seven home, she started a memberhip program called Bringing Up Seven, on which she shares videos of her training with Seven, as well as training logs and Zoom training sessions. As of June 2024, there are 731 videos and 65 hours of content. She is training Seven for obedience, Rally, hunt tests and conformation. For more information on the membership, click here.

Back to Instructors

Lisa Minnick

04:45 30 Jan 23

Great place! Knowledgeable instructors. Adele understands how to help people start with the very basics for a great foundation for a lifetime of success for hoke life and performance

Cleo Parker

17:35 09 Mar 22

Great for competition obedience and rally. Adele is completely breed agnostic and will help you adapt methods for your dog.

Chris-Ann Paterson Welton

22:58 03 Aug 20

Our experiences at Northfield Dog Training have tremendously enhanced our Golden Retriever's abilities and our overall relationship with him. We have all learned so much. We are honored to have Adele as an advanced obedience instructor and can't wait for what is next. Terry has also taught and helped us so much with the puppy training and to receive a Canine Good Citizen Title. All of our other interactions with folks there have been great as well. Wonderful teachers and people overall!

Kabrina Rozine

02:03 22 Dec 18

I have two dogs attending agility classes with Karen Tudor at NDT. Talk about a fabulous experience! Karen adjusts her teaching style to meet the needs of her students and their dogs. She understands the training goals each student has and helps them to work toward their personal goal. It doesn’t matter if your goal is to compete or to just have more fun with your furry best friend. If you are looking for a friendly and supportive environment that produces results when you are willing to put in the work, run (don’t walk) to Northfield!

Heather Ks

08:41 10 May 18

Great place to learn agility and hone your skills whether you are beginner or seasoned pro! Karen Tudor is an awesome trainer whether you are just starting out or looking for help in competition. She gives you the basics in the intro classes with a lot of foundation work needed for you to build on for future plus creating a better bond with you and your dog. For the beginner class, it's a great place to start to see if agility something for you and your dog. ?. In the advanced classes, she provides tools needed to compete in agility with your four legged friend. For competition level, you are given feedback to make your weekend trials more successful! Karen ROCKS!!