Janice’s ability to read dogs and get inside their heads is uncanny...one could go so far as to say that she is a ‘dog whisperer’ and communicates with them at their level.

Janice DeMello has been training & showing dogs since 1973.  Her success with her own dogs is nothing short of phenomenal!  She accomplished amazing achievements with two Irish Setters that earned their Obedience Trial Championship (OTCH), each with a perfect score of 200 in Utility, and her four Border Collies that completed their OTCH titles with a combined total of 19 perfect scores of ‘200’!  

Ms. DeMello was highly triumphant winning top-level obedience competitions such as the coveted Super Dog honors, and while many trainers can achieve success on their own personal dogs, it takes a gifted individual who can pass those same winning skills onto their students.  Janice is a master at both.  Before retiring from competition and teaching, Janice helped her students achieve a total of 21 perfect scores of 200, multiple High In Trial awards as well as World Series, Gaines Regional and Classic Obedience tournament wins.  Student successes also included multiple Herding, Obedience and Agility championships!

   Pictured above is Janice winning the Championship Hackney Pony Harness class in New England with one of the Hob Nob ponies that she trained.

Her achievements in herding have gained Ms. DeMello 7 Herding Trial Champions as well as several wins at the Pro Novice level in USBCHA herding trials.

The prefix ‘Hob Nob’ came from a small hackney pony farm owned by Mr. Rodenbush in Somerset, MA not far from where she grew up.  Janice spent her childhood years learning the art of training these high stepping show ponies and served as head trainer at Hob Nob stables throughout her high school years.

Along with her love of the Hackney ponies, Janice was always seen with a neighbor’s dog at her side.  Growing up in a family of 8 children, her father wouldn’t let her have a dog of her own.  A few years after graduating from high school and living on her own, Janice acquired her first border collie from Edgar Gould at Cooperlane Farm in Shelburne, MA......  

......that first border collie was a handsome chocolate and white male puppy she then named Widget & registered his official name as Hob Nob Optimistic in honor of the Hackney pony farm that offered her so much in her formative years.  

From 1985 through 2005, Janice traveled the country, competing very successfully in obedience competitions with her talented border collies as well as conducting obedience seminars in the USA and Canada, helping others to achieve their own successes

Janice’s next venture was to breed her own line of Hob Nob Border Collies.  Her foundation black & white bitch Static and red & white stud dog Juice were again from Cooperlane Farm.

These two border collies, while never bred to each other, are found in the pedigrees of many winning Hob Nob border collies famously known around the world!