Karen Gilmore and Nadja Palenzuel, the founders and owners of The Marvelous Mutts, have been training, competing and performing with dogs in agility, dock diving and canine disc since 1999.

Palenzuel got involved in training dogs and entering them in canine sports in 2001. “I adopted a dog in 2001 when I was living in Fargo, North Dakota, and she was picked up as a stray. Her name was Clementine, and she just turned out to be an amazing athlete.”

All of The Marvelous Mutts were adopted from shelters and rescues and do their best to show that rescued dogs can thrill audiences everywhere they perform.

They perform 500 shows a year, and when they are not on the road The Marvelous Mutts call the Hudson Valley Dog Farm, owned by Gilmore and Palenzuel, their home.

The canine cuties range in age from 2 years to 15 years and in size from 18 to 55 pounds and the mixed bag of rescues include, Australian Cattle Dogs, a Labrador retriever, a Border Collie, terriers and even a Malinois and a Dutch Shepherd.

“Through using the same training techniques we use at the Hudson Valley Dog Farm, the rag tag pack of misfits and former castaways have become some of the world’s most amazing canine athletes,” she said.

This group of skilled canines prove not only can you train an old dog new tricks you don’t need a pedigreed dog to have one of the best canine athletes acts in the world.