Take A Lead is all about dogs, every staff member has a special affinity with our four legged friends.
Aggy Ager – Head Trainer & Owner of Take A Lead 
Aggy Ager is the owner and head dog trainer of Take A Lead. Growing up in Germany, her early ambition was to become a marine biologist. However, as she is a horrible scuba diver and the ocean was far from where she lived, becoming a dog trainer was the passion she ended up pursuing over a decade ago. Understanding and studying dog behaviour is one of Aggys passions, she attends various dog seminars and lectures throughout the year to expand her knowledge. Her current studies are focused on scent detection, where her knowledge base is slowly growing.
Now based in Sydney, Aggy runs her own training and dog behaviour business, Take A Lead. She and her Team offer behaviour consultations, Doggy Day School, training walks and puppy Pre-school.
Created by Aggy, Doggy Day School is a one-of-a-kind doggy daycare facility where dogs are not only cared for but trained so they go home smarter and better behaved.
At home, Aggy shares her life with her canine comrade, rescue mutt Flickr, Shadow the rescue long neck turtle, plus Sushi and Margot the goldfish.
Aggy holds Degrees in Business Administration and Dog Behaviour and Training as well as a certified Puppy School Instructor. When she isn’t busy helping and training her clients and their dogs, you will find her spending time with her young family sailing on Pittwater.
Marla – Dog Trainer 
Growing up in the Philippines, Marla was always obsessed with dogs. The different breeds and their personalities fascinated her but because the pet industry doesn’t thrive too well in her country she ended up in the corporate world. Eventually, Marla listened to her heart and relocated to Australia to pursue a career with her favourite animals.
After starting out as a dog groomer, Marla found dog training was her true calling. She is fascinated with learning why dogs behave the way they do and how we can guide them to be their best selves. Now, she works under the mentorship of Aggy, teaching puppy classes and helping out at the doggy dayschool casually. She gained her qualification with the National Dog Trainers Federation of Australia.
Marla and her family enjoy dog sitting on the side. You might find her walking one of them at Sydney Park!
Andrea – Apprentice Dog Trainer
Andrea – is made in Italy and we love his warm attitude with the dogs and the owners. He loves training dogs. In his past life he was a chef and made the best Pizza in Sydney. Thanks to his past he is multi tasking and so keen to learn. We are excited to have him on board learning how to train dogs.
Rebecca – Dog Trainer Day School & Training Walks
Rebecca not only has a degree in Animal and Veterinary Bioscience where she was able to work with all different animals, from Tasmanian Devils to turtles to miniature donkeys. After she realised it was possible to make her love of dogs into a career she hasn’t looked back and has been working with dogs for 4 years – her passion is to help dogs with behavioural issues feel happy and confident so that they can live their best lives with their families. We are exited to have Rebecca join Take A Lead and show off her talents.
Jimmy – Dog Handler – Farm Trips & Training Walks
Jimmy joined us in March 2022 and learned for two months under Aggy supervision how our training walks run. Jimmy loves the dogs and the dogs love him. He secretly sings to them his favourite songs in the van when driving them to the park. His CV impressed us when we read he drove a double decker bus over Londons Tower bridge. He will lead the way with our new farm bus our new adventure – Take A Lead Farm Trips.
Annalise – Dog Trainer Apprentice- Doggy Day School
Annalise the newest member of our team has been working with dogs for over 6 years, she entered the industry with a course for prepping dogs for grooming, she then later became a dog handler and dog walker. The dogs at doggy day school love her, she brings with her a loving calming nature that rubs off on the dogs when Annalise is around. In the near future we will be showing her the ropes of training dogs and she will sign up to become a certified dog trainer in the near future.
Ilaria – Training Walks Dog Trainer
Illaria is one of our newest recruits and has been doing some dog walking in her previous life and now wants to make it a career move by joining the amazing team learning all about dog training. She loves the training walks and will be running them Tuesdays/ Wednesday and Thursdays. Watch out puppies she is super active and will teach you a few new tricks.
Franco- Dog Trainer
Franco joined our team and is showing off his 7 years of dog training experience he obtained in his home country Argentina. From training and walking dogs in the streets of Argentina, he is now going to cover various areas within Take a Lead. You will see him around at our doggy day school, on farm trips and covering sick and holiday leave on training walks as well as assisting us during boarding periods.
Margherita (or Maggie for short) – Dog Trainer
Meet Margherita or Maggie as we like to call her. Yes! We have another Italian working with us. Aggy is busy learning Italian now to fit in. There is always a moment in time where you decide to become a dog trainer for Maggie is was working as a volunteer in the shelter in her home town in Sicily a few year ago. Maggie quickly realising that one of the major hurdles for adopting dogs is the lack of training, and made it her goal to become a dog trainer. As life sometimes is, she finished her certificate and ended up moving too beautiful Sydney, where she rescued her big little puppy named Totò (typical Sicilian name!) .
Latisha – Dog handler and social media & marketing guru at Doggy Day School
“Latisha has always had a strong connection with animals. Growing up on a small farm in Australia, she found animal care most rewarding, so much so, she has volunteered and undertook studies at Taronga Zoo. After having previously worked as a Vet Receptionist, Latisha has developed a great interest in dog behaviour and understanding their individual personalities which has led her to join the team here at Take a Lead! In her spare time, Latisha enjoys painting animal portraits under the watchful eyes of her fur-babies, Lilith the cat and her puppy Ruko!”
Laura – Dog Trainer
Laura moved from Germany to Australia in 2015. She has always had a passion for working with dogs and animals and incorporating an active lifestyle into sharing a hobby with our pets. She spent 2017 in New Zealand working on a dairy farm managing the cattle with the help of her four legged friends – horses and dogs. After returning to Sydney Laura’s passion for working with animals continued; gaining experience caring for racehorses in the stables. Now living permanently in Sydney, Laura has decided to dedicate her time to working with dogs as a member of Take A Lead which allows her to not only make working with dogs her career, but also learn from the talented crew on how to best communicate with our canine friends. As a trainer, her goal is to strengthen your bond with your companion through the love of a shared activity.