Since 2012, South Paws Dog Resort has been serving our community by providing the highest quality dog training in the region. Owner Lynn Roberts with her husband George Gagel have dedicated themselves to caring for your dogs as if they are their own. In May of 2024 they decided to retire to spend more time with family and be on the road to dog shows whenever possible, but South Paws wasn’t done! Enter Caitlin Wynn, a familiar face with a fresh, youthful outlook.
Caitlin grew up watching her mother work in both the veterinary field and, subsequently, in the pet boarding, grooming, daycare, and training industry. She learned a lot about animal behavior and animal health from her mom. She used to enjoy watching the informational videos about heart-worm prevention, surgeries, taking blood, and other health related topics.
They even started a tradition every Thanksgiving of watching the National Dog Show together, which they continue now even though they reside miles apart from each other. Family pets, Samir (An American Cocker Spaniel), Serendipity (a Great Dane), and Binx (a Boxer), started her training experiences prior to working with other people’s dogs, and she learned a great deal over the years. Samir would guard some possessions including toilet paper.
She learned that the hard way and has a scar on her thumb from that one. Seren (Serendipity) was a high anxiety Dane and even locked herself in the bathroom once. Without certain energy outlets and teaching her that a crate, a room, and even the house is a safe space for her to be alone, Seren was a handful. Binx taught Caitlin to be confident and consistent. He was a stubborn guy, and Binx knew he could rule the house if allowed. Growing up she even witnessed a dog fight in her front yard among neighbors’ dogs and watched her mom knowledgeably and safely break it up.
When she turned 18, Caitlin started working at Best Friends in Marietta and Duluth, a pet boarding, daycare, and grooming place. She learned dog behavior in a professional setting and how to keep pets and people safe. In 2016 she came to Statesboro to start her B.A. in biology with a psychology minor at Georgia Southern University but continued to work at Best Friends in Atlanta during holidays from school.
She became a member of the South Paws team in 2018 and obtained her first dog, Millie. Millie became a guide for Caitlin about how to train in different fields with differing techniques. She participated in the dog training classes offered at South Paws: STAR Puppy, Beginners Rally, Trick dog, and Beginners Agility. They even learned dock diving together; however, Millie was not a fan. Caitlin began a limited breeding program for Australian Shepherds and Miniature American Shepherds in 2019. In 2020 she relocated to South Carolina for a little less than a year and worked at the SPCA there where she learned hands on about shelter behavior training and other concepts unique to the shelter dog world.
She also worked at PetSmart as a grooming apprentice for some time gathering even more knowledge on how dogs react towards grooming experiences. While in South Carolina, Caitlin additionally worked at a dog daycare known as The Dog Barn. Here she taught puppy training classes, a beginners rally class, along with barn hunt. She ended up moving back to Statesboro to once again work at South Paws in 2022.
She was beyond excited to come back to see all the familiar places, people, and dogs. She worked more closely with Lynn this time on training and even participated in teaching classes. She obtained her Canine Good Citizen instructor/evaluator certification in April of 2022 and even showed her first dog in an AKC conformation show that year. Caitlin left South Paws one final time in 2023 to try a different industry, marketing. That endeavor lasted all of four months before she came back to the animal field. She worked at Catnip-N-Biscuits for some time before going to Hipster Hound in Savannah to try to find her home in Savannah. No matter where she was throughout this journey, she always remembered South Paws Dog Resort and Lynn.
So, when the opportunity to take the reins and run South Paws came up this year, Caitlin took it. She’s a familiar face, a true South Paws family member. Along with two other longtime, highly valued employees, Ally Humphries and Taylor Marshall, the staff is ready, willing, and totally capable of taking the absolute best care of your four-legged family.
Services offered continue to include overnight boarding, daycare, bath, nails, limited grooming, and the outstanding training they’ve been recognized for four years in a row as Best of the Boro 2020-2024. And Lynn and George know that South Paws Dog Resort is in wonderful hands with Caitlin at the helm.