Michael is an internationally renowned dog trainer and teacher with nearly forty years of experience in competitive dog sports and companion dog training. Michael started his career as a teacher of dog trainers in 1996 when he began giving seminars and clinics to training clubs and organizations around the world. Over the next thirteen years, he taught extensively to a very diverse group of professionals and hobbyists, from competitive sports trainers, police departments, and the US military, to search and rescue groups, service dog agencies, and pet dog trainers. During this period Michael taught over three hundred seminars in the US, Canada, and South America, which comprises more than one thousand days of lecture and practical work, not to mention many hours of private training and coaching. Michael’s clear, concise, and patient style made him one of the most popular coaches of trainers in the country, and he did much to popularize the use of reward-based techniques in the world of protection sports.

In 2009, Michael stopped traveling full-time in order to open the Michael Ellis School for Dog Trainers. In the ten years since the opening of the school, he has helped more than one thousand individual students, the majority of whom have taken multiple classes, on their journeys to become better trainers. Many MES graduates have gone on to be highly sought-after professional trainers and respected members of the training community at large.

In 2008, Michael started a collaboration with Leerburg Enterprises and Ed Frawley to produce training videos and online classes. This partnership continues to this day. These resources have helped the growth of many thousands of trainers and aspiring trainers around the world.

In addition to teaching, Michael has competed in, and done decoy/helper work, for multiple club and national level events in both IPO(IGP) and the ring sports (Mondioring and French ring). He was one of the first Mondioring decoys certified in the US, and one of the first members of USMRA. He has coached national champions in several disciplines, and many national and international competitors, but he is perhaps most proud of the now thousands of club level and beginning trainers that he has helped to improve their communication, knowledge, and physical skills.