AM K9 Training

02/12/2024

AMK9 Training is finally in full operation of board and trains and would like to offer you all some special savings.

From puppy programs to behaviour modification, we promise to take care of your furry family member the same way you would while focusing on their training so you can live in harmony with your best friend. They stay right in the heart of our own home and enjoy the same luxuries as our own personal dogs.

Check out our website for more details and use our contact form to send in an inquiry.

Dates are booking fast 🥰

01/13/2024

If you look really closely you can see his hair blowing in the wind like the majestic mountain dog he is. Cooper arrived yesterday for a little snowy getaway while his parents luckily escape the cold for a week. Cooper and his owners are also privately training with us to build up his confidence. While he looks big and confident, sometimes things are really scary to him - like humans and boxes and loud noises.

Being away from his parents, with a newer person and a new environment is a big step and I must say he’s being pretty darn brave 💪🏻. He mostly likes to sleep, frolic through the deep snow, watch the neighbourhood from his snow throne and get treats.

01/13/2024

Hendrix came for a little staycation last weekend while his momma was away and boy is he a fun little dude. Hendrix has already done private training with us for reactivity and he has for sure come a long way ♥️. I was his first time being away from family and the first night was a little rough - I ended up sleeping on the floor beside his crate 😅 - but after his anxiety subsided that he settled in nicely and even warmed up to Mike.

Hendrix is going to be continuing private lessons with his dedicated owner to help him channel his herding genetics into something other than chasing kids on toboggans ❄️

11/08/2023

We have an exciting giveaway for all of you ♥️

10/10/2023

HUGE congratulations to .amk9training and handsome Kobe for passing their BH! Adding Victoria to the team was the easiest decision I’ve ever had to make. She’s driven, works hard, and is 110% committed to her dogs and all the dogs she boards and trains. She even helps me keep my ass in gear 😂.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

08/17/2023

Mister Willow the spicy double merle Aussie looking ever so handsome in his flower muzzle.

Buckle up, this is a long one (sorry).

Some of you may not know that breeding two dogs with the merle gene can produce offspring with two copies of the merle gene. Double merle dogs have a high chance of having hearing and vision impairments, and sometimes this results in complete deafness and / or blindness.

Despite being completely deaf and having vision impairments, Willow’s owner has dedicated a ton of her free time (and I mean a TON) to training him and working on his reactivity. His obedience is top notch and he even knows some tricks! He and his mom have figured out their own way of communicating, even though we still talk to him as though he can hear us 😅.

Due to Willow’s deafness, he has a fairly high startle response resulting in barking and lunging, especially at cars. He is also reactive to some people close to his home and neighbourhood. We don’t know how much of his vision is impaired but we do know that he can see 🥰. We suspect that some of his reactivity towards people is from being unable to recognize certain things like canes, hats and masks etc.

Despite all that Willow truly is such a sweet boy who just needs some time to check you out to make sure you’re not dangerous. Once he loves you, boy does he love you and he will shove his head between your legs to initiate some snuggles and pets. I’ve also learned that he is a VERY big fan of liver.

Our training involves working on his startle response, and desensitizing him to cars and people. We are implementing some food games and exercises that allow him some autonomy. He gets to choose what humans he approaches and who he doesn’t. Giving dogs a sense of autonomy is SO important for every dog, but especially reactive dogs. It builds their confidence and their trust in their owner.

Remember, your reactive dog doesn’t have to like people touching them, we just want them to be neutral and calm around their triggers. Our goal is to create a neutral dog so he can return to his off leash adventures with his mom. 👏🏻.

08/15/2023

Mister Ozzie the Aussie and his owner came to me for some serious leash training. He’s a very excitable boy who likes to get everywhere very very fast. I don’t blame him, I like to get where I’m going as fast as possible, it’s called ✨efficiency✨.

He is now working his brain extra hard learning fun tricks, and like a typical Aussie is catching on so fast! His owner is dedicated to fulfilling all his physical and mental needs and I’m totally here for it 👏🏻

08/15/2023

This spotted beauty is Pearl. Pearl is actually a rehome from one of Mike’s ex-coworkers to our friends. From the time I met Cassie almost 5 years ago, she always talked about how she was going to get a Dalmatian once she was a firefighter. Well, she reached both of those goals 👏🏻. We already knew Pearl was a very social and sweet girl and we knew Cassie and Yannick would be the perfect home.

Pearl’s previous owner gave her so much love and attention, but due to new additions she couldn’t give Pearl what she needed so she selflessly rehomed her. It is never ever an easy decision to rehome your dog, but I truly to commend anyone who’s done this knowing it was what’s best for the dog.

Pearl is now an only child and getting spoiled to death. She loves to go to work with mom and model for dad when he breaks out the camera. She already knows all her commands and some tricks, but they wanted to work on building their relationship and teaching her neutrality so they joined one of my client only classes where she is doing fantastic 👏🏻

07/31/2023

Mister Niko giving the happiest hello’s 😍

07/30/2023

Pugs are seriously underestimated. Mister Franklin is smart as a whip and is a professional parkour doggy and baby gate jumper. I began working with his sister for reactivity and Franklin joined in on the fun and is now learning some fun tricks to keep his mind busy 😍

07/26/2023

Giving the dogs a little relief from the heat during our Tricks for Treats class. Luckily one of the handlers is so he brought out his camera 👏🏻

06/19/2023

OBVIOUSLY I had to do a post to introduce AMK9’s newest employee, Draco. .amk9training / has a new furry family member! I can’t wait to see how he grows and how they excel@doing bitey things 😍😍😍

06/06/2023

Victoria Marie and Alyssa Madeleine are beyond blessed to be nominated. Thank you to our clients for adding us to the list ♥️

Official 2023 Community Voting Awards Platform for Ottawa, ON. Where the community votes for their favourites every year.

04/04/2023

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY to the girl who has saved my life in so many ways without knowing it.

Her birthday is extra special today because she’s turning 4 on the 4th day of the 4th month

Everyone has a heart dog, and while she drives me absolutely up the wall some days, thinking about how old she is still makes me sob because I wish I could keep her forever.

This morning she got her west paw topple filled with her favourite wet food and kibble, later we will go on an outdoor adventure where she hopefully will not run through the mud but we all know she probably will. Then a trip to the pet store so she can pick out whatever her heart desires (with some exceptions, of course), a steak dinner and a birthday cake.

Also she will get to bite her bite wedge because it’s her favourite thing in the entire universe.

Happy birthday Blue ❤️

03/05/2023

Obi-Wan Kenobi aka Obi

I worked with Obi over the summer (yes I know, it’s late, I’m bad at social media) and what an enthusiastic boy. His mom was about to have another baby so they needed his obedience to be top notch like his unicorn husky brother.

Some sessions I had him all to myself and we had so much fun. His owners definitely put in the work 👏🏻. He has the sweetest temperament he just gets a little over excited sometimes 🤭

03/04/2023

If there was an award for name best suited for a dog, Loki would 100% hands down win that.

Loki is not just your standard mischievous, full of attitude husky. He also likes to keep you on your toes by climbing onto desks and dressers, and when he’s bored in the backyard he might just try to jump the fence - which is why he wears a long line in the backyard.

Loki and his mom did training with me right from when he was just a little wee thing. He’s very smart and picks up things quickly, but, when he done, he’s done. From the time he was a puppy to full grown, he would shove himself under the cot bed and refuse to come out. When he was full grown he did not fit but that didn’t stop him 😂 perseverance at its finest 👏🏻.

He and his mother were and absolute joy to train with.

02/26/2023

I am so proud to live in a town that will drop everything to help a dog in need. It was a long four days of searching after another sighting and yesterday we were able to catch her. So many people came out to help, and it was absolutely amazing.

She is a Great Pyrenees or a GP mix who we think was a byb female breeding dog who was dumped after the breeder got their monies worth out of her. She was extremely neglected and needs to be seen by a vet.

You can help with the vet bills here

As some of you from Richmond may know, this beautiful Great Pyrenees dog has been wander… Maya Winterhalt needs your support for Help for Richmond Rescue Dog

02/26/2023

This post isn’t about training, it’s about the amazing things you can do when people come together to reach the same goal.

On February 15th this beautiful girl was seen in the fields just outside of Richmond, but then there were no more sightings of her and everyone thought she was found by her owner.

But she wasn’t.

On Wednesday (Feb 22) she was sighted again, but she was much skinner. When I saw the post I walked over to Mike and said “I’m going out to find a lost dog” and he didn’t even question me, we were getting a storm and we needed to get this dog to safety.

There were no lost postings of a Great Pyrenees anywhere, we checked with the city, shelters, and all the lost fb groups. She was just dumped, and she was in rough shape

With the help of some people in the Richmond fb group I was able to find her tracks in the field and track her into a forest, but it got dark and there’s coyotes there… and wolves.

The next day she wasn’t sighted at all, I drove around the area hoping to see tracks but I didn’t. On Friday we were getting the wicked cold snap so I posted in the group that I was going to put a soft crate, blankets and some food where I tracked her and there was a lot of footsteps. I couldn’t find her so I headed home. Not long after, someone posted a sighting so I headed back out where I met Ashlee, she had brought a ton of blankets and was going to help me find her. Sure enough I turned around to look towards where they saw her and she was trotting in the field and crossed the road. That’s when Ashlee and I started our rescue attempt, but being a Great Pyrenees, she wanted nothing to do with us. While Ashlee watched her I ran through the forest hoping I could get close enough and could come out of the woods and show her that I was putting food down. At first she just sat there, but then she left, so we drove to the other road where she was headed and she came and crossed the road and that’s when Chris joined us to help.

Chris and I went into the fields hoping we could cut her off. Then I got to witness her chasing off a coyote and that coyote was booking it away, I love genetics.

I had a session but Chris stayed to try and catch her still. Later that night a lovely farmer gave us a bail of hay to put in the crate to keep her warm but luckily she found a barn to sleep in.

Yesterday (saturday) we headed out again around 11:15 no food was eaten and we didn’t see her anywhere. There had been guys out since 9am that morning with no luck. I had to get to a client so I started home but as I was two minutes away a lady (I’m so sorry I didn’t get your name but because of you it started the whole final search) called me and told me she spotted her and she went into where the crate and food was. We posted on our group and volunteers came out on foot, in cars and on four wheelers. We had people on Facebook telling us where she was and we tried to catch her for 3 hours. In the snow and the cold, but no one even thought of giving up. We chased her in and down and across the fields. I was able to get pretty close twice but then she got spooked. Thank you dearly to my clients who postponed sessions to allow me to stay out there.

We had volunteers on every road surround the area to update us on her location and we were able to push her into a wide open field.

The people (I’m sorry I don’t know their names but I’m going to get them) on the four wheelers were amazing to watch, they literally herded her like a border collie until she was too tired to run. Two people jumped on her and were able to secure her and she bit out of fear, but once we got her inside she finally knew she was safe, even if she was still terrified.

One of the volunteers now has her in her home where she can finally rest, and resting she did.

This girl right here is the reason we all hate back yard breeders. She was bred until they got their monies worth out of her and ditched her in the fields. She is so skinny with overgrown dew claws and she is terrified of people. The breeders just dumped her. This sweet girl. Dumped.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who helped us catch her, from the people updating on fb to the people on foot, in cars, and on the four wheelers. You were all amazing and now I can sleep knowing she’s not out there in the cold avoiding coyotes and two very large wolves.

02/20/2023

Happy Family Day from Alyssa and her Kangaroo 🦘

📸

02/19/2023

Sweet little Pepa, and when I say little, I mean little.

Pepa had a hard beginning to her life. She was kenneled for far too long, tied up, and neglected because the owner didn’t have the time for her. Luckily she found her way to the best owner!

Pepa is such a peppy girl! She came to me for obedience, especially recall and reactivity around and in the home. Now of course we have to take genetics into account, but we needed to tone it down. She was so eager to learn.

I want to also take the time to talk about aversives in training. I’m a balanced trainer, I use ecollars and prongs on some dogs, but some people forget that other things can be aversive.

Remember - your dog gets to decide what is aversive and what isn’t. Do you use a halti / head collar and your dog is constantly trying to get it off? That’s because they dislike it, so it’s Aversive to them. If you’re going to use a head collar you do need to condition your dog to it :)

We did ecollar training with Pepa and do you know what was aversive to her? The tone, she would run and hide in the bedroom 🥺. Now of course I don’t know her whole history but o would guess that she was on an electric fence or an ecollar that gives a warning beep, and the stim was likely too high.

Overall, amazing job Pepa and a huge shout out to her owner for giving her the life she deserves ♥️

02/19/2023

Saoirse the big and soft Newfie

What a sweet sweet girl she is, but she is nervous around strangers. Her owners contacted me after they moved and she starting showing reactivity around strangers and planting herself in the middle of roads if she didn’t want to continue. She would also plant herself if both of her owners weren’t going on the walk. As you can imagine it’s not so easy to move a Newfie 😅

She is doing FANTASTIC in training, her confidence has built up so much since the first session 👏🏻 and has done two in store sessions that she absolutely rocked.

Something we don’t hear a lot about is food games but so many trainers incorporate it into their training! We used food games for a lot of our training, and with food games we were able to get her out of her planting mindset and into a fun and engaging game.

Nothing makes me happier than watching a dogs confidence go up. Her owners should be so proud!

02/18/2023

Schnapps aka the cutest⚡️pikachu ⚡️that there ever was.

Schnapps is joining in on his brother W***y’s training and he sure does love it! I mean, there’s lots of treats so I don’t blame him.

Schnapps is actually a very important part of W***y’s training. Once W***y watched Schnapps interact with me, he settled much quicker than our first session where Schnapps wasn’t present and was able to focus on training instead of focusing on me, a stranger in the house.

Schnapps learns quickly and is extremely biddable, making him quite easy and fun to train.

His owners dedication to both dogs is allowing them to make great improvements. When you put in the work, you get results 👏🏻

02/17/2023

Franklin the parkour dog 🐕

Franklin is Sasha’s younger brother (two photos back) and he is joining in on her training since he’s a growing boy and holyyyy does he LOVE to train. He’s the second pug that I have trained that is this enthusiastic about training and I’m here for it. Not only is it fun to watch him learn everything, I especially enjoy watching him parkour around the house as full speed 😂 I think agility is in his future 🔮

02/17/2023

W***y the black nosed reindog 🦌

This sweet boy is a poodle x gsd rescue who going through reactivity training. While outside he gives me a big tough show, I know deep down he is the goodest boy who is just a little scared.

While we don’t know his past 100%, it is apparent that he lacked proper socialization and was possibly abused 😞. Unfortunately the rescue didn’t disclose this reactivity to my clients but they are working their asses off let me tell you!

He’s very curious and intelligent, but he’s quite fearful of humans, he even reacts at humans while he is driving in the car.

His owners have been following the training plan to a T and I can see it every time we do our sessions. His confidence is building, he’s catching onto all the obedience incredibly quickly, and the owners walks are slowly getting better and better.

I’m very excited for the day where he decides that we can be best friends and where his owners can have people come into the home, take a drive, go for a walk, and visit friends without being anxious and worried.

02/17/2023

Spicy Sasha 🌶️ the Yorkie x sh*tzu

Sasha is a sweet little Angel with eyelashes that every girl would die for.

Sasha has been taking part in reactivity training over the past couple of weeks and I have to say WOW. When we started Sasha wouldn’t take food outside because she was so over-stimulated, even just putting on her harness immediately hyped her up.

This is where the relaxation protocol comes in handy. We started at the front door, and when she was relaxed, we left the house and started all over again on the front step, then the driveway, and finally the road. I’m bad at taking videos so I’ll try next session but she was so engaged with her owner during our walk that she ran out of treats!

02/13/2023

Itty bitty Sophie the ball hoarder ⚽️

Sophie killed some basic obedience today with her momma and gave us so many laughs. She is one of the chillest gsd’s I’ve ever met, I personally think she was a soccer goalie in a past lifetime.

I’m so excited to see her progress. Unfortunately I won’t be able to help her owner with the mouth river she leaves after she has a little drink 😂

02/01/2023

I’ve already posted Roo but she is back! Her owner is currently training her to be a therapy dog and she will do FANTASTIC. She’s neutral around dogs, she’s social, she’s sweet as candy, and overall is just a sold doggy. The one thing we need to work on is leaving the plate of food. With her owner she’s great, but she definitely takes advantage of when her owner isn’t looking - such an opportunist.

I’m so excited for her and her owner. Therapy dogs are so important and bring so much joy to retirement homes, homes for dementia patients and so on.

This is so exciting and special to me because my own aunt has early onset stage 4 Lewey body dementia and when she comes over she gets completely immersed and excited watching Blue do all her tricks.

Pets really are magical.

02/01/2023

Miss Kona, I have yet to give her a nickname, I’m working on it but I’m not good at them 😅

Kona and her owner completed basic obedience with ease. Her owner did an absolutely fantastic job structuring Kona’s days. Structure is so important in your dogs life and is something that is often overlooked. Kona is so smart and has a very solid temperament. She even learned how to leave the cats alone, which takes incredible impulse control.

My favourite thing is watching her prance, she has fancy feet for sure! I’m excited to watch her grow, and she’s never too far from the AMK9 family since she gets to join Victoria for boarding!