JK9 Pet Services, LLC

11/03/2024

Don't forget to turn your clocks back!

11/03/2024

11/03/2024

My goal is to hopefully play flyball with V***n. So I have been introducing her to a tennis ball and providing her positive feedback for engaging with the ball. Hopefully this will eventually lead to her picking it up and bringing it back to me. She has started to offer that behavior on her own, but our first session she showed absolutely zero interest in the ball and she happened to touch it with her nose and I praised her for that behavior. She learns very fast so now she's starting to mouth the ball or pick it up for praise only as her motivation. Eventually I'll use reward markers and food once she learns that in a totally separate part of her training.

11/03/2024

I am not liking the shorter days and colder weather at all, but it was a pretty nice day today. Duke and Ahsoka made the best of it though and got lots of time outside and lounging around the house. I still have a headache from my MRI yesterday so it was a lazy day today for everyone just enjoying the day.

11/03/2024

All of my dogs participate in training sessions through play. Teaching a dog to play with their Handler helps build a bond as well as provides a positive tool to use during training sessions. Play is always done separately from obedience for quite some time for me and then it gets added in as part of my rewards based system. This is simply because dogs can't process that much information in one sitting. V***n has never ever interacted with a toy. This is a flyball tug and the first time seeing it she sniffed it and did nothing... which is huge! It may seem insignificant, but praising them for even looking at a tug or toy brings a positive association to that item. This is her 3rd time with this tug, every session has been a minute or 2 long tops, and she gets praised anytime she interacts with the toy because she does super well with praise as feedback for her. She loves being told she's doing something right. Hopefully eventually she will actually want to tug and play with tugs and toys with me during interactive play. Not all dogs play, and that's okay! This is just something I like to use during training if I can.

11/03/2024

Since a few people seemed interested, the first step I do with any dogs I'm either testing out or keeping is exposure, exposure, exposure. It's all neutral based interactions, they shouldn't want to play with everything and they shouldn't have bad associations with things either. They just need to SEE as much as possible, especially at a young age. V***n is behind the times with her back story so it's at her speed, not anyone else's. Today she went to a birthday party/BBQ and just hung out. People appropriately said hello to her, but I also made sure to advocate for her space and for her needs explaining she's a rescue and still brand new to the world. She also got to meet some farm animals! Another very important thing i teach to my dogs is doing nothing. That's right... nothing, just hang out, lay down and relax, and self entertain and do absolutely nothing. It's insanely important for working dogs or high energy breeds to learn this.

11/02/2024

How many people would be interested in me posting regular training sessions with V***n once she gets more settled? If there's interest in seeing my methods from square one I can post more often about her progress opposed to the occasional post. I've been just letting her decompress and adjust for a bit, but formal training will start soon.

11/02/2024

Next weekend!!!

Get ready to enjoy three days of non-stop entertainment and an unbeatable, one-stop venue for 300 vendors of pet products and services!

presented by Healthy Pet Products invites you -- and your pets on leash -- to David L. Lawrence Convention Center Nov 8 - 10 for the country's largest pet expo.

Skip the line and purchase your tickets today: https://pghpetexpo.com/

11/02/2024

Not a super fun day overall, I had an MRI done today, so less photos and more napping after that ordeal for everyone. Ahsoka and Duke are still both doing amazing though. It's always so nice when a brand new client dog makes themselves at home so quickly. I always stress so much with making everyone happy and comfortable here.

11/01/2024

November means holiday travel, colder weather, and shorter days. Get ahead of holiday travel and book a stay for your dog. I am limiting spots to 4 dogs per night so check my website to check my availability. Boarding is $60 a night or $70 a night over Holiday weeks.

11/01/2024

Duke's owner, my husband, and I spoke for HOURS last night just chatting so I totally forgot to post an update. Ahsoka is doing amazing as usual and Duke settled in super quickly and he's enjoying it here so far. He was such a good boy last night.

11/01/2024

Say hello to new client Duke the Amstaff! I'm super excited about this one 😍

10/31/2024

Happy Halloween! I LOVE spoiling your dogs and I decided I'm going to do themed treats each month if I can find something for the major holidays. Halloween is favorite so the dogs staying this month are getting Halloween themed treats and toys! These may carry over to November, but I already have super cute stuff waiting for your dogs to enjoy for Thanksgiving themed stuff.

10/31/2024

Say hello to my newest pack member! V***n came to me unexpectedly from a very bad situation and was not cared for properly by her prior owner. The amount of neglect, likely abuse, and mistreatment is abundantly clear.

I decided to purchase her with plans of rehoming her to get her out of a hoarding, neglect, and abusive situation. She is still urine stained despite several baths from laying in her own urine, has no muscle mass, is malnourished, and was attacked by other dogs to the point of significant scarring all over her face. In my opinion this dog has never seen anything but a crate in her life and was likely crated with other dogs with very little space for her to move freely. She had never seen birds, blankets or bowls were foreign to her, and people are scary... especially if they resemble her former owner in appearance. She had never experienced grass, running, or laying anywhere soft and for a few days she didn't even try to walk and acted like she was sitting in a corner anytime she did move. She only understood going to the bathroom in a crate and it was so severe she held it while I was out and about with her outside probably 12 plus hours and ran into her crate when we got back and immediately peed in there. She will drink her own urine if she has an accident, likely presuming she didn't have access to water.

The vet thankfully gave her a clean bill of health besides the obvious issues and she was checked over by my rehab specialist yesterday and overall seems okay. I will get some additional testing done for her hips and a more thorough exam next vet visit to make sure whatever dog sports she does that we can do them safely. I feel being an informed owner is a great way to help a dog reach their full potential and to live a long and happy life.

Yes I own a lot of dogs, but they're all very well cared for. Don't get dogs if they can't be exercised, trained, and housed properly. My dogs are my children, they're family and should be treated as such. Don't be like this owner, don't get something you can't handle.

10/31/2024

We have moved form chipmunks to squirrels haha. The leaves here are dropping fast. My entire yard is covered since this morning and it's sort of crazy to see. Only problem with that is.... you can't find the dog 💩

10/30/2024

A lot of owner updates include their dogs "helping" with chores or things on my to do list. This is simply because when your dogs are boarding I'm actually home more than when I don't have dogs here. I'm always coming and going so weekends filled with boarding dogs also means chores and getting things done around the house. They always seem to enjoy helping at least. Here's recent boarder clementine helping my husband replace some porch railings.

10/30/2024

Ahsoka isn't a dummy. She's got this barkbox thing figured out. She saw me carrying the boxes down and wanted her toy now so she got to pick one out already. I knew she'd love a toy so I was excited the Halloween box finally came.

10/30/2024

Ahsoka has strong opinions for the dog warden and the fact he required a fence for their safety to keep dogs out of the fire pit area. That's chipmunk island and she hates chipmunks. She always spent most of her vacations over there stalking them before the extra fence went up.

10/30/2024

Pennie and Frankie went home today. They helped me organize my fire pit area and clean that up a little bit this morning and got one more time out in the yard before going home. Frankie absolutely loves the yard.

10/29/2024

Happy national cat day from the honorary JK9 greeter Sinatra ❤️

10/29/2024

Come out and have some fun with us at the expo! I'll be at the weight pull booth all weekend judging and pulling dogs and we are offering FREE try its. I'm also participating in the dock diving competition Saturday and Sunday if you want to come watch my dogs jump.

Get ready to enjoy three days of non-stop entertainment and an unbeatable, one-stop venue for 300 vendors of pet products and services!

presented by Healthy Pet Products invites you -- and your pets on leash -- to David L. Lawrence Convention Center Nov 8 - 10 for the country's largest pet expo.

Skip the line and purchase your tickets today: https://pghpetexpo.com/

10/29/2024

Pennie and Frankie's mom had a change of plans so they're staying an extra night. Bright went home around 9 and Ahsoka is settling in nicely. Pennie and Frankie got to chill on the office today for a while, and Ahsoka got to help with some after dark pooper scooping... of course by adding to it 😄. Bright got to help me clean inside a bit and he got to hang with his favorite cat friend Sinatra for a while before he went home.