K9 Azimuth

03/10/2025

He’s so fluffy!!! Bear is an Akita puppy whose owner and him just wrapped up their in person puppy training lessons! During lessons they learned about important dog psychology, luring mechanics, free shaping and self discovery, confidence building drills, proper indirect socialization strategies, potty and kennel training and much more! I’m very proud of this team as they drove over 2 hours one way for their nuanced instruction and learning here at K9 Azimuth. They were always prepared each lesson by watching down their homework, having questions, and putting in reps at home during the weeks! Excited to have them back out to begin their foundational obedience work!

02/13/2025

Keep your eye on the prize! Just two 5 minute active and one 10-15 minute duration training sessions a day can help you reach your goals as a team!

02/05/2025

Say hello to Miss Mia! She is a 4 month old GSD pup with loads of drive joining us! Mia’s owners wanted to start her off on the right foot with her life long training journey, so we jump started training patterns here at K9 Azimuth with a B&T! We want to be sure to emphasize building motivation into her commands, teaching indirect socialization strategies and how to expand on them, layering low level activation pressure to teach how to control the sensation of the gear, and of course giving plenty of opportunities to let that prey drive freak flag fly and incorporate play sessions!

01/09/2025

Say hello to Bentley! Aka Bentley Boy! He is a 2 year old Belgian Malinois that is joining us for an FOB 5 program. Like a lot of pointy eared dogs out there, Bentley controls chaos in his environment through reactivity. So, to help present order and help him navigate the chaos of everyday human life, we need to build a replicable training system. So, while he is staying with us he we will be working on building a solid foundation of the 5 commands, learning tactile leash language, creating a marker system, free shaping, indirect socialization, of course getting lots of play time, and so much more! Our board and trains stay in our home with us to jump start patterns of training, then owners come out for lessons to transfer what the dogs are learning in our home. This process helps the transition of learning back to their own homes. Follow along with Bentley Boy for a day in the life of training and learning here at K9 Azimuth! Cheers and happy training!

12/05/2024

This course is going to be 🔥

11/25/2024

Eddie is going bananas for retrieve!

We have to showcase Debbie and her golden retriever Eddie for all their hard work and dedication! They completed their online retrieve lesson package with us this summer!

Debbie lives in Kansas and completed her foundational obedience online with in Montana! She then wanted to expand her knowledge and help foster Eddie’s drives to hopefully one day compete in retrieve trials, so she was pointed to us at K9 Azimuth (who are affiliate trainers of Work Your Pack in South Dakota). She came to lessons ignited and ready for nuanced instruction tailored to Eddie’s individual needs for retrieving!

Our retrieve private lesson packages are designed for driven handlers like Debbie who want to embrace and understand the process of retrieve as a whole (not just the areas a dog may be struggling in), for those students who are driven to put in the work throughout the weeks, and to come to each lesson (4 lessons in total) with enthusiasm!

I am most proud of Debbie for her focus and dedication to fostering attitude and ignition with Eddie’s retrieves. If you focus on good attitude and the emotional state in the process, then the final product will piece together. I am beyond excited to continue to watch this team grow in their training and to one day achieve their goals of competing in trials!

Thank you Debbie for the opportunity to train with you and as always keep up the great work! 💪

11/06/2024

When you are put with the blockers your dogs need to be steady. That means they need to be ready to watch/mark the birds when they fall, need to be quiet, and able to hold obedience positions to not break towards the walkers or other dogs working in the field. Need help building steadiness? Reach out for private lessons! 💪

10/18/2024

We had a great resident opener weekend with Nisha and Plums! The Plummy Boy retrieved his first pheasant and it was the bird my dad shot down. Those are always the most special retrieves and times for me. Nisha did great as always retrieving the others. I always save a tail feather off the bird of my dog’s first retrieve, so I’m excited to hang his up on the wall next to Nisha’s. Plums had a lot of fun in the field and that’s the most important part to me this early in his life long journey of hunting.

09/17/2024

Was a great weekend helping these amazing and dedicated handlers with some tracking! Great discussions, questions, and dog work all around!

09/10/2024

Honored and beyond excited to be starring as one of the talents in this upcoming course! I am passionate about the process of retrieving and am blessed to have an opportunity to share and work with Work Your Pack Productions!

Michael Bellon and Bart Bellon and BCBB are the owners of the NePoPo® trademark, the teaching concept and the Know-How and intellectual property related to it. All trademarks used with permission.

It’s all about that grab/give harmony 🤌

‘The Retrieve (NePoPo®️Style)’ is officially in production: Hunting dogs, sport dogs, service dogs even police K9s : it’s all about the art of power in grabbing and equal power in giving back. With that criteria built you can move forward in whatever scope you have planned for your dog.

Expect this course to drop sometime early 2025 🎥

We have ALOT of courses in production right now…being a production company based out of Montana - we film in warm months and edit in snow. As the temps drop and snow flies I’ll be cozy in the edit bay finishing up : Decoy Elements with , ‘Igniting Your Training System (NePoPo®️) style with , ‘Tracking/Trailing’ with and this Retrive course!

See our current catalogue you can purchase and stream on 📱 and 💻👉www.workyourpack.com

Bart Bellon and Michael Bellon and BCBB are the owners of the NePoPo® trademark, the teaching concept and the Know-How and intellectual property related to it. All trademarks used with permission.

08/31/2024

Spa day for the pups in preparation for some filming with the epically talented and amazing learning platform Excited for an opportunity to collaborate and work out in the Rocky Mountains again for a bit! 🏔️ 🤙 check out those puppy dog eyes 🥹

08/28/2024

3 different breeds working on retrieve for your feed! Who do you think did it best!? Mr. Plums, Tina Faye, or Nisha? Bonus photo of Nisha at the end. 😆

08/26/2024

Happy Monday! For some it’s the start of a new work week, so let’s be sure to get after training with our dogs as well! 💪Just remember, 5-10 minutes of undivided training time a day can go a long way towards reaching your goals. Try to feed your dog’s meal during training and if you’re short on time-jackpot during your training session, have a plan before you start the session on what you want to work on, set a timer to keep you on track, or you could have some fun free shaping something new.

06/30/2024

Take a break from paying all those bills due today and procrastinate- I mean rest-here on social media for minute.

June has been quite the month with the move from MT to SD, competing in the 2nd annual bite n buck, and dealing with all the flooding here in SD.

I reflect on the word success this month. Last year I defined success as having the highest score at the trial in the PDCs. Success is turning more into how much I am learning along the way. I learned more stepping onto the trial field this year and not passing than I did last year passing with the highest PDC score. I don’t just mean learning more about my training, I mean about the character it takes to put your training on display in front of hundreds, changing the definition “fail” to more of “keep going”, and above all to be proud in what you do. I wish those who are competing this trial season the best of luck and don’t be too hard on yourselves!

Hunting season will soon be upon us, so stay tuned for lots of retrieving and hunting stuff with the Mista!

06/25/2024

We had a great weekend being out in Montana for the dirty bandana working dog club bite and buck 2! Nisha and I had the opportunity to show in the PSA 1s with some great handlers, judge, and decoys. It was an honor to be on the field and to be surrounded by a group of such passionate individuals. DBWD strives itself on fostering an environment of culture and their hosted events truly embodies that ideal. Thank you to their training directors for putting in so much work and hosting. Nisha and I did not earn a leg, but proud to have walked off the field attempting and inspired to keep working towards our goals. Also, one other very cool thing is we won an incredibly well crafted leather harness that was donated by the Thankachens in the raffle!

Bonus for a great trial weekend was the pleasure of seeing so many friends and colleagues that push our training to higher levels. Enjoyed being able to share in everyone’s success, to help support in person, and to see all the smiles!

Lastly, one of the many cool opportunities and highlights of the weekend was Plums and I got a chance to show off our retrieving to his truly dedicated, knowledgeable, and wonderful breeder and his very own momma Mac!

Bonus check out that last blooper photo of Mista Plums! 🤣

05/29/2024

⚠️ listen with volume for some adorable puppy ASMR! ⚠️

Fun fact: we all know cats sleep a lot (hence the term cat nap), but dogs also need a lot of sleep! If we observe natural occurring familial units of wolves in the wild, they spend a significant time of their days napping to maximize caloric intake.

Ask any parent with children what do you do when your kid is acting up? And I typically hear 3 responses: feed them, give them a bath, or nap time. As responsible dog owners we should be taking care of the first 2, but typically the dog decides when to nap in the house. If it was left up to kiddos and doggos of course they’d want to be outside or running around, even when they are exhausted. As a leader, it’s up to us to instill time to play, train, and even time to sleep!

I lean on using my climb command in the home to help establish pack harmony, training culture, and to teach the dogs don’t always need to be doing/apart of something. (sometimes referred to as an ON/OFF switch in working dogs-we spend countless hours building/fostering the ON switch in our k9s, so we shouldn’t neglect spending time building the OFF switch in them as well).