Prairie K9

11/16/2025

If you follow this page, you’ve likely followed this amazing team and today we celebrate with them an extraordinary achievement.

Jenna and Ollie, UDX

When Ollie was just four months old, Jenna contacted PK9 after the local “behaviorist” had diagnosed him with “anxiety” and recommended medication or, barring that, euthanasia.

👀💀🙄

But nobody told Ollie he couldn’t have some fun learning new things with his favorite person and seven years later he’s got five obedience titles including the Utility Dog Excellent (UDX).

And Ollie is a well-behaved and much beloved pet, and true companion. Jenna has worked very hard to teach and train him, and to understand the ring routines and scoring process for each new level of competition.

Together, they’re a delightful, dedicated, and dynamic team.

We’re so grateful to have been along for the ride, and to celebrate them today!!

🍾🎉🐾🥂🎈🩷

11/13/2025

Pursuant to yesterday's post about whether or not dogs should be safely handle-able by strangers in a kennel setting and edited for our purposes here:

I do not run a petting zoo, and so [my dogs] are not available for public entertainment. People have a way of approaching very rudely and for their own needs to be met and creating behaviors out of a dog who objects, which they then [want me] to punish.

A horse handleable by all?

I believe all horses, as much as possible, should be safe to handle in an emergency or in our absence. Someone should be able to go in and halter them, lead them out, put them on a trailer, or some simple thing.

I have helped teach horse handling to first responders in classes of large animal rescue (the rescue of large animals in emergencies) and quite often these first responders - the ones who will be leading your horse out of a barn fire or trailer accident - are not horse people. It's imperative that your horse be safe to handle in these situations, and that their training is not so complicated that an unrefined tug forward of a halter cannot be understood. A firefighter is not going to understand or even think about some complicated system of targets and pulleys and buttons -

BUT

Does this mean your horse needs to tolerate, on a regular basis, poor feel or rude handling? No, I do not think so. And in fact, I think this makes them harder to handle.

I am extremely protective of who handles my young stallion and how. I do not run a petting zoo, and so he (and my other horses) are not available for public entertainment. People have a way of approaching very rudely and for their own needs to be met and creating behaviors out of a horse who objects, which they then punish. I can remember a time a woman, who was asked to not pet my one eyed horse, approached him on his right (eyeless) side and poked him right in the mouth. He opened his mouth in alarm, and she immediately said "oh, what a nasty boy, he bites!" --This is why I do not allow the public to smear themselves rudely over my horses. I don't need them to have to defend themselves from rude touch, and I don't need them to learn how to avoid or go after people (even if those people deserve it).

I'm quite confident my young stallion would be easily haltered and loaded by a stranger. In fact, I have proven this by having him transported across the country by someone I had never met, who had never met him, when I was unable to be present. He got nothing but good reports for behavior. This was not created by a million sloppy and rude interactions with strangers - but quite the opposite.

He never learned how to nibble on people, push on people, or use his strength against people because there never was a necessity for it. And so it was not in his vocabulary - Could it be pulled out? Absolutely. But we don't need to do that. It's not fair to him.

I think it's very fair to expect your horse to be handled on a basic level by most. I do not think it's fair to expect your horse to tolerate ALL handling, especially when it is not necessary.

Think about it: there are levels of relationship. A basic handshake (halter and leading), all the way up to marriage. I can ride and produce from my own horses a certain level of feeling we have developed TOGETHER, like a marriage. I do not expect them to be robots for any and all people, just like I would not expect some sort of wife swapping to produce emotional intimacy. They are gentle enough that someone could ride them without being tossed, and get in the general direction they want - but the rest you have to earn. And I think that's more than fair, its their right.

11/11/2025

Some years ago, talented trainer-friend took a part-time position at a boarding kennel in a wealthy suburb in another city. Six months later in an email exchange, I asked her what it looked like from the other side of the boarding experience. This is her reply, entirely unedited.

YMMV
_______________________

I work with pet dogs on a pretty much daily basis. Sometimes hundreds a week. Here are my thoughts on what I see.

Most of the dogs cannot walk nicely on a leash. So they either drag their owners in the door or they have on harnesses, head halters and other strange equipment and they still drag their owners in the door. I have never figured out the rationale for the use of a harness.

The majority are poorly-bred and have very little training of any kind. The people just "have" the dog. They don't do anything with them nor do they understand them and they have no desire to do so. Some owners think of and treat their dogs as if they were children. The dogs have toys, beds, special diets, meds, instructions that go on and on and the dogs are spoiled and often nasty. The owners bring in an entire grocery store of meat/cheese, etc., so we can see if the dog will eat. And these darlings almost always need some medication that they will not take. And they will bite you if you try to get them to take it.

However, the dogs are almost always spayed/neutered. The public gets that message, but not any of the others. ??

The dogs who come from rescue or the shelter come in with a long speech from the owners about how they were "probably" abused before they were saved. Therefore this justifies the dog's behavior problems and we are supposed to overlook them. Yet the owners do nothing to fix any of these issues.

Most owners think that whatever behavior the dogs present is just what dogs do. And you have to live with it. They like to laugh and tell me how the dog is not very well behaved. But they don't want to train it either. The dog just IS what it is. That's how they see it.

Often they bring in two or three dogs and want them kenneled together. But they tell us to separate them when feeding or they will kill each other. We’ll be held responsible for injuries, of course.

I get very depressed about how little education about dogs and real training is actually getting through to the general public.

Oh, and the owners of aggressive dogs call them "loyal" and "protective" instead of what they really are - untrained, and undisciplined.

That's my take on it from the trenches. And yes, though we do get a few exceptions to all of this, I am talking about the majority. It's sad and disheartening.

Dogs need an advocate.

11/10/2025

Dog ownership is decidedly not an isolated phenomenon. It is not just you and your dog. It's you, and your dog, in the concentric circles of home, neighborhood, and community.

An owner once took issue with something I said in class.
"What do you care about how I live with *my* dog?" he growled.

Because we're all in this together, my friend.
Tarred by the same brush, as it were.

Once I posted here about all the "No DOGS Allowed" signs going up all over the city, and suggested that we all have a pretty good idea of what it took to make those signs go up.

But the more meaningful question is, what would it take to make those signs come down?

The answer is below, sketched in perfect detail.

11/06/2025

Dogs, and humans, are animals; all animals know instinctively that to ignore the natural (or built) environment is done so at their/our own peril.

So the bunny who ignores the environment gets picked off by a hawk; the squirrel gets hit by a car; the texting driver causes a wreck.

When I ask my dog to ignore the environment and put her attention solely on me, I am asking her to trust me. Trust is a significant part of our working relationship. I am asking her to trust that I’ll watch where we’re going, and that I’ll take care not to let a person or another dog bother her.

I don’t take that kind of trust lightly, and I endeavor to be worthy of her trust. It’s something worth having and once-built, I guard it like the crown jewels of Europe.

And this is precisely what infuriates me about the loose dog chasing us down -- that dog makes me out as a liar by violating my dog's trust in me. More to the point, the owner of that loose dog fractures a carefully built trust, a contract between my dog and I, a mutual agreement built on good faith.

Entitled much?

Because I don't care how 'friendly' your dog is and it's irrelevant to keep yelling about that. It matters not at all, because that is not the point.

Animal control has been notified. Again.

10/31/2025

Aw, Happy Halloween from Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and PK9!

Boo!

10/28/2025

We get a lot of calls over the winter holidays as owners grow concerned about how their dog will handle friends and family (visitors) indoors in tight spaces, how the dog or puppy will deal with an uptake in activity and general chaos, refrain from eating inappropriate things including the turkey dinner, or how/why it's perfectly okay to crate the dog or put him behind a babygate where he's managed away from it all and without nuisance barking.

These calls or contacts often come after hours, but it might be important to remember that there is no such thing as a behavioral emergency. Failure to plan? Yes. But 'out of the clear blue sky'? Never.

If you're looking for a chance to get ahead of these challenges, formulate a plan (or two) and/or get the whole family on the same page, we've got a Puppy and Beginner Dog class starting on Tuesday, November 11th at 6:30 p.m.

Email for specifics: [email protected]

10/26/2025

PK9 teams out at regional shows and trials:

Jenna and her boys lit the rings on fire. A new Utility Dog title for Rufus, and UDX leg #8 for Ollie. Class placements, and those ribbons!!

Ally and Prim earned two qualifying scores out of Open A with class placements too. That CDX is coming soon.

Kendra and Harper qualified in Graduate Novice

Jill and Josie finished a CDX, and Aja was BOB going on to an NOHS Group 1.

Wow, just wow!

And our sincere thanks to the Bellevue Dog Training Club, and the Sioux Empire Kennel Club for all their hard work to make these events happen.

10/21/2025

Always happy to celebrate with the newest Canine Good Citizens!

Congrats to these exceptional teams:
Megan and Arti,
Gwyn and Lizzy,
Erin and Ziggy,
Kellsey and Lucy,
Kelsy and Wylie

Way to go!!!

10/19/2025

Tis the season!!

10/17/2025

Yes. A thousand times, yes.

Just stop.

This. I can't tolerate the crap I see on the internet that people think are funny.

I can't stand seeing parents do it to children and it absolutely infuriates me when people deliberately do it to either children or animals.

Way to permanently create mistrust.

Just don't. Really.

Just.

Don't.