Thompson K9

Thompson K9 Thompson K9 is a small, family-owned balanced dog training business based in Ypsilanti, MI.

Leia at Lowe’s ✨
27/10/2025

Leia at Lowe’s ✨

Welcome to Thompson K9, Roo! 🧡Roo (along with his sister Ladybug) will be completing a 4-week board & train program with...
25/10/2025

Welcome to Thompson K9, Roo! 🧡

Roo (along with his sister Ladybug) will be completing a 4-week board & train program with us to learn solid obedience, build confidence, and develop neutrality. He is reactive to dogs and people, but it comes from a place of uncertainty and nervousness.

We will be focusing on helping him feel more sure of himself so that he can navigate life with more ease and less stress - and so that his owner can feel comfortable and confident taking him anywhere with her.

Welcome to Thompson K9, Ladybug! 🩷Ladybug (along with her brother Roo) will be with us for the next four weeks to work o...
25/10/2025

Welcome to Thompson K9, Ladybug! 🩷

Ladybug (along with her brother Roo) will be with us for the next four weeks to work on her obedience, neutrality, and overall mindset. She is reactive to other dogs and can be sketchy with people (she has bitten a few times).

She’s a confident girl, but she’s chaotic and used to doing whatever she wants. She’ll be learning to calm down and slow down, as well as gaining some tolerance and comfort with handling.

22/10/2025

Leia has made so much progress with her obedience behaviors and, more importantly, her overall mindset.

At the start of her B&T, she was very stubborn and didn’t actually enjoy training (though she is super smart and learns quickly). She just went through the motions because she had to, but it was clear she would’ve preferred to do nothing.

She was also constantly on edge, spooking at unexpected noises and scanning for other dogs. Her discomfort went beyond the natural uncertainty of being in a new place with strangers.

Now, Leia brings way more pep and engagement to her training sessions and is overall more relaxed, happy to work, and unbothered by the environment and any potential distractions. Super happy with the changes we’re seeing!

17/10/2025

It feels like the protection dog shout outs have become almost a weekly occurrence at this point, but that’s sadly just a sign of where society seems to be right now.

So this one goes to Sam and Solo! 🤣

This is a different situation than one would think would occur while actively training protection dogs, but this has happened a number of times.

Nothing drives home the need of some form of protection than having your bitework session interrupted by some waste of space verbally harassing and following your friends.

We do A LOT of public training. We’re at this park multiple times a week. The workers know us. Animal control knows us. We try to be mindful of people’s space. We ALWAYS make sure it is safe and dogs are leashed. IF things happen, we try to de-escalate.

Rachel started with that here, but buddy wasn’t used to taking a correction so he threw a fit. Sam decided to match his energy with a firmer correction paired with a little spatial pressure, and buddy got the message.🤣

It’s all dog training. 🙌💀

Jokes aside, I’m always extremely proud of the people we currently train with, but moments like this really highlight their growth, and it’s a reminder of exactly why I love this all so much.

I don’t care who you are, unless you’ve been in a truly threatening and terrifying situation, you don’t know how you will react. Period. No amount of training will prepare you for that fight or flight moment completely.

About a year ago, Sam had one of those moments, saw holes, and immediately decided she wanted to work on it.

That takes some serious guts. But that’s who she is. She wants to learn, get better, and do the hard work. Those are rare qualities today.

That work has been paying off, and this video’s proof of that. Not only did she stand up to defend herself and friends with confidence, she RAN this dude out of the park. 🤣👊

GO SAM AND SOLO!

16/10/2025

Miss Hazel recently went home, but her time with us really got me thinking.

If you’ve trained with us, you’ve probably heard us mention how important the dog’s mindset is.

We work with MANY dogs who have been to other trainers & through other programs.

Some come with nice formal obedience… but the owner can’t even take the dog outside without them reacting (exploding) at the first moving thing they see.

They’ll be in a “nice heel” but they’re scanning & whistling like a tea kettle because internally it is chaos.

That’s the part that we aim to fix: the chaos inside. That constant state of internal panic waiting to express itself externally.

It doesn’t come from making a dog listen to commands. Most people with a BASIC understanding of training can teach almost any dog to sit or down, even around triggers or distractions. But that is NOT behavior modification, period.

Behavior modification is rewiring the brain to self-regulate around those “triggers,” & IF it really gets tough, to look to their handler for guidance, because the dog knows you’ve got it handled. Not taking it into their own paws & exploding like they THOUGHT they had to before.

When we picked Hazel up, she was very uncomfortable & unsure - she even tried to bite us. When we got home, I went right into working with her, like I do with most new dogs just to get them acclimated a bit right away.

No commands. No treats. No corrections.

You could visibly see her calming down. Her mindset was shifting already.

Her first formal session the next morning was around a dog. Though Hazel would rear up like a kite on leash & run through her invisible fence to charge dogs at home, she started to work through her overarousal & settle within minutes (& we made it challenging!).

Her reactivity was certainly not “fixed” with that first session, but we were at a point where learning & real change could occur.

That doesn’t happen in the chaos, & if you as a trainer cannot get a dog to this point pretty early on, in order to ACTUALLY start the work, then you are at best unqualified & at worst lying to clients.

Obedience alone is NOT behavior modification.

Can’t thank enough… AGAIN! The best customer service around and we have leashes from them that have taken a beating for...
15/10/2025

Can’t thank enough… AGAIN!

The best customer service around and we have leashes from them that have taken a beating for over 5 years with little to no visible wear on them.

One of Rachel’s favorite leashes is a custom grey biothane that they made to her specs for Isa, and Frey has a pink one that’s at least 5 years old.

Last week I closed Uzi’s crate door with about 2” of my FAVORITE leash in it, and he got a little snack. I thought I was going to have to have a whole new one made and sent in the hardware to at least hopefully re-use that after contacting them.

They CALLED us right when they received my leash to tell us that if we wanted, they could clean it up, re-braid the end, and it’d be almost like nothing happened. Not to be dramatic….. but basically my leash was pardoned from ex*****on. 🤣

They could’ve given me the run around, ghosted me or at the VERY least charged to remake it, and I would’ve gladly done that. Instead, they cleaned and fixed my favorite leash and had it sent out the same day… at no cost.

That doesn’t happen.

Within one week, my leash was damaged, sent back, fixed, returned, and I’m already using it again.

They could tell that I use it daily and that it’s gotten perfectly broken in and been cared for. That doesn’t mean a lot to a lot of people, but it does to them. You can really feel how much they care about making sure you are 100% satisfied and taken care of.

We have clients ask us all the time for leash recommendations after using ours during lessons.

I cannot recommend this company enough.

Hazel at Lowe’s 💙
15/10/2025

Hazel at Lowe’s 💙

Coco conquered her fears and visited a brand new public place! She had a productive training trip to Lowe’s, a mix of co...
08/10/2025

Coco conquered her fears and visited a brand new public place! She had a productive training trip to Lowe’s, a mix of confidence building and practicing obedience and neutrality.

Address

MI

Opening Hours

Monday 09:00 - 19:00
Tuesday 09:00 - 19:00
Wednesday 09:00 - 19:00
Thursday 09:00 - 19:00
Friday 09:00 - 19:00
Sunday 12:00 - 19:00

Telephone

+19893940004

Website

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