Heritage K9 LLC is a professional dog training business for both working and pet dogs.
02/07/2024
Here’s some extra tips:
- Double check your dog’s microchip information! Did you know that you need to register the chip with your information? This is a great time to make sure your information is up to date!
- Collars trackers can be very useful! Each dog in our care wears one when they are with us just in case!
- White noise is your friend! The TV, radio, white noise machines etc can help with the noise.
- Possibly keep your dog on leash and or supervise any outdoor time while fireworks are going off. We also suggest double checking fencing and gates to make sure everything is safe and that your dog cannot bolt.
- Freeze frozen stuffables to give to your dog as a distraction. Lickmats are also wonderful and you can also freeze your pup’s food in a bowl or slow feed bowl so you can feed during that time and hopefully keep them entertained and calm.
Our plan at Heritage K9 will be to work the dogs in our care, get them tired and fulfilled, give them frozen items to focus on, keeping our TV’s on to drown out the noise and we will be doing supervised bathroom breaks in the front yard. We don’t really get many fireworks this way but it is always good to be prepared. Happy Fourth!
30/06/2024
Great idea. Simple and it could save your dog’s life 👍
Someone passed this onto us and we thought it was a great idea to share.
With the 4th of July right around the corner we tend to get several calls about dogs getting out, and owners frantically trying to find them. We ask that you make sure your dogs have their collars on, updated contact information on their licenses, or do something similar to the picture below !
We can not scan for microchips. We do not have a scanner, and if the vets offices are closed, we will have to transport any found dogs that are unclaimed to Lake County Dog Shelter.
We love our community fur babies and want to make sure they are safe! 🐾💕
29/06/2024
Here's a repost of our fast facts on heat injury. There's a lot of bad info going around out there right now. Everything we state in this list is backed by scientific evidence and lessons learned in the field. Feel free to share!
Meet Sonja Heritage, a veteran in FEMA Disaster Search canine training, with over 25 years of expertise, owning Heritage K9 LLC and mentoring handlers worldwide.
Don't miss out on this opportunity! 🐾✨
20/05/2024
Happy Rescue Dog Day! We have been so very privileged to work with a bunch of different rescue dogs (some from other rescues, some from shelters and unfortunately picking up dumped dogs here in the desert). Today we will be posting some of those dogs and their stories because it is so very important to talk about this!
Chance: We were driving home from a training with the van full of dogs, it was pouring rain and miserable and we saw this emaciated GSD trying to chase after a motorcycle. Of course we immediately stopped and we had to physically lift this dog into the van because he could not walk anymore. We were absolutely HORRIFIED!!! Eventually we found out that the owner of this dog did not want him and was allowing him to starve to death in a barn, they thought they did not need to feed the dog everyday. We couldn’t just take him (which we wanted to do!) but told them we would happily take him and find him a good home. We left them a card and we both cried on the way home. Thankfully they reached out to us a few days later and we raced to pick him up. We ended up feeding this dog lots of small meals nearly all day long and working hard to get him healthy. We were able to work with an amazing rescue (Halfway To Home!) who was able to take Chance from us when they had room and adopted him out. He is now living a wonderful life with a family who loves and adores him.
Puppies: We were headed home and saw four young puppies attempting to drink out of the aquaduct near our home. Of course we stopped and come over and fed them and out from the bushes comes two more. Each puppy was starving and they were quite feral. We spent weeks feeding them and attempting to catch them and eventually we were able to work with another local rescue who helped us trap them and get them the attention and care they needed.
Bodhi: Alright, buckle up for this story. Bodhi was found off of the highway by a Good Samaritan who knew that if he could catch the dog we could help the dog. Bodhi was very emaciated, dehydrated, covered in foxtails and other burrs (some went down to his skin) and had clearly been dumped and left for dead which unfortunately happens a lot out here. We checked for a chip, posted online, filed a police report (because we wanted this neglect to be documented) and did try and find the “owner”. We never did and well he almost immediately settled in. It took us weeks of hard work to get him feeling better (so much grooming!) and fed him around the clock for him to gain weight. During all this we found out he is horribly allergic to beef and pork and has severe GI upset, so bad we rushed him to the emergency vet. We also fell in love with him. He very quickly took to JJ (me!) and we’ve been inseparable since. Bodhi has become a skilled service dog in training and successful manages JJ’s hypoglycemia and PTSD. He is currently learning her hearing alerts and is finishing up his training. We are so proud of him and love him dearly. It will be our two year anniversary with Bodhi in June 🥹❤️
To all of you who rescue or are involved in this line of work, we appreciate you and we know how hard it is right now, these babies need us ❤️
This cutie came to us for a few weeks board & train so we could work with her on her marker words & release cue, to build her confidence and to help her with her anxiety. Cinnamon was a COVID puppy so she did miss out on a lot of socialization time during lockdown which has created quite a bit of anxiety for her which is not fun for her or her family! Luckily we were able to help!
During Cinnamon’s time with us we focused heavily on marker training, confidence building and general obedience. Cinnamon is quite sensitive and willing to work with you once she feels safe so of course we did not use any tools with her, no reason to do so. During her time here with us we took Cinnamon out and about to pet friendly places and just wanted to expose her to everything and anything we could while still making sure she felt safe and comfortable. We overcame several fears of Cinnamon’s and were able to get her to the point where she’d happily walk with you in calm environments.
Her family has kept up with us and we have done any in home and in public private lessons with Cinnamon and her family to keep up with her training. Anytime they have an issue or any concerns they get ahold of us and we work with them! We cannot believe the difference in Cinnamon and are so proud of her and her family! Go Cinnamon! ❤️🐾❤️
We’ve been hesitant to post about Mr. Forest due to his body condition but we are going to post because we’ve never run into a dog that had Anorexia before. Ever. Please understand his family was doing everything they could (yes full vet work up, trying all the foods they could think of and adding a lot of “goodies” to try and get Forest to eat, the mom was even cooking for Forest). If anyone makes any rude comments we will not be nice. They did everything possible and now that we figured it out they are doing exactly what we told them to do and he is thriving! They are wonderful people who were overwhelmed, didn’t know what to do or how to handle the situation. Even us, with Sonja’s 25+ years of experience was briefly at a loss of what to do. Please remember all this as you read Forest’s story. Here’s his story:
Forest is truly a sweetheart, typical young GSD but for some reason he stopped eating. We witnessed this first hand, we thought, “Well we have all sorts of food, treats so he’s going to eat.” If only it was that easy. Forest truly had anorexia, he refused to eat anything at all and honestly we were quite overwhelmed and scared the first night because he wouldn’t even try a bite of chicken for us. We had to hand feed him, tiny bites at a time, giving him a ton of love and encouragement each time he took a small bite. We fed him four small meals a day, hand feeding each time and giving him a ton of praise, love and encouragement. Eventually we found that he likes Farmer’s Dog (Simba’s family donated his extras to us so thank you Simba’s family!!!) and we also supplemented the Farmer’s Dog food with Meat Mates and bone broth with water. It took a ton of work but eventually we got him to eat and slowly gain an appetite back.
We were able to work with Forest on marker & release cues, place, heeling, normal basic obedience and general manners once he gained his appetite back. He had a blast learning and soaked every bit of knowledge we threw his way. We truly love this dog and we put our heart and soul into him. We did not get as much done training wise that we wanted because of how severe his anorexia was, his first week here was spent hand feeding him, loving him and letting him adjust and recover. What he did learn, he loved and we were so happy to see him feeling better.
We put quite a bit of weight on him and we had quite an extended drop off with Forest family so they knew what to do with his food, what to do if he went off his food again and how to work with Forest so they all speak the same language. We’ve heard that Forest is doing well, happily eats his Farmer’s Dog Food and put even more weight on. We are really proud of him and his family and from a trainer perspective it was quite a wild ride.
Sonja working with Simba, one of our amazing private training lesson clients on his focused heel under extreme distraction (gardeners, cars, normal outdoor activities in Ventura and most distracting of all Mischa throwing a temper tantrum in the car crate!), Go Simba! ❤️🐾
Otto the German Shepherd Dog arrived in Washington on September 13, 2001 with his owner and handler Sonja Heritage. Otto was a very specialized worker. He had training in specialized wilderness rescue, human-remains detection, and urban disaster skills. All three aspects of Otto’s training were utilized in his work at the Pentagon. To learn more about Otto, be sure to check out "9/11 Remembered: Search and Rescue Dogs," on view through January 2, 2022.
Artwork: "Otto" by Ron Burns
02/04/2024
Happy Easter from us at Heritage K9 ❤️
16/03/2024
Yes! This is a great way to help you manage your dog’s place command. Our clients and friends know we use this with our own dogs and we have several tie outs and plenty of place beds for the dogs. Each dog who comes through our program also learns the place command and we help proof with with tie backs. Rewarding always for good behavior and let us tell you, it works and if you are consistent you won’t have to use the tie back for long. It’s a great tool!
Thanks to SpiritDog Training for making this awesome informational video! You guys are amazing!
13/03/2024
We had the pleasure of working with this little guy (Primo) and his family. Primo was here with us for a short board and train stay to work on his obedience, more socialization and working on his anxiety. The first thing we did with Primo was teach him the marker word and release cue (yes and free!), along with building a relationship and trust with him.
Primo is an incredibly smart boy (you can definitely see the malinois in him when he is learning!) and so he moved through our program quickly. We put a solid down stay on him (place), tightened up his obedience, worked on a “leave it” command, worked on impulse control (with food, toys and other animals) and taught Primo several types of fun games his family could do with him to keep him happy and just have fun (toy hunt, food hunt, food puzzles, frozen toppls, kongs and lick mats!). Once Primo and us were comfortable with each other and he felt confident and comfortable we started to take him out into public and work on his socialization. We took him into several neighborhoods, outside stores and around restaurants to get him some real life exposure before he headed home.
Now you have to understand that if the owners/handlers do not keep up with the skills we’ve taught your dog, your dog can go right back to the way they were prior to having training. We try and really explain this and Primo’s family is an amazing example of this! They have kept up with his training, put in the time and effort with Primo and have done an AMAZING job with him. We are so freaking proud of them and Primo!!!
Please watch this video showing the repeated stress signals from the dog before lashing out with warning bite. This dog really tried to get away from the situation. These things don’t happen without letting you know beforehand. But the story always goes “ It came out of nowhere!” Not true. Learn to read the signs. Thank you Robert Cabral. Please share and educate!
14/02/2024
Did you know we offer boarding services as well? Currently we have the wonderful JJ with us for a bit. He has fit right in and we are enjoying having him here with us. He has been making us laugh and has been a joy to have here ❤️
02/01/2024
We launched our website today after lots of going back and forth and little changes. Later this month we will be launching the nonprofit website and social media pages as well. 2024 is going to be a really busy year for us!
Master Trainer Sonja Heritage, owner of Heritage K9, offers 20 plus years of real world, high-drive, international working dog experience, in addition to 6 years as Head Trainer at Search Dog Foundation, to offer you, and your dog an optimal training plan.
26/12/2023
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our pack to yours! Each dog got lots of one on one time with us, lots of love, several gifts (including our board and train because we do truly mean it when we say your dog becomes apart of our family while they are with us) and they all are getting a special Christmas dinner and have all enjoyed a special Christmas toppl!
24/12/2023
You need to learn from a professional trainer, after that, just another tool in the toolbox. It’s less aversive than yanking on a leash and you know you’ve got no behavior changes when the leash fails or is removed. You just can’t beat it for distance training and problem behaviors like chasing and reliable recalls under high distractions. Most dogs are on such a low setting that you couldn’t feel it on your palm. It’s also much more consistent and provides clarity as it’s not seen as personal by the dog. It’s neutral. It can mean good things too. It means to listen to me when I give a cue/command and respond and good things happen! Your dog should never be cowering or scared in any way. But YOU need to learn how to use it effectively to be fair to your dog. It can do serious damage to your dog’s trust in you, so please get a qualified trainer if you’re interested in learning.
Yes, we can help you ✅
Until a year ago, I was a trainer with a very force free approach. I didn’t believe there was a place for aversives in dog training. I didn’t have a dog that required them. Lucky me!
Until I got this chap. My very much adored kelpie, Evo. Bred to move HUGE flocks and herds of livestock out in rural Australia. A hard-headed dog, with a mega independent streak.
I worked hard with him. I’m a trainer. I laid my foundations, as I have done successfully with my other 4 dogs before him. They worked, to a point. And then, they didn’t.
I was fully prepared to give him a breed-appropriate outlet. Alongside the other work I give my dogs, I have my own sheep, meaning I can work my own dogs regularly on stock. However, my small flock of flighty sheep was far too jumpy for him to work, and he was becoming dangerous out and about in any sort of proximity to sheep.
So, you may say, just keep him on a lead! Problem solved. Well, not really.
Management can and does fail. I have heard it from countless clients. I have had it fail myself.
I also live, with sheep on my property, and surrounding it on 3 sides. Everywhere we turn, there are sheep. There’s no avoiding them.
Keep him on a lead in the garden? We have a large garden and keeping him on the lead would be unfair. He’s an incredibly active, working bred dog, who would end up spending his entire life on a lead.
We also encountered prey drive issues out and about, particularly around deer. His recall was fantastic, but once we moved, our walks were either full of deer, or sheep and he could rip a long line out of your hands to chase something particularly tempting.
So, I decided to bite the bullet and e-collar train. Controversial, particularly online.
But, the absolute best thing I ever did.
The alternative solutions I had suggested were:
Keep him on the lead - I buy good quality leads, but they have failed on me before
Move house - we’ve moved to a dream house, not an option
Avoid places with sheep etc - hard when they’re in the garden
Long line - he could still pull a long line out of reach
Train him - he was trained to a very high level and we had reached the limits via force free methods.
Management fails.
I went through the process of conditioning him properly to the e-collar. I spent ages ensuring I got it right, he understood what was expected and that he knew how to switch it off. I invested in a pricey bit of kit, and I went about it by the book.
It’s transformed his life.
He can romp around the garden, he can walk through my sheep without batting an eyelid, he can walk off lead on the hills and he can enjoy walking in the forest even when deer run out in front of us.
For him, that wasn’t ever going to be an option without it.
Nothing was more reinforcing than chasing.
And it was going to get him killed. He’d have been shot, or hit by a car, or lost. All because I wouldn’t open my mind to using different tools.
Am I suggesting every dog requires one? Absolutely not. But there are MANY cases where they save lives. It’s both saved and enriched his.
He’s happy, he lives his best life. He hikes everywhere with us, he’s well mannered and fully reliable off the lead. He knows the rules, and that’s the key.
He’s not suppressed. He can still go off and be a dog. He tears around the garden with our other dogs, he sniffs and does dog things. But he’s safe when doing it all.
I see a lot of judgement towards these tools from people owning dogs who would never require these tools. That’s great. And that’s also not a problem. But it is completely unfair to demonise the use of a tool which you haven’t taken the time to fully understand. I was 100%, without a doubt, against them before I took the time to understand how they worked and how they were used.
It’s imperative that they’re used with a trainer well versed in using them. It’s also crucial that the equipment used is good quality and not something cheap from Amazon or eBay. It’s an investment, but one that is so necessary for a lot more dogs than you might realise.
Take the time to understand others’ points of view. There is truly not a one-size-fits-all approach in dog training and my change of opinion has opened up a whole new world for all of my dogs ❤
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Videos
Sonja working with Simba, one of our amazing private training lesson clients on his focused heel under extreme distraction (gardeners, cars, normal outdoor activities in Ventura and most distracting of all Mischa throwing a temper tantrum in the car crate!), Go Simba! ❤️🐾
Interested in working with us?
Website: https://www.heritagek9llc.com/
Email: [email protected]
Major is headed home to his family and his go home lesson with Sonja. Major has been here the past few weeks for our puppy board and train program. During his stay we worked on teaching Major a marker word and release cue, tightened up his basic obedience and manners, we furthered his obedience with a proofed heel, leave it, impulse control (both food and toys), place and we started cooperative care with Major. He also had several outing with us to pet friendly stores and parking lots to proof his commands and work him in some real life scenarios. Major got to meet plenty of people, worked around all of our crew here, and of course got to have plenty of fun learning and getting enrichment and plenty of love of course! He’s done very well and he’s headed home to have a lesson with his family and to learn all the cool new things Major learned during his stay with us ❤️Interested in working with us? Website: https://www.heritagek9llc.com/Email:[email protected] #dogtrainingisfun #dogtraining #dog #training #dogtrainingclasses #dogtrainingvideo #dog #trainer #dogtrainerslife #dogtraıner #dogtrainers #boardandtrain #boardandtrainprogram #boardandtraindogtraining #boardandtrains #boardandtraindogs #boardandtraining #boardandtrainsuccess #dogtrainingla #dogtrainingtips #inhomeboarding #homeboardingfordogs #homeboarding #homeboarding4dogs #working #with #dog #workingwithdogs #workingwithdogsisthebest #trainingdog
K9 Bodhi & Dolly working on their “under”, “out” and “around” for their service dog training! #servicedog #servicedogtrainer #servicedogtraining
This is Benji! A border collie and bully breed mix who came to us to work on his dog aggression and their inability to control him in public if another animal came onto his radar. Benji had been to several other trainers, all of which could not get through to him on this very scary issue.
After being recommended by another trainer, Benji’s owners reached out to us in hopes that we could help him learn to behave and become the dog they hoped he could be.
As always, we spent the first week teaching him a marker/reward system and building trust and a relationship. Also I observations as we walked other dogs in an out during our daily routines.
At first he was reactive but became more interested in their lack of attention and confidence., all good signs. Our cat and bird were quite the challenge. The “ leave it” command was introduced.
Week 2 involved more obedience training as this boy needs rules and structure. He would rush out doors, try to run past you coming back in, and generally focused on finding a weak spot vs learning. He was super “tuned- out”. Even our best food rewards were “meh”. His behavior was inconsistent and he was generally not interested in anything other than very distant dog’s barking, a car driving by, anything other than what we were doing. We observed Benji’s full display of animal aggression as he tried to attack our new puppy in her puppy pen. He didn’t even get within 20 feet but it was evident he would have done major damage.
After discussing our observations and concerns about safety, we asked if they really wanted to keep this dog and what that would require on their part. They really did want to keep Benji and he was great with the kids and also wanted their (very savvy) pre-teen daughter to be able to take him safely on walks. The only way that we all felt this was possible is by everyone learning how to “properly” use the collar, follow the training plan and work together until Benji understood that
Meet Simba! He & his wonderful owners are one of our private training session clients and we have been working along side his parents to set this handsome boy up with a solid training foundation which will help create a stable, loving, peaceful and happy adult dog. Simba is incredibly smart, retains all the training we teach him and of course he is very eager to learn more and we are happy to teach him! Go Simba! 🐾❤️
To our delight we were given the opportunity by the amazing Bob George to board the infamous “K9 Shadow”, of FEMA/USAID California Task Force 2 , while he and the family took a much needed vacation. Sonja had the pleasure of training this handsome, drivey boy & working with Bob George while she was at SDF so we were excited to spend time with him! Shadow has been having fun teaching our younger pups some new tricks and putting “JJ” through the ringer, teaching her a few things as well!
Did you know Heritage K9 offers not only board & trains but boarding and grooming if we have worked with you & your pup before? This includes all of our past service dogs, our past rescues , any dog family we have worked with. We will happily board your pup here while you are away on vacation, have a medical procedure done, moving etc. Any dog boarded with us lives in our home with our pups, gets to treadmill each day, lots of playtime on our 2.5 acres with us, food puzzles, enrichment activities, agility, and tuneups if needed. We will not let your pup be bored, they are treated just like our personal dogs & get daily house time with us 🐾❤️
Dolly has been working hard, soaking up training like a sponge! We have been working on more advanced service animal skills, including working through distractions, tasking in public, working for longer periods of time and exposing her to everything and everyone. While she is still growing up and has her moments (who doesn’t 🙂, she has been doing very well and blows us away with her intelligence, intuition and loving personality. She just wants to help and she definitely does! Dolly has been enjoying being our shadow and saving us from "panic attacks”, some staged for training, but some very real and has done very well. You go Dolly!!!
Benebone
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About Us!
Heritage K9 LLC Owner and Head Trainer Sonja Heritage has been heavily involved in FEMA Canine Disaster Search for over 20 years now. She recently resigned as Head Trainer for the Search Dog Foundation, after six years, to train dogs on her own that meet her high expectations. While at SDF, she used her extensive deployment history to design challenging and realistic rubble, building and training props not found anywhere on the West coast. She also designed and implemented a highly successful canine training program.
Previous to SDF, she was a member of the elite Virginia Task Force One in Fairfax VA, one of only two international task forces in the USA. Sonja has been on many deployments including the U.S. Embassy Bombing in Nairobi, earthquakes in Turkey, Taiwan, and Haiti as well as The Pentagon on 9/11, several major hurricanes including Katrina, the recovery of the Space Shuttle Columbia Crew and the Montecito Mudslide. She has been a canine search asset for DC Metropolitan Police, Maryland State Police, NCIS Norfolk, Charles County PD, Arlington PD, Alexandria PD, Baltimore County PD and many other agencies.
Sonja is FEMA Certified, currently on CA -TF6 and has trained many (over 60) operational dogs in the field of FEMA/SUSAR disaster search, both live-find and human remains. She is focusing on bringing task forces and disaster search handlers highly trained search dogs as well as providing very dependable allergy alert dogs for anyone who has a life threatening allergy. Sonja is a FEMA instructor, evaluator, handler and trainer as well as a judge for the National Association of Canine Scent Work (NACSW).
Our disaster search dogs are screened to the FEMA standard, have high hunt drive, solid training methodology and enjoy their work! We have four tiers of training available for our disaster dogs: Certification ready with Sonja, Foundation Skill Assessment ready with our staff, started on foundation skills or we can find you a raw but talented FEMA search Candidate and you can do all the work. Of course we will work with you and your new dog to assure a good transition and also offer continued training options no matter where you live. Just let us know what you need.
Heritage K9 LLC also provides detection dogs for blackpowder and allergy alert dogs. We are capable of training a detection dog to find whatever odor you may need. Our dogs work independently, effectively and efficiently giving clear trained final responses at target odor. Each of our detection dogs are trained to detect both large and small quantities of target odor and give a passive alert. They also are given obedience training and are environmentally sound, social with a clean bill of health as well as good or excellent hip and elbow radiographs.
Heritage K9 LLC is committed to training quality detection dogs. When our dogs leave our program they will be able to confidently use their search skills to identify and track their odor to the source and then give a strong, solid, trained final response.
In addition, Sonja is available as a canine team trainer/mentor to task forces or individuals. She can set up challenging training if you're in a rut and lack motivation. There’s no need to struggle unnecessarily-this is what I do and I’m pretty damn good at it. Let me help you get a successful canine team that's ready for the real world.
