Chromatic K9

12/21/2025

Baby’s first title!

Today, Eli passed his SR1 on only his second attempt (better than either one of his siblings) and at a much younger age than either one of them. He did a great job working with me in a completely new environment and I was very proud of how far his confidence has come over the last 6 months!

Afterwards, I decided to enter him in the Mill Race to see what he’d do (he hasn’t been on a slat mill since he was 5 months old and didn’t seem overly excited by it at the time). To my surprise, came in second and ran his little heart out for his mother with a high score of 160RPM!

I’m so proud of this boy and how much try he has. I feel very lucky to call him mine!

11/23/2025

I am away spending time with family during the holidays and will return emails in the order they were received once I’m back starting on 12/2

If you need to reach Cara or Marisa please reach out to them directly via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]

Stay warm!
Val

11/11/2025

11/03/2025

Frank and I attended our first mondio trial this weekend down in NJ and attempted the OB1. The things she did she did perfectly. The things she did not do she did *not* do in very classic Frankie fashion😂😂 including videos of her two perfect exercises (positions and retrieve) and her funniest 0 (as the judge put it in our scoresheet “ate food”) she had no regrets 😂😂

Very grateful for our coach Julie Blanding for all her incredible knowledge and very much valued support.

I also wanted to thank everyone at .ring.sport for putting on such a cool trial and more importantly being such a kind welcoming group of people. I was extremely nervous and everyone went out of their way to make this a positive experience. It really doesn’t go unnoticed!!

We’ll be back in a few months after some (a lot of) training

Mostly, my favorite sheep couldn’t believe her luck when finally, at 10 years old, she had convinced me it was time for the two of us to run away together 😂😂 she wasn’t scared, she wasn’t sketched out or sketchy. She was happy and naughty, just how I like her 🐑

05/15/2025

My perfect herders 🥹 thank you

04/29/2025

Severity of aggression =/= prognosis

Dog #1 may be doing minor damage and only when provoked by very predictable circumstances. This dog may be highly trainable and easy for a trainer to “fix”. And this dog’s owner may also be an owner unwilling or unable to stick with a training and management plan consistently. This could be through choice OR circumstances beyond the human’s control. This dog will never have a “post-training glow up”. They will likely continue to have incidents for the rest of their lives.

Dog #2 may have hospitalized another being. And that dog may be owned by people willing to put in a ton of work to train it and responsible and able to manage it in the interim. Post-training that dog ends up far exceeding the owner’s goals and living a fulfilled, happy and safe life.

Obviously, there are extreme cases where a dog is so genetically unsuitable for living with humans that even with an excellent owner, expert trainer and perfect lifestyle they can never be a safe member of society. And there are easy angel dogs who could be owned safely by a child.

The point is, some dogs could easily live long, happy, safe lives in the correct home but find themselves in situation that would never end well regardless of the trainer they hire.

And some dogs are incredibly dangerous and also incredibly lucky to be owned by the special people who save their lives every day.

I get a lot of fulfillment and joy out of helping people in the second group.

And it is also my responsibility as a trainer to identify and communicate to owners in the first group what the likely and realistic prognosis is for the combination of dog, human, and lifestyle presented to me.

If what someone is selling to you seems too good to be true-it often is.

04/16/2025

Most dogs in our training programs, especially city dogs, need more fulfillment, more enrichment, and more decompression away from the hustle and bustle. Unfortunately, the number of spots in our Continuing Ed program is extremely limited and the program is often too full to allow us to help all the dogs who need it.

In order to ensure that we can help more dogs, we hired a dedicated “Solo Hiker” so that we can help more of you provide your dogs with the enriching lifestyle they need in order to meet their training goals, overcome their behavioral challenges, or just simply thrive and have a good time even if they are already perfect! (They are all perfect)

A little bit about our new hiker:
“Sophie’s journey with dog training began when they adopted Ollie, a reactive, fearful ACD mix. Through shadowing under Val, Sophie has developed skills in using clear communication and expectations with dogs based on their individual needs. Already an avid hiker and outdoor enthusiast, Sophie is delighted to bring dogs out on the trails for a chance to decompress and be themselves.”

In addition to Solo Hikes, Sophie will also be providing Drop In services. The Drop In is a 20-30 minute service during which your pup can get a potty break, some play in the yard, or a walk around the block.

If you are interested in learning more about either service, please send me (Val) a message via PetPocketBook

04/12/2025

The satisfied, peaceful face of a dog who lives a biologically fulfilling lifestyle and has also been taught how to just relax and be a part of the household.

Yesterday, he got to go herding and fulfill the genetic instincts that have been bred into his pedigree through careful selection over the course of centuries.

Today, he’s been hanging out on the couch all day with brief potty breaks as I avoid the snowy outdoors.

Maximalist thinking in dog training vacillates between “Your dog must be run every singe day before you can expect a second of peace” and “You must enforce absolute structure and calm in everything you do or you’ll create a dopamine addicted monster”

Neither is true. The “recipe” is live a life that (overall and in general) allows your dog to express their innate desires in a healthy, cooperative way that enforces a healthy mindset and also teach them how to chill outside of those activities.

Easier said than done, but such a pleasure to live with when implemented in the way that the specific dog you own responds to best.

As a side note, I love this dog and he is perfect.

04/01/2025

Dogs don’t change.
My dog Frankie is a perfect example of this.

She has a bite history with both people and dogs. She used to try to bite dogs on sight. She used to bite my husband. She used to fight my other dog. She used to attack people she deemed “untrustworthy” or suspicious. She felt very comfortable using her teeth to control other beings who were acting in ways she did not “authorize”. She used to be unable to pass dogs and certain people on leash without lunging and screaming even if they were 3 blocks away.

So I taught her how to ask for help when she felt uncomfortable and that she could always trust me to create safety and space for her. I used punishment protocols to reduce her attraction to violence. I changed her lifestyle and gave her productive outlets to reduce her overall rage and stress. I taught her skills to help regulate her emotions and build a higher tolerance for stressful and frustrating situations. I put her in situations that helped build her confidence and social skills.

So today she lives peacefully in my home with no incidents for years. She has a circle of dog and human friends she loves and trusts. She can go out to public stores and parks and look completely “normal”. We go hiking with our friends and their dogs. She’s earned high level titles in dog sports and work at seminars around crowds of people with no issues. When I tell people about her bite history their first response is usually a chuckle along with a look of confusion.

By all accounts, she’s “fixed” but I am under no illusion that the Frankie underneath it all would not go back to her old ways if I stopped providing her with a fulfilling lifestyle, put her in social situations around beings who violated her space and put unreasonable amounts of pressure on her without being available to advocate and help her, or allowed her to practice reactive and violent behaviors in the contexts in which they are currently off the table.

Frankie is still Frankie, and I am under no impression that I have somehow become God and put a different dog’s brain in her fluffy little body. Thanks to all of our work, Frankie is a safer, more confident being in the world. But Frankie has always been perfect, and I would never want to change her.