Chromatic K9

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.

04/03/2025

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.

03/14/2025

Hi Everyone!
We are excited to announce that starting 4/1/25 we will be switching over to PetPocketBook for Chromatic K9’s scheduling, billing, and all around administrative software needs.

***You can learn more about this software and what this will mean for you and your pet moving forward here: https://help.petpocketbook.com/article/12-what-is-petpocketbook-for-pet-parents***

As the demand for our services has grown, the hours left in any given day to deal with the “nitty gritty” technical aspects of running a business have gotten shorter. We are hoping that this move allows us to spend less time on our laptops and more time out with you and your pups.

Over the next few weeks, you should receive an email with a link to create a PetPocketBook account. All scheduling, billing, etc. starting 4/1 will be done using this software so please make sure to complete this step before then.

If you are a client (or wish to become a client) and do not receive an email by 4/1, please reach out and we will make sure you will receive an invitation ASAP!

Thank you all so much for your support over the years!

12/26/2024

Thanks for inviting me to judge some GRC SR tests today in San Jose, CA and !

Everyone had great runs that showcased their beautiful relationships with their dogs and was also very kind and made me feel very welcome!

Happy holidays!

08/28/2024

Sign up here: https://www.chromatic-k9.com/group-classes

What is it?

Is your new puppy a high energy breed? Are you an active outdoor enthusiast wanting to involve your new puppy when you go hiking or camping? This class will give your puppy the foundational skills needed to navigate an active lifestyle out on the trails with you. We will cover foundational food and toy play, loose leash walking, recall, building the “off switch”, trail etiquette as well as appropriate socialization and body language.

Unlike a traditional puppy class, this class will meet at fields and trails in the greater Boston area out in the “real world” so your puppy can learn these skills in the environments where they will need them!

Who is it for?

Handlers 18+

Puppies 8-16 weeks old on the first day of class who have had at least their first round of vaccines.

When?

Wednesday

9/25 5pm

10/2 5:30pm

10/9 5pm

10/16 5pm

10/23 5pm

Cost

$200 for 5 weeks

Where?

Greenwood Park, Stoneham (across the street from the Stone Zoo)

08/24/2024

One of the best things I’ve taught my six month old puppy is how to make good choices at liberty. No-not the same as “the art of doing nothing” or “settling.”

Being sick and out of commission with four dogs, including a 6 month old cattle bred border collie puppy, has given me lots of time to reflect on the difference between the way I went about raising Sonny vs Eli.

When I was raising Sonny almost 6 years ago, I was so worried about “messing him up” or allowing him to make any mistakes. I had no idea how to peacefully integrate him with my two sketchy dogs and that combo led to soooo muuuuch micromanagement.

I have given Eli way more liberty much sooner. This means that I’ve allowed him to explore and be successful and also to mess up when it is safe to do so and learn from it. I would never expect a high drive puppy to settle for hours on end in my living room-especially when his needs have been barely (if at all) met while I’ve been sick. He’s allowed to be rowdy and play by himself or with my (consenting) dogs. He’s allowed to ask humans for play. And as a result, he can also make the choice to chill.

I don’t expect him to be a couch ornament in the house, and while I have taught him to settle when necessary and required in a pen/crate/on a tether, requiring him to do so all day outside of “structured training” or “structured play” with me would cause more conflict and frustration for both of us than allowing him to simply be himself, with some important boundaries such as: don’t chew electrical cords, don’t harass your siblings when they’re in “safe zones”, and don’t eat the rug-amongst other important safety precautions.

I guess my point is-I’m glad I took the approach (with encouragement by my very smart friends and colleagues and ) of “have as much freedom as possible while learning some things are off limits” instead of trying to force him into some “perfect dog” dog trainer ideal by always “setting him up for success”

04/28/2024

As someone who’s never had an “easy” dog, so far Eli has been a dream. At this point, he is social, handler oriented, drivy, has a nice off switch (for a baby BC), and has been quite confident and environmentally stable.

As a behavior mod-focused trainer, I am also so keenly aware of all of the problems I could create in him if I wasn’t paying attention.

He’s social but needs me to intervene when he is done with an interaction because his default is to just go along with what people want from him-this could so easily turn into fear and lack of trust around people if he feels like there’s no one to advocate for him and people repeatedly push him past his limits.

He’s drivy and will play pretty much anywhere straight out of the womb-if he was not having his needs appropriately met this could so easily turn into car chasing, shadow chasing, reactivity, and other obsessive behaviors.

He’s handler-oriented which will be amazing for sports-and could also easily turn into separation anxiety if we don’t develop independence as well as his ability to be crated and contained away from me.

I think a lot of times with puppy clients, I see these potential avenues their dogs could go down if not addressed with preventative measure right away as well as owners on the other end doing way too much training and structure and burning out talented young puppies.

So for now, I’m doing my best to strike a balance between letting my puppy be a puppy and explore the world while developing his own interests as much as is safely possible and on the other side, also being there to support him in areas that may become problematic if allowed to fester.

Also doing my best not to obsess and spiral (unsuccessfully) IYKYK 😂😂

04/20/2024

Email [email protected] with the subject line “GRC Classes” to sign up for Group Classes.
Email the trainer you’re interested in working with to sign up for private GRC classes