K9 Leadership

11/01/2025

Hey, you!

Do you struggle to keep your dog’s nails at a reasonable length? Are vet visits a bit of an ordeal? Do you wish things went more smoothly with the care for dog?

Lucky for you, Kayleigh has created just the class you need. Over 6 weeks, you will learn invaluable skills, learn to better understand your dog’s body language and build trust.

This round will be starting on January 20th at 7:45-8:30pm and will be hosted indoors at

We can’t wait to see you there!

31/12/2024

It’s time for some reintroductions! Meet Maureen, trainer and founder of K9 Leadership

Maureen has been working with dogs for 15+ years, with a focus on tracking with SAR teams, and sport teams alike.

Dog: Kenya, GSD
Classes: Sport tracking (field and urban), the occasional Dog Leadership and Puppy Program classes
Favourite Training Treat: Lamb lung, cheese, rollover

Q: What’s your favourite skill?

A: Kenya’s favourite is the backup and putting her little feet up onto something. It’s really cute.

Q: What’s your favourite thing to work on with students?

A: I love teaching early engagement with small puppies. It’s so valuable for the foundations of their relationship building. Also, every level of tracking is my passion. Foundation right through to advanced concepts.

Q: What’s your favourite activity to do with your dog?

A: You know, we live to track. Tracking is our big thing. However there’s so much time in between the tracks, so I’d have to say toy play is our favourite.

Q: What’s your biggest challenge

A: I need to remember not to lump things together. I need to break them down in small enough pieces that she can master the skills.

Q: What’s a tip people should know?

A: The most important thing is to give your dog time to develop and mature. To have the patience and wisdom to slow down on certain things that the dog needs more maturity to tackle. That was one of the biggest things I learnt with Kenya. All dogs mature at a different rate and their development is individual and unique to each dog

Q: What’s your favourite thing about Kenya?

A: I feel like she encompasses all my past dogs She has the sweetness of dolly, the humour of Orrin, the work ethic of griffin. Encompassed in her own speedy, fun self.

What else would you like to hear from Maureen?

27/12/2024

It’s that time of the year again! The new year is quickly approaching and we are excited to be starting our classes back up!

We have our usual favourites, as well as some new classes from Kayleigh: Puppy Confidence Building and Blue & Yellow Concept Class.

Keep an eye on our stories over the next few days as we share which January classes still have space available.

As always, you can book yourself in online or send us a message. We hope to see you there! 😁🐕

20/12/2024

We are thrilled to share that Garry and Otto of Coquitlam SAR have recently passed their tracking validation!

These two have been working with Maureen in obedience and tracking since Otto was a wee pup (swipe to see the cuteness!)

They have come such a long way and we are so proud of them! Congrats, team!

22/11/2024

A few shots from the Urban Tracking Trial this past Sunday, once again hosted by the wonderful Great Dane Club.

What a tough day it was! Out of 7 teams, only one made it through despite lots of hard work. Conditions were looking good, but the dogs told us things were not as easy as they seemed!

Congratulations to Lizl and Gabby on their UTD, and congrats to all the other teams for their hard work. We are excited to share some more stories from the day, so keep an eye out over the next few days!

20/11/2024

A great recap from Ona about her recent TD with her pup, Casey! We love to hear it! Huge congrats to these two!

“Casey * Woodside’s Stand By Me, earned her TD (Tracking Dog) on Sunday hosted by the Western Great Dane Club of BC.

We drew the last track so lots of time to think about what could go wrong. Heading to the scent pad it was hard to hold her back, she took a quick sniff and off we went. She works fast so I sometimes struggle to keep up with her and quite often I’m at the end of my line and just hanging on. I basically just trust her and follow wherever she indicates where the track goes. She found the Glove. Now I can catch my breath😂

Thanks to the Great Dane Club, our Judge Maureen Fielding and all the track layers, volunteers and to the farmers who let us track on their beautiful fields. The Trial went so smoothly. My goal is to try to get Casey to slow down🥰”

10/11/2024

Some great shots from the Great Dane Club tracking trial last weekend!

It was a fantastic day for tracking with an almost 100% pass rate!

Huge congrats to all their teams for their hard work. Check out our Facebook for full videos and stories from some of these great teams.

We also want to add a giant THANK YOU to our track layers (we can’t do it without you!!) as well as Barb and Al Rose from the Great Dane Club for once again putting on a wonderful test for us!

04/11/2024

Amazing work from these two at the Forbidden Plateau Tracking Trial last weekend!

Karen and Halo make a great team and were a joy to watch on their TD.

Check out our recent Facebook post to watch the track and read Karen’s recount of the big day.

Congratulations, team! 👏🏼🎉

01/11/2024

For those that are interested in watching - here is the video of our tracking test the Forbidden Plateau Obedience & Tracking hosted. I feel so lucky we drew a track here for our very first test! Even luckier our instructor Maureen Fielding was there with her young dog and able to watch and video our test after their successful one. (Kenya and Maureen rocked their test as well! Congratulations!!)
Morning of, I had no power in my motel room and couldn’t find my car keys via flashlight. I was sleep deprived and really really sick. Maureen calmly told me it would be ok and let me hitch a ride to the rendezvous. If you aren’t there exactly on time you forfeit your track. Coughing and hacking away, super sick, I got in Maureen’s car and promptly found my keys in a side pocket of my purse. A spot I have never put them…
I was able to get to the rendezvous but the bad start to the day lingered and I was nervous. And still coughing and wheezing.
I told Maureen I was nervous and she reminded me how amazing my dog is and that all I needed to do was follow her. She was so so bang on. Halo carried my on this track while I did my best to stay upright and slow her down. Halo rocked this track with absolutely no need for support from me other than giving her all the leash she needed on the 3rd corner when she needed to circle off the end of that leg. I was so winded by trying to stay upright I spent some time on my knees catching my breath after. She was so confident on that track it took all my effort to hold on and slow her down. I have no words to describe just how proud I am of this dog and how lucky I am for the training and support we have been gifted with.
Here is the video, it may not look exciting but imagine leading your dog up to a 1 meter square of field that a track layer walked on then stood for 60 seconds on and then set out on a track across a field with varying vegetation and lots of distracting odour and sights and then ultimately drops a leather glove. These are farm fields with livestock and wildlife. You bring your dog to that little square of odour, no scent article - just a small patch of odour, you then ask them to take in that odour, remember it, follow where that track layer went then tell you (alert) when they find something in that field that smells just like that track layer. It’s astounding really!!!

I would have been happy to pass, I’m delighted with the judge’s assertion that it was a ‘10/10 perfect, pretty, pretty track’! Lots more training to do, this is just he start - it is a good start though. Good girl Halo ❤️

30/10/2024

We are thrilled to share that our very own Maureen and Kenya have earned their first tracking title in Canada!

As all tracking students and trial participants would know, Maureen is currently the only active local judge. She has judged many, many trials over the past several years, giving her students and all entrants a chance to title their dogs and be recognized for their hard work in training.

The down side of this is that Maureen rarely gets a chance to enter her own dog! So, this past weekend they made the trek over to the Vancouver Island for their chance to trial with the Forbidden Plateau Tracking Club.

We are so proud of Maureen and Kenya who have now earned their TD, as well as Hugo, Maureen’s other tracking buddy who has finally earned his TDX after years of amazing tracking!

Congrats, you three!

30/10/2024

25/10/2024

Otto loved his water world track. Proud of his glove!

24/10/2024

Here’s some water tracking from today 🤣Fields still flooded from the weekend! Yup we’re a bit crazy but it’s ok 👍 😁

17/10/2024

We are beyond excited to share that our new website is now live!!

This has been a long overdue update for us. On our new site, you’ll find:

- Class descriptions
- Upcoming schedules (without logging in!)
- FAQ
- Lots of cute pics
- Client testimonials
… and more!

We won’t tell you how long we’ve been working on this, but we will say we’d love for you to check it out!

➡️k9leadership.com!

24/09/2024

Nova and I participated in our first scent trial this weekend with the Sporting Detection Dog Association and she was amazing! I went in with no expectations. I thought she would be distracted, excited and all over the place. My plan was to let her do her thing and not stress about the result and just hope that we would have fun overall. I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised!

First - Containers: She was so excited to go into this room! We lost a couple points for "lacks focus/distracted" and "inconsistent search sequence" (She wants to search the perimeter, hasn't quite figured out that the boxes in the middle of the room are where it's at) but still found the hide in less than 30 seconds (27.56 sec). We were last in so it was interesting because I knew it was one of 3 boxes (due to pupkiss and damage) so had to make a very big point of not specifically pointing out a box to check.

Second - Exterior: 7 seconds. Just BAM! Found it, rewarded, done! Perfect score (there was no time to lose any points)

Third - Interior: 28 seconds. Focused and very thorough perimeter search. Perfect score again! She was a little more wiffle-waffly at the end (could tell she was in the area but was a little unsure, so i turned her around 180 and BAM!) but then found it and laid down to mark it (thank you David in tracking!)

She got her Starter title, first in interior and exterior search and then first overall!

We had so much fun! (actually, Nova was a little frustrated because we usually play this game several times in a row so she was wondering why the game ended so quickly). We had a fantastic time learning to play from Laurel. Could not have asked for a better teacher! She comes to you where you're at, does not expect perfection right off the bat, breaks everything down into very manageable chunks (for both dog and human) and is forever patient with the humans who make the same error 10 times. She is also genuinely excited for you and your dog's successes, I want to share everything with her!

Things Nova does super well
- Identifies a hide VERY confidently when she has found it
- Searches the perimeter first
- No dilly-dallying!

Things I learned from Laurel
- Trust Nova when she confidently identifies a hide
- Give her space
- 180 rule (had to use it in interior!)

I'm sure there is more that I've learned and just haven't realized that I've incorporated it.

Looking forward to more scent work with Laurel in October!

Stephanie & Nova