Refined K Nine

21/08/2024

21/08/2024

It’s not just about a hike, a walk, a sleepover, or a coaching session here at Refined K NiNe ~

It’s about deep connection, mutual understanding & Compawssion + Love .

YOUR pets hold as much space in our heart & home as our very own pets do.

We are open and transparent if we feel a certain service will not meet your dogs needs and wants, if they are not ready we reevaluate and adjust.

We are always ready to pivot and help guide you on the right path to improving your dogs welfare and wellbeing whether that ends up being a service we provide, or referring out to another R+ business 🖤🫶✌️

19/08/2024

Aggression in dogs is almost always misunderstood ~

This is why we’re here to hear you and better help you understand the dog in front of you & what theyre vocalizing or saying with silent yet, tell “tail”signs and cues that something deep rooted is going on.

Lead with Compawssion
Shift the Mindset
Guide with kindness
Be Openminded

17/08/2024

Welcome CHARME ~ To our daytrain & click to confidence . We’re going slow with this sweetie to help build her confidence out in the big wide world and hopefully work up to her feeling safe enough with us to come board in the woods !!!!

09/08/2024

is this Saturday in Victoria from 10-4 !

Refined K NIne has participated since the beginning and will be there with brand new classes to share, cards, services and a couple prizes to WIN ~

One of our clients will be representing our booth this year & will share a bit about their experience since their dog became a RK crew member over a a year ago!

If you’d like to hear more about our

💫 Day Train Services
💫 Ethical Boarding and Board + Train
💫 Behaviour Consulting
💫 Enrichment Programs
💫 End of Life In Home Pet Care

Head on down & give our friend Steph a hello 👋 & get a postcard which unlocks discounts to some of our various programs!

Woof Woof with Gratitude

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26/07/2024

Woof woof Welcome to a couple of our new coaching clients ~

Sadie, Frank, Luna, Bella & Kaia!

These kiddos have joined our behaviour coaching & enrichment programs ~ working on building those skills

AKA

Confidence
Healthy Choices
Resilience
Flight
Communication
Bravery
Rest
Tricks
Patience

We have openings for new in person training clients in Victoria & Virtual for our other pals around the world!

Compawssion is a SKILL - BOOK TODAY

18/07/2024

Our PETS will go through pain throughout their lives and some pets will have reoccurring pain several times throughout their lives.

PAIN in pets is very commonly under treated which is very concerning and is another reason why so many dogs end up being Rehoused, or surrendered to rescues and or shelters.

This is because PAIN CHANGES BEHAViOUR ~

Because our pets can’t vocalize and often may not whine and or bark in agony because they are so stoic and many silently and or subtly live through pain daily without us the pet pawrent ever picking up on cues. So one day we might go to take our once happy go lucky Pooch out for a play at by he park, a jog, social date with other pet pals and all of a sudden we’re standing their observing a different dog with an on-set on new possibly very concerning behaviours !

If PAIN is overlooked and we go right to trying to “train these behaviours out” we may feel like we’re spinning our wheels and not ever understanding the dog in front of us and or getting the “training results” we thought we could.

That is likely due to training not being the answer, but instead a consultation with your Behaviour coach to help the pet parent identify signals of pain via the pets body language and then come up with a plan to get the pet into see your veterinary and or holistic animal team, as well as adjust their enrichment framework to ensure that we’re providing our dogs with the appropriate types of mental and physical exercises to prevent escalating injury and or pain.

A standard practice is to always ASSUME there could be pain, and really getting to know our dogs from the way they pant, walk, rest, sleep, play, and interact with the environments around them on a daily basis so it is easier for us to identify changes when they arise.

Pain in pets whether chronic or acute changes behaviour. For some pets we might see increases anxiety, behaviours that might be labelled “aggressive”, sensitivity to noises (new and old noises they never use to react to, more frequent over-reactions, not wanting to interact in the environments they are used to participating in, being unreceptive to training, tricks and or games.

08/07/2024

Throughout my many years of working in rescue and rescue & when I use to work as a fear free surgical vet assistant and having to help with euthanasia, death has been nothing out of the ordinary for me.

However, it never makes it easy on the heart whether that has been compawnion children of my own passing unexpectedly, foster dogs that have come into my life to simply have a safe place to rest until their final days or clients that have become like family, that have invited me with the blessing of spending their pets final moments with them.

My heart experienced a lot of grief if the last several years and my work with animals is a life long commitment, I wanted to be able to give back in more energetic & healing way to all the animals and families that come in to my life.

Especially as my eldest and first soul dog nears the age of 13, I am aware nothing will ease my pain when she is no longer next to my side, but knowing I can ease her pain and manage her comfort and safety by being her mother but also acting as a pet death doula will ease the grief in the long run.

I am now here to offer a pet death doula service to anyone who may want extra home care and energy work, to help bring comfort to you and your pets in their safe space that we call home.

We will work alongside your veterinarians or if you’re someone that has had an awful vet experience and is afraid to go that route; it would be our pleasure to navigate those challenging conversations and help guide you and your loved compawnion during a time that may seem impossible to emotionally overcome.

Please email if you’d like to find out more about our End of Life Pet Care Journey service.

07/07/2024

Do you worry that your senior pet might be bored & not sure how to provide them with a new form of enrichment that is suitable to their aging physical capabilities!?

Our clicker training & enrichment for the senior soul workshops, are perfect to help teach you the pet parent about fun little games to help improve mobility, massage techniques with consent & many other mentally stimulating games for the senior dog soul & body!

We will also cover PAIN in dogs and how to help navigate the emotional toll that comes with worrying about your compawnions well-being, alleviate stress for both you and your pet.

DM or email [email protected]

03/07/2024

Fear is in the eye of the individual experiencing it …

It is an emotion that should be respected, acknowledged, understood … and never mocked.

Let’s work together to better understand our dogs and our own fear, its physical & psychological role, its function, and how to shape & build coping skills to help make the world around us less scary and more comfortable.

DM or email to work with us

R+ coaching - [email protected]

Private coaching & Behaviour Consulting .

28/06/2024

Have you ever been in class or at work and your teacher or boss are trying to teach you something but you really feel like you’re not absorbing any of it, maybe you’re not even hearing anything their saying and simply tune out, their words sound like a jumbled mess, a “buzz” … kind of like Charlie Brown’ Teacher!

Then you come to and they’re staring at you like “Hello, are you in there !?!?? Do you understand?” But you realized you left the house in a tizzy, after having a huge stressful fight with your partner, or maybe someone close to you is Ill and the stress of them getting better is affecting your ability to learn and or listen to your boss or teacher!

Maybe money is tight and you can’t stop stressing about all the bills coming up, perhaps your landlord just gave you notice and now the stress of finding a new place to live for you and your pet is just beyond what you’re capable of processing …

Regardless of what is causing STRESS neither human or animal learns well if they’re learning under varying levels of stress, because stress changes the brain and therefore affects the learners ability to absorb & retain information!

In dog training, we often hear people describe their pets as “seeing red” or “stubborn” or “well I know they are smart but they aren’t listening to me” that is because they are operating under stress, which is affecting the brain in that particular scenario and their capacity to stay “tuned in” to us.

When we have a better understanding of stress ‘ the impact it has on our dogs brain + body, we can avoid miss labeling our dogs as “stubborn” and help them by choosing healthier environments to teach them life coping skills.

A great teacher recognizes that we shouldn’t ever train a Stressed out Brain, and how to set environments up to remove stress for the learner so that both pet and pawrent feel confident and successful with the lesson!

Gradually over time with a R+ lesson plan and carefully selected environments to teach and learn in, our pets and pawrents can learn safely and develop foundational skills that will help our learners have options to choose from when faced with potential stressors in the world!

27/06/2024

From shelter dogs on death row, to dogs saved from war, to petrified puppies from breeders with zero socialization and life skills, foster dogs from all walks of life trying to get by in a crowded, chaotic busy world filled with rules, restrictions & regulations… we’ve seen it all!

Barking, lunging, growling, howling, screeching, baring teeth, snarling …

you know, all the behaviours that often make us the pet pawrent feel embarrassed, frustrated, in tears and running back home to hide in our safe places in fear of being judge by the public and fear of “messing” our dogs up because we’re at a loss and don’t know where to start or how to help them out in the big wide world.

We’ve been there! We see you, we hear you, and we understand you & that’s why we’re here because we want to help you!

Our private and group workshops both in person and virtual are designed to help pet pawrents take a breath recognize that we’re not alone when it comes to our overreacting canine compawnions in a chaotic world!

Our hope is that by helping our human learners gain a bigger picture perspective on what REACTIVITY is, and new knowledge when it comes to reading body language and better understanding stress and our compawnions emotional signals, life outside the walls of our safe zone (a.ka homebase) will one day be filled with moments of ease, joy, peace, mutual understanding, decompression and above all Healthy Communication!

Our program covers other aspects such has management, environmental stimuli and how to recognize variety so we have a better understanding of why behaviour can sometimes seem so “unpredictable”.

How to use individualized enrichment while working with your dogs outside of the home, what motivates them to want to participate and learn!

We’d love to hear from you and get to know you and your dog, during our assessment we will discuss what type on environment and class will be the very best choice for you and which would be the very best preference for you compawnion!

We help families both locally to Vancouver Island and Vancouver in person, and all other friends of our around the globe are welcome to join in via virtual sessions

DM for more info!

25/06/2024

Interacting with the big wide world doesn’t have to be scary or daunting for us or our dogs ~

Want to learn more about how to pawsitively improve your dogs connection with Mother Nature, New Environments and Stimuli !?

DM or email!

We would love to get to know you, your goals and help improve your pets wellbeing and welfare through our compassionate behaviour coaching sessions and personalized frameworks.

Daytrain, Family Sessions in Public & Our private training space are all options !

19/06/2024

It truly is a love language Because it focuses on building trusting, strong, everlasting connections with our beloved pets.

Consent to choose to participate and a compassionate guardian who selects appropriate environments to help facilitate safety, security and the opportunity to offer and shape healthy behaviours that will always improve wellbeing & welfare.

We can show the most LOVE & Gratitude to our pets when we choose kindness, Compawssion & consent.

18/06/2024

Welcome Cooper, Dozer & Gilly !

Puppies, Adolescents & Seniors, our day train and enrichment programs have something for everyone!

The dogs tell us what they need & we create a plan for them … & YOU!

Join the crew .knine

*Enrichment specialist
*Karen Pryor Certified Training Partner
*Street dog & Rescue dog Expert
*Aggressive behaviour specialist
*Fear Free Certified Professional

14/06/2024

13/06/2024

Pets & Pawrents of Victoria!

This is our first announcement of a series of training classes to come, presented by REFINED K NINE.

While we do currently offer a lot classes outdoors in the real world, these specific workshops will be held indoors in the heart of in our new beautiful, spacious, peaceful & welcoming coaching space.

This clicker workshop is designed for all ages, sizes & breed of dog & for pet pawrents that want to feel more confident

🖤 🫶understanding their pets emotional signals
🐾🫶refining how they can “speak dog” through to art of observation, pawsitive reinforcement clicker training.
🖤🫶Empower their dog to make healthy choices on their own
🐾🫶Get creative & compawssionate when helping their pets learn, shape & develop new behaviours & tricks!
🖤🫶Hone in on their own mechanics, body language & husbandry.
🐾🫶Have a lot of fun learning & feel safe in an training environment that is forgiving of human error & is generous with reinforcements for both the human & canine learner!

Clicker training is one of the most effective ways of developing healthy behaviours in our dogs & often times we leave feeling so excited, refreshed & joyous when we realize how smart our dogs actually are & that they are capable of so much!

All of the lessons worked on indoors will help set parents & pets up for success out in the big wide world!

From bullet recal, to targeting & focus behaviours, confidence boosting games, relaxation stations & more !

WE CANT WAIT TO GUIDE YOU!

For more information, intake forms and to get to know your coach to make sure it’s a good fit, email [email protected]

We offer this course virtually as well for anyone that does not live in Victoria !

12/06/2024

This workshop is offered for small groups for dogs pets & pawrents that feel safe & secure learning in an intimate indoor group setting!

We do also offer this privately for the canine introvert soul!

We cover ~

Emotional Signals in Pets
Bullet Recall Activities
Targeting Behaviours
Relaxation Stations
Fun clicker games that enhance the bond and improves communication between the human and & animal learner
Healthy Boundaries for big wide world!
An intro to cues & real life reinforcements

12/06/2024

Hello fellow RK family & new comers just a reminder we are not as active on Facebook as we are on other social media platforms

To watch our rescue, training. Behaviour consulting & enrichment programs please follow our instagram page at Refinedknine!

We are accepting new clients on the island & virtual coaching for our students around the world.

All inquiries can be emailed

[email protected]

Certified Fear Free Hikes, Boarding, Coaching, Solo decompression walks & Day Training!
Aggression Specialist
Stress & Trauma Specialist
Enrichment Specialist
Street dog rescue specialist
Fear free shelter dog behaviour specialist
War dog specialist
Bully breed expert & advocate
Certified Humane & Ethical Dog Trainer (multi-certifications)

15+ years working with rescue dogs

We will be announcing our indoor classes gradually over the next couple of weeks! Stay tuned

Private lessons and outdoor lesson are currently still underway.

07/06/2024

It’s been 4 months ~ guess I should finally make it official !

Welcome to your FUREVER family DAWN CHERRY SHREDDIEZ ~ ya little bully-ball of joy !!!

Did not think I’d foster fault anytime soon but I think all the kids that have died and all the extremely challenging Afghan foster dogs I had for years finally finding their FUREVER family, sent this little miracle to me, as a thank you from the dog universe !

Love this kid .

Thank you to my friends & team at for saving this cutie from euthanasia in California…

07/06/2024

BULLY breeds are safe & welcome here!!!

Not only that, but they are truly Understood, treated with gentle hearts, kindness and love .

We have worked with bully breeds for 16 years, rescuing, fostering, adopting, training, rehabilitating and advocating.

Many pet parents often have a stressful time finding trustworthy people to care for their beloved bullies because the breed is always at risk of being “under scrutiny” in the public eye, judged, feared, and mistreated by many in society.

If you’re a bully parent and are planning a trip & need a safe place for your bullies to vacation and or want a behaviour coach and enrichment specialist that truly ADORES and GETS how amazing these dogs are and how much they are loved by their families, please email us!

Protecting and keeping your bully-babes safe, happy & empowered to thrive in a society that has constantly failed them is our # 1 priority & passion

Did I mention I’m a mom of three rescued bully X’s too!
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05/06/2024

Client SPOTLIGHT ~ Blake !

Blake joined the RK crew & thank you to our friend for the referral!

We’ve been working with Blake for a couple months on

🐾Socialization Skills
🖤Confidence & Coping Around Strangers
🐾Specialized enrichment framework for the pure bred Aussie
🖤Leash manners
🐾Feeling brave & empowered in a big wild world!

We’re currently accepting new training + enrichment clients who need a little cheersquad & guidance to help Brave the world around them!

If this sounds like your kiddo email us!

We offer packages that include ~ training in the real world, enrichment in nature, hikes and or decompression walks + day train!

We have both indoor & outdoor peaceful facilities that YoU the pet parents can choose as we start off the coaching during. You know your dogs best, so let us know their wants & needs and yours and we’ll set the environments up to facilitate success, fun, positive emotions, safety & security!

05/06/2024

Gracie is back for another week of boarding with RK ~ we love this sweet soul *

We have new spots open for summer camp dog boarding for June, July & August!

[email protected]

🖤away from the city noise & lights
🐾kennel free
🖤fear free certified
🐾low stimuli environment
🖤specialized enrichment framework for your pets
🐾all breeds welcome
🖤social dogs and dog introverts welcome

04/06/2024

This Wednesday! come support a home for hooves animal sanctuary!

HFH brand new home for rescued farm animals is currently being built and winterized! This farm sanctuary has been dear to our heart since it started years ago!

Refined K Nine has donated a gift card for the silent auction, amongst other local artisans & businesses!

Plus, did we mention VEGAN FOOOOOD, a grand buffet!

in

02/06/2024

Missing my boy lucky from Palestine | we had a bond!

01/06/2024

That wraps up a week in Calgary & another dog trainer certification program to add to our Canine Compawssion Continued Ed’ Binder ~

We love Alberta ~ see you again, hopefully soon!

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30/05/2024

Shoutout to all all long time RK residents & the new recruits ! We love you & can’t wait to see you next week and share all our new tips, tricks & knowledge with our training, walking & boarding pals +