Programs & Classes
Whether you're looking to build a solid foundation with your dog, deepen your understanding of animal behaviour, or pursue a career in canine rehabilitation — DK9S offers a path forward. Every program begins with the same commitment: honest, relationship-based work grounded in how dogs actually think and learn.
Basic Obedience Group Classes
Our group Basic Obedience classes are straightforward and practical. You'll learn how to communicate clearly with your dog, establish consistent expectations, and build the kind of relationship that makes everything else easier. No gimmicks, no shortcuts — just real work that produces real results.
Group classes run May through October. Registration opens each spring.
We do not run group classes in cold weather. Private and remote sessions are available year-round.
Internship Program
DK9S accepts students in veterinary medicine, pre-veterinary medicine, and veterinary technology programs who are seeking a placement to fulfil their internship hours. Standard programs rarely dedicate meaningful time to animal behaviour — a placement here fills that gap directly.
Our operation is based on a working farm. The program is not limited to dogs — students work alongside and observe the natural behaviour and interactions of all the animals we have here, including horses, chickens, and cats. Understanding how different species communicate, coexist, and respond to one another is part of what makes this placement unlike anything you will find in a conventional clinical setting.
Students are also introduced to the holistic treatments we use in our facility and kennel — Reiki, meditation, and chakra balancing for animals — and to our training methodology, which is rooted in mirroring the natural communication a mother dog uses with her puppies. It is an approach dogs understand instinctively, and one that produces a higher success rate and faster results.
Placements are 40–60 hours, focused entirely on the behaviour and holistic treatment side of animal care — the areas most programs leave out.
Apprenticeship & Behaviourist Track
For those who want to go further — who are drawn not just to training dogs but to understanding them — DK9S offers a structured apprenticeship track. This is not a weekend course or an online certification. It is a serious, hands-on commitment to learning the craft from the ground up.
Prerequisite: completion of DK9S Basic Obedience and Behaviour Training. This is required for all apprenticeship candidates, regardless of background or prior experience.
Minimum 1,000 hours to qualify as a DK9S behaviourist.
Once our facilities are fully operational, board will be included in your apprenticeship hours. We are building something here — and we are looking for people who want to be part of it. DK9S is actively seeking a protégé: someone with the instinct, the patience, and the drive to carry this work forward.
Top graduates may be selected and specialised in specific areas of canine behaviour, with placement opportunities across Canada and the United States. DK9S will hold a competition to identify and select the trainers who will represent this program.
The DK9S Selection Competition
We believe the best trainers are forged through experience, not just study. DK9S will hold a structured competition open to apprenticeship graduates, through which we will identify and select trainers to be specialised and placed in specific roles. If you have what it takes, we want to find you.
Cost Should Not Be a Barrier
If the cost of any program is a concern, we would like to hear from you. Please reach out privately and we will do our best to find a way forward.
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