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Top Tier K9® 3.0
Adaptive Reliability®
Academy for Dog Trainers, Owners and Handlers
Recognized as the World's Greatest Dog Training Company
Home of the Foundation Dog®
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Meet our Instructors
The Top Tier K9® Academy for Dog Trainers is recognized as one of the best dog trainer schools in the world. Our focus on Adaptive Reliability® in the training of dogs, owners/handlers, and dog trainers is unmatched anywhere in the world.
Meet the instructors that make this happen.
Jeff Minder is an award-winning instructor, Air Force and Air Force Special Operations Command SERE Instructor of the Year, and Air Commando Hall of Fame nominee who built his teaching career on measurable learning under pressure.
After 11 years as a Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape instructor, he carried that same instructional discipline into project management, teaching business analysis and PMP methods at universities and Fortune 100 companies including Lockheed Martin, Motorola, and Roche.
In 2014 he founded Top Tier K9® and applied instructional systems design to create a replicable curriculum that trains both dogs and the people who handle them. His core innovation is Adaptive Reliability®, a trademarked protocol that gives working and pet dogs a standardized foundation that can be finished for protection, service, detection, or sport work in weeks rather than years.
Minder was the first trainer in the world to train a dog to hunt and indicate on COVID-19, developed the world’s first virtual reality dog-training center, and launched Top Tier K9 3.0, an AI system trained on decades of curriculum, trainer outcomes, and more than 1,000 dogs.
The Top Tier K9 Academy for Dog Trainers has certified hundreds of trainers worldwide and expanded into a franchise system across multiple states. In 2024 Top Tier K9 was recognized as the World’s Greatest Dog Training Company. Minder continues to teach as lead instructor at the Madison, Florida certification site while expanding the academy’s live and AI-supported programs, keeping the focus on producing trainers who can start businesses, empty shelters through reliable training, and deliver dogs that work.
Ryan Greenawalt was born and raised in Harrisburg, PA and from an early age expressed an interest in working with and training dogs. Following high school, Ryan attended West Point and was commissioned as an Army Officer in 2003. Ryan's career included a multitude of Aviation assignments as well as being stationed in six different states with multiple overseas deployments. During his travels, Ryan enjoyed volunteering at local animal shelters by fostering dogs in need, which ignited his passion for dog behavior and training. Ryan retired with 21 years of Army service in September 2024 and decided to follow his passion for dogs, small business ownership, and giving back to the community. Ryan's goal is to improve the owner/dog relationship through proper training and communication, support local shelters, and give back to the veteran/first responder community through the training and homing of service dogs. Ryan is a Certified Pet Trainer, Certified Foundation Dog Trainer, and has also successfully trained numerous service dogs..
Ryan is the proud owner and lead trainer at Top Tier K9 - Huntsville, which commenced training operations in September 2024. Within 18 months of opening, Top Tier K9 - Huntsville became one of Top Tier K9 corporate's top producing franchises and grew from one employee to a training team of six professional dog trainers. Ryan is mission focused, passionate about the training success of both dogs and their owners, and brings with him a tremendous amount of leadership and team building experience. Ryan has quickly built a reputable dog training business in a very competitive market in Huntsville, AL. His work ethic, values, dedication to mission and quality of work, and genuine care and concern for owners and their dogs has led to dog training business success.
Ryan is beyond excited for the opportunity to certify, train, and mentor the next generation of dog trainers at his location in Huntsville, AL. Beyond teaching the art and science of dog training, Ryan looks forward to providing real world career expectations as well as insight into successful business development. Ryan and his team are beyond excited to meet, train, and certify the absolute best dog training students in the country!
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Julie Madison brings more than 20 years of experience working with dogs, combined with a diverse background in coaching, leadership, education, and hands-on instruction. Her passion for dogs began as a teenager when she volunteered more than 300 hours at an animal shelter, rehabilitating, training, and socializing dogs with a wide range of temperaments and behavioral challenges.
Today, Julie is a Certified Pet Trainer, Certified Foundation Dog® Trainer, and Master Trainer in Service and Protection Dogs. Her experience includes obedience, reactivity, behavioral rehabilitation, service dogs, protection dogs, shelter and rescue dogs, and helping families build lasting relationships with their dogs.
As the owner of Top Tier K9 – Bradenton, Julie has developed a strong reputation for combining practical training skills with compassionate, effective coaching. Her clients consistently recognize her knowledge, patience, professionalism, and ability to help both dogs and their owners succeed. Her online reviews reflect a high level of client satisfaction, with reviewers frequently highlighting her dedication, expertise, and ability to achieve meaningful results with challenging dogs. Julie's diverse coaching background also allows her to teach complex concepts in a practical, understandable way—an especially important skill when preparing future professional dog trainers.
Julie is now bringing that experience to the next generation of trainers by opening her Bradenton facility as a location where aspiring dog trainers can receive hands-on education and professional certification through the Top Tier K9 training model. Her goal is to prepare trainers who can do more than teach basic obedience. They must not only understand canine behavior, solve real-world behavioral challenges, and confidently demonstrate their skills but also ensure their knowledge transfers effectively to their clients. Successful dog trainers don't just train dogs, they train people.
Julie believes that developing qualified trainers creates a ripple effect: better-trained professionals can help more families keep their dogs, improve outcomes for shelter and rescue animals, and create rewarding career opportunities for people who want to build their lives around helping dogs and the people who love them.
Madeline Romito brings years of hands-on dog training together with an extensive background in instruction, leadership, and Search and Rescue. As an Officer in the United States Coast Guard for nearly a decade, Madeline served within the Search and Rescue community instructing SAR professionals throughout the Coast Guard as well as members of international partner nations. Her experience teaching extends well beyond the military. Prior to her service, she worked as a PADI scuba instructor and Red Cross Instructor building a career around developing technical expertise and learning how to effectively transfer that knowledge to others. Ultimately, this led Madeline to obtain her Master Training Specialist Certification in Human Performance & Technology Systems where she led a team in the overhaul of 20 year old curriculum pioneering how training is conducted in the military. Today, she has brought the passion of teaching to Top Tier K9.
Madeline owns and operates Top Tier K9 - Blackwater Bay from a dedicated training facility in Northwest Florida, providing an environment where dogs, clients, and students can progress from controlled foundational work into practical, real-world scenarios. She utilizes TopTier K9’s Adaptive Reliability® model: teaching dogs to understand expectations and make appropriate decisions themselves. Just as importantly, Madeline believes successful dog training requires training the person on the other end of the leash. Her background as a Master Training Specialist has shaped an approach focused on explaining not only what a student should do, but why it works, how to recognize when an approach needs to change, and how to adapt those principles to the individual dog and ever changing scenarios.
As an instructor with Top Tier K9®, Madeline’s goal is to develop trainers who can think critically and make the correct decisions in a split second. She emphasizes hands-on experience, clear communication, problem solving, and the ability to confidently transfer knowledge to clients. Whether teaching a Search and Rescue professional, a recreational student, a dog owner, or an aspiring professional trainer, her standard remains the same: students leave with the knowledge, judgment, and confidence to apply what they have learned when an instructor is no longer standing beside them.