Certified Working Dog Trainers
Chris Williams and Victoria Stees earned their Working Dog Trainer Certifications
It took almost a year for each of them. They started with the "Art of Dog Training" where they learned how to effectively train dogs and their owners in a way that improves the relationship between the dog and the family. They learned how to care for the health and nutrition of dogs and were exposed to a balanced approach to dog training in a way that transfers easily to the owners of the dogs. they learned how to start and manage their own businesses, how to think like an entrepreneur, how to prioritize the demands on their time and budgets, and how to effectively serve their customers. They continued on the the "Pet Trainer Program" where the demonstrated and improved their skills in the previously learned material. Both students started their own dog training businesses during this phase of training. During the Pet Trainer Program, both students took advantage of the ability to start their working dog training by concurrently enrolling in the "Working Dog Puppy Imprinting and Forecasting Program" where they learned a replicable process to take young working line puppies and mold them into super dogs; performing advanced obedience, tracking and trailing, protection and scent detection; and learned how to integrate working dog training services into their pet training businesses. The students then traveled to Greeley Colorado where they trained dogs and worked with the dog owners. they both certified as Top Tier K9 Pet Trainers under the watchful eye of Kari Koch; co-founder of Top Tier K9. Both students attended the Top Tier K9 advanced business training and project management classes where they learned how to manage risk in their business decisions, how to develop effective marketing campaigns, use social media, and develop contracts and accounting systems for their businesses. Chris Williams picked up a strong GSD puppy from Karen Belcher of Crooked Creek Ranch (Liesel Weapon) and Victoria Stees picked up Xena, a lab/dutch shepherd mix. They then applied everything they had learned up to this point to imprint their new puppies; from the comfort of their own homes, while running their own pet training businesses in the "Working Dog Trainer Program". The value of this cannot be overstated. There are no other schools that teach what Top Tier K9 teaches; none, and the ability to imprint a working line puppy in their own community while promoting their own pet training business is an amazing opportunity that both capitalized on. The training was monitored by Jeff Minder and Kari Koch through on-going face-to-face on line classes. Once both trainers were comfortable with their skills and abilities, and confident in the progression of their puppies through the phased approaches to puppy imprinting that they applied, they traveled to Madison Florida to Top Tier K9's main campus to attempt Certification as a Working Dog Trainer where they demonstrated their current skills, chose the disciplines that wanted to focus on for their dogs, themselves and their businesses, and then Top Tier K9 developed a custom training program for each of them to ensure they had everything they needed to be successful in the world of training working dogs. The challenges they faced included Advanced Protection Training and Decoy Skill Development, Advanced Scent Detection challenges, Tracking, Search and Rescue, Scent Discrimination, and Advanced Obedience work. In addition both students worked applied advanced project management and business analysis skills to plan the next level of their business growth.
