"My dog doesn't like xyz, can you help me fix that?"

Great news! One of our philosophy pillars states that we are responsible for everything our dog does, and everything our dog fails to do. Knowing this, we now can take action concerning our responsibility and we can steer our dog towards performing obediently regardless of whether they like or dislike a stimulus. If you want to fix a behavior, you just have to be willing to do the work and to find someone to guide you.

"I don't want a super Navy SEAL dog, I just want my dog to listen to me, is your training for me?"

Yes. At K9Philosophy we encourage all dog owners to find dog training solutions that fit their lifestyle. While we specialize in protection dogs, our basic obedience and agility is absolutely suited for “couch dogs” that need to learn a few commands so that they can better fit into their human’s lives.

"My dog takes forever to go to the bathroom, usually multiple trips around the block before they go. Can you help me with that?"

While there are exceptions…if you put in the work, and you enforce strong patterns and strong boundaries, you can probably turn your hour-long bathroom break into a consistently sub-2 minute event. Potty Time is usually one of the first things we will tackle with our clients.

"Will your training work for different breeds? I don't have a shepherd or a working-breed dog"

As long as we have strong principles/philosophy we can certainly help you show your dog what we expect from it regardless of the breed. Yes, certain breeds are better than others at certain tasks but you should definitely not sell your dog short. They are all capable of great tasks and they all want to make their humans happy. Let’s set them up for success in the mundane and the insane tasks, both.

"How old is too old to start training? How young is too young?"

FortressK9 dogs (and K9Philosophy client’s dogs) start their foundations of real combat “protection training” (which is never a game) at around 8 weeks old. We do not punish or abuse our dogs but we also hold them at exceptionally high standards from birth and we teach them that the only option is to protect their humans - every time without fail; and they are to be exceptionally peaceful and stable - without fail, too. Old dogs can learn new tricks, and young dogs can start learning with appropriate training, no matter how young.

"If your training system isn't based on toys or treats, does that mean that I can't give my dogs treats ever, and can't cuddle with them?"

“I have never trained my dogs or client’s dogs with treats or toys or clickers, and my dog and my client’s dogs get a lot of love and affection and treats. Our dogs perform because of the bond that they have with their handler, and we give our dogs treats just because we love them, and they don’t have to specifically perform for treats. I think that’s a MUCH better relationship than bribery, and a more organic relationship rather than “Do this trick, get this food”.

"Can I buy a dog from you?"

Yes! FortressK9.com is our dog supplier. You can visit their website and you can see them on Instagram @fortressk9 and @fortressk9.puppies and you can listen to Joel on his podcast “Protection Dog Podcast”. They provide three breeds, German Shepherds, Dutch Shepherds, and Belgian Malinois, and they provide a few different options from basic 8 week old puppies, up through executive level trained protection dogs. Contact Us so that we can find out if our dogs are a good fit for you! :)

"Are your dogs (FortressK9 dogs) AKC Certified? Aka, are your dogs purebred? Do they come with their lineage papers?"

What an odd question. Are you more concerned with a stamp on a piece of paper that is in line with certain checks in a box? Or are you more concerned with day in and day out quality control and an absolute professional level of reliable capability? If you want a stamp on a piece of paper then we can not help you. If you want high quality that will yield you real life results, then THAT is what we are here for.