Mountain State K9 Academy

We had an amazing experience with the academy staff and Dylan for our golden retriever puppy. He did a three week onboarding training and it was an amazing investment. We could barely leave the puppy unattended or have walks with him without him pulling or trying to jump on other people. There’s definitely homework that needs to be done on our side, but with the tools Dylan gave us, it made the process 10x easier and more enjoyable. We were also very happy with his stay there during the training, and will definitely consider daycare for him in the future.

Mountain States helped us relate to our 1-year old reactive, rescue dog better. When Rocky came to us, he bonded easily but felt it was his job to protect us from the world, reacting 'German Shepherd guard dog style' at the door, pulling on walks, and lunging at other dogs or animals on TV. After observing this reactivity during our intro visit, Patrick assured us Rocky was trainable and recommended a 3-week Board & Train, which we conveniently scheduled to overlap with an out-of-state vacation. After his 3 weeks and two follow-up training sessions with Patrick, I can honestly say we are better dog communicators, Rocky is much more chill, and TV time is finally quiet! While we still don't trust him with other dogs (our package includes group followups to help with this), and he still barks when guests arrive, he now stays on his climb (spot), and our walks are 100% better because we know what to do. Mountain States K9 gave us the training tools we needed to manage his triggers safely and calmly. If you have a reactive dog of any size, I highly recommend K9 Academy, we were told by a friend "It's the best money you'll spend on your relationship with your dog", and we 100% agree. We will be back for more training and boarding services.

Posting this here so I can come back and update you guys! This is Garm my 13 week old Belgian Mal puppy who will hopeful thrive as a EOD detection and PPD/PSA dog. While he has just started his training with MSK9, I want to personally thank my trainer Patrick for doing my first eval and helping me make my decision on whether to keep this puppy as a working dog. He addressed my concerns about his drive and temperament professionally and honestly. As a detection trainer and handler, I look for trainers who give honest opinions and who challenge me to continue with dog that is very different then my previous K9 partners. I know you have not really worked Garm until today, but I was very comfortable leaving him in your care. After a few bad experiences with other training companies, leading to a death of one of my personal dog and injury of a working dept dog, I am very picky about leaving my dogs with trainers. I will update as Garm progresses in his training with Patrick. I hope him had a good first day at MSK9. I’m not sure anyone from MSK9 will actually read this, but thank you Patrick for taking on the challenge! I can t wait to see how my boy develops under your guidance.