Little Miss K9

Little Miss K9 Owner Tricia LiAna is a positive reinforcement dog trainer, and is an ATT judge and AKC evaluator She is now a recognized AKC evaluator.

​Owner Tricia LiAna’s love for dogs and training started at a young age. She grew up in a family that owned and ran a professional kennel training hunting and sporting dogs. She had also been working with rescue dogs before coming to Elite K9. Her passion for rescues led her to adopt an abandoned Catahoula Whippet mix who is DeafBlind. Her connection to the DeafBlind community, and fluency in ASL

made her a good fit to provide clear and constant communication with this special pup. With the guidance of Elite K9, she trained her Norsayan Mastiff as a mobility and medical alert SD, through the Canine Kinship program. Hanna Myers, then mentored her to become a partner trainer under her well known and respected company, Elite K9. Tricia trains in positive reinforcement methods and strives to learn the least abrasive and science based ways to engage with dogs.

05/24/2025

Service dog training is a full time job for mysef as the trainer as well as for the handler. Guiding my clients through this process is challenging but some of the most fulfilling work I get to do.

This girl is my world, so it breaks my heart to make this update. We did not get good news from cardiology today … The s...
05/15/2025

This girl is my world, so it breaks my heart to make this update.

We did not get good news from cardiology today … The short version of the story is that her cardiologist told me that it’s no longer a question of “if” she will die from heart failure it’s a question of “when”

We made her end of life plan today and I have the warning symptoms of early heart failure to be monitoring for so that I can get her comfort care when it happens.

She is on three medications in the meantime to try and keep her heart as strong and healthy in the meantime. But she has DCM which means her heart is struggling to pump blood to her body and therefor the muscle is working overtime and growing larger than normal. With DCM comes other complications. So far she has a heart murmur and Ventricular Arrhythmia.
Ironically my cardiac alert SD is now retired due to cardiac issues…. She takes too much after her momma.

You would think decades of being a heart patient would have prepared me better for this but it’s different when it’s someone you love and you feel completely helpless… 🥺😭

I seriously have the best job 💜 Dog training is more complex and nuanced than a lot of people think when they think abou...
05/15/2025

I seriously have the best job 💜

Dog training is more complex and nuanced than a lot of people think when they think about this being my full-time job, but today is definitely one of the good days.

I love getting to do puppy aptitude, testing with local ethical breeders that are being intentional about their puppy home placements, like I got to do today with 💜

Thank you to for being my evaluation partner

So happy to see all my girls happy and healthy and frolicking through this
05/13/2025

So happy to see all my girls happy and healthy and frolicking through this

Group class aftermath 😆This is a request from our client Kiaya “Hi there! I am is putting together a video for Little Mi...
05/04/2025

Group class aftermath 😆
This is a request from our client Kiaya

“Hi there! I am is putting together a video for Little Miss K9 to highlight Tricia’s amazing work, and I’d love to include some her in action with dogs other than mine! If you have any videos of Tricia working with you and/or your dog—whether during training sessions or just just sweet moments—please feel free to send them my way! It’ll help showcase the heart and impact of what she does. Feel free to text me 760-460-6735

Thanks so much!”

Just a snap shot of what it’s like to be a boarding dog here at Little Miss K9. Mr Bowie is a Berger Blanc Sussie like ...
04/28/2025

Just a snap shot of what it’s like to be a boarding dog here at Little Miss K9.
Mr Bowie is a Berger Blanc Sussie like our very own Mrs Fable. He is staying with us for a week. Which means he gets play time in our back yard, he snuggles with me and my hubby on our couch, he goes for walks daily, his coat is kept brushed, he is fed his usual meals and supplements, his training and rules are up kept, he gets to join us for Sniffspot adventures, he gets mental enrichment games, and is generally treated like one of my own pups.

His owner gets pictures and videos and daily updates so she stays fully informed of how he is doing and what he has been up to.

Ok where are my cat people at ?!?This is Mrs Kitty and she is looking for her forever home. This is a little different t...
04/24/2025

Ok where are my cat people at ?!?

This is Mrs Kitty and she is looking for her forever home.

This is a little different than my usual posts but she has unfortunately outlived her owner and the surviving family are clients who have asked for my help to find her a loving home as they can’t keep her responsibly. I believe she is like 8 so a senior baby for sure

Spent the morning back at Summit Veterinary Hospital. The surgery incision has healed and her staples where removed toda...
04/17/2025

Spent the morning back at Summit Veterinary Hospital.

The surgery incision has healed and her staples where removed today. Which does mean she is cleared to move more and her knee should be fine moving forward.

However, the antibiotic resistant staff infection we have been fighting created an abscess above the surgical sight. That abscess ruptured. So now in addition to extending her aggressive antibiotic treatment two more weeks, she also has a topical ointment that I will need to apply twice a day when I replace the bandage on the ruptured abscess.

Hopefully this medication works (it did in the lab when they ran the culture of the infection) and her knee will be fully recovered. 🤞🏻 mom has no more money in the bank so she better be good this “limp” has cost about 14k already

Getting back to working now that Karma’s recovery ❤️‍🩹 is going smoothly. This is Butterscotch. When he first started wo...
04/10/2025

Getting back to working now that Karma’s recovery ❤️‍🩹 is going smoothly. This is Butterscotch. When he first started working with us he was reactive on walks, and lacked manners with people. He is still a hyper pup but now with more exercise, enrichment, and clear boundaries. He is making great progress

Hopefully this will be the last Karma update for a while ❤️‍🩹 She has been home for 24 hours, no complications or surpri...
04/06/2025

Hopefully this will be the last Karma update for a while ❤️‍🩹

She has been home for 24 hours, no complications or surprises 😅

Her vitals are stable and have been since returning from the hospital
Her appetite is back
She can stand on her own and even walk outside to relieve herself
Her bowl movements are a bit soft but regular (soft makes sense as she has been having liquid and rehydrated meals)

As her mom I can finally breath. I got relativity decent sleep. I even was comfortable enough to leave the house for a brief outing with the other dogs today.

Hopefully the bandage stays in place until Wednesday, then the staples for 10 days, and ultimately healing until recovery in about 5 weeks ❤️‍🩹

Another Karma update She came home from the hospital last night with some additional staples and a compression bandage t...
04/05/2025

Another Karma update

She came home from the hospital last night with some additional staples and a compression bandage to support her knee healing process and slow the bleeding.

This morning the bandage is still in place. She was able to eat a meal, take all of her meds and stand on her own to relieve herself and have a bowel movement which after surgery is a very big deal.

The hopes are that the bandage stays on until at least Wednesday to give the incision more time to heal and slow/stop bleeding.

After that, we will be in continued surgery recovery until May 15th when she sees the cardiologist for continued heart testing and for more information about how we are going to move forward with her heart conditions.

I, as her helicopter, mom who has been sleeping on the floor in my office with her since surgery, can provide an update too. I was able to finally sleep through the night, without needing to carry her outside, or address emergency bleeding. The air mattress definitely helps. So I’m happy and hopeful that she is finally on the mend ❤️‍🩹 🤞🏻 here’s to no more surprises.

Address

3111 S 18th Street
Tacoma, WA
98405

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm

Telephone

+13602710432

Website

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