Cloud 9 Canine - Kalamazoo Pet Care & Dog Training

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Cloud 9 Canine - Kalamazoo Pet Care & Dog Training

Because they are SO much more than “just” a pet! We provide services to dog, cats, small animals, reptiles, or any pets in our community.

Owned and operated by Kalamazoo born-and-raised twin sisters, Jordan and Nicole Bowdish, Cloud 9 brings pet services to our city centering around values of Community, Wellness, and Excellence. Cloud 9 Canine utilizes a team of pet sitters to ensure our clients are never left in a bind without care available. We operate 365 days a year offering both pet care and dog training services. Our office ho

urs are 9:00am-7:00pm, Monday-Friday, closed on holidays. Services available daily 6:00am-11:00pm, 365 days per year.

03/11/2025

We hope everyone had a SAFE and lovely Halloween! 🎃 The Friday dogs were not super thrilled with our (failed) attempt at costumes but they were good sports, LOL!!!

03/11/2025

⭐ Calling all the dog nerds! I have a new blog feature for November. ⭐

Each month, I feature a post on our Cloud 9 blog with a commonly-requested subject! As part of our mission to produce readily-available resources to our Kalamazoo pet community, I post blogs every Sunday evening at 7pm containing information, hacks, and tricks for living your fullest life with your companions. 🐶

This month's topic by client request after she recommended we write this following her explaining Cloud 9 pet care services to someone after moving out of town! Check out our website for the full post below.

01/11/2025

Something spooky cropped up this week in the industry, so let's talk about it. 👻

AI mechanisms for dog behavior work: there's a lot going on there, but it's not cool to have our work and our content ripped off by AI. [Though I've had my content ripped off many times before the surge in AI: it is what it is when you put free stuff out there, no "new idea" is ~really~ "new," and we have way too much work to do to spend time worrying about much of that.] However, it's been a big scare in the industry about debating the impacts of behavior advice provided by AI following a new release that we don't want to name or bring attention to.

What we will say is our values—Community, Wellness, and Excellence—are unique to us and can't be mimicked by technology. Working with the households of Kalamazoo, we assess your dogs, put hands on them, and build real connections with the people and pets in our care. We are there to sit in your living room sharing stories after euthanasia appointments, guide families through every step of the way of hard decisions/transitions, support people through the hardest of goodbyes, pick up the phone to chat with people for follow up for YEARS after our training has ended, and celebrate every little win with a cheer.

Human connection can't be duplicated by AI. Any kind of "app" or "data program" isn't going to replace what we do, period.

Every single training plan, day camp activity schedule, pet sitting care protocol, dog walking and field trip enrichment plan, and system inside this business is built out, by hand, by us, for you, from scratch. And we don't and won't ever use AI, which you may have noticed through the copious amount of typos that creep in over long days and quick posts, LOL. This kind of care and attention only comes from being-to-being relationship.

Small business ventures are tough, but we are resilient and capable. The changing landscape is not something we're worried about, though we urge all households to CAUTIOUSLY screen ANY advice for its efficacy and ethics, which has always been true regardless of the source.

We're here to stay.

With Love,
Nicole and Jordan

31/10/2025

🎃👻 Happy Halloween! 👻🎃

Featuring miss Morgan, my (Nicole's) late personal dog in her classic unicorn costume! 🦄

Are you or your pets dressing up this year? If so, feel free to drop a photo down below -- we'd love to see it!

31/10/2025

Dog training is for people!

Every client will make the joke: "Bella doesn't need training - you're training ME!" Yes, yes we are. 😉

Dogs can't be held "accountable" for their behavior because they simply are captive animals in our human world, and holding them to standards we made up is odd for us to do. That does NOT mean we let them run amuck, get themselves into trouble, or put them into dangerous situations. It means we understand the dynamic between us and we work WITHIN it, not against it.

Dogs are animals living in a human world. If we want them to perform to human expectations, we have to teach them. If we have to teach them, then we have to know what we are asking of them. In order to do that, we have to know how to tell them what it is we want from them. If we are to do that, we have to understand what Jean Donaldson's book would call The Culture Clash—the difference between what they see, and what we see, and how to bridge that gap.

I didn't get into dog training ONLY because of dogs or, like most will say, a very special dog (sorry, Zuko). I show up here FOR the profession's role in supporting the dog-person connection. I spent my original career path in the Doctor of Occupational Therapy program right here at Western Michigan University. Before that, I've worked across the lifespan, with people of all sorts of challenges in completing tasks that allowed them to live their daily lives.

"There's plenty of ways to bake a cake," as the saying goes. We all have our own flavor preferences, styles, and items ready for us in the pantry. The best trainer is the trainer who is so attuned to each dog's individuality, their work brings out the best in the dog and human's connection rather than asserting rigid rules and boundaries on what it means to live your best life with your dog. WE get to decide what that means...and it's also a major responsibility for an animal 100% dependent on us, that we've electively brought into our homes to do life with together.

It's what these fascinating, complex, devoted creatures we share our lives with deserve.

29/10/2025

Welcome to Win Wednesday, where we'll celebrate the highlights of what's going on with the BEST boys and girls in the 'zoo!

🌟So puppy-dorable a she will give you a squeal when you see, this week's pup feature is Nona E! 🌟

This week's post takes on a more SERIOUS tone as we celebrate the safety and resiliency of this young puppy in day camp. A few weeks ago, while on her included outing, Nona and her handler were charged by two aggressive and unaccompanied dogs on a nature trail. Nona and the handler were both unharmed, though shaken up. The dogs were stopped using the deterrent spray we all carry on us at ALL times during services, preventing contact in cases like this. It is an aversive to stop them in their tracks and prevent serious physical or behavioral damage being done to either dog.

Nona went back to playing and romping, because well-rounded socialization includes BOTH safety while on leash AND a wide variety of social interaction with appropriate dogs to create resiliency to bounce back. If we shelter our puppies and their limit their experiences, we risk their ONLY experience being a 'negative' one like this, so we want to offer varied and regular experiences for them to have a "schema" that MOST of the time, when they're out and see a dog, that doesn't equal a scary event.

Nona is office manager, Caroline's, puppy, so you will see plenty more of her and her big sister, Lavender, when they are in for camps throughout the week!!!

28/10/2025

Your working breed dog needs SO much more than just a walk around the block to be truly, contentedly fulfilled. As our motto goes, EVERYTHING at Cloud 9 is "so much more" than "just" a (in this case, walk), and Dog Days Out is just what you're looking for! 🚗

Your dog will go on 90 minute 1-on-1 outings that include Decompression, Mental Stimulation, and Public Distractions practice. The protocol for your dog's time will be individually crafted by our Certified Professional Dog Trainer® and Behavior Consultant. Activity options include long-line hiking, treadmilling at our facility, scent games, structured walks in public spaces, practice around people/dogs, and so much more. Afterward, your dog will come home content from an immersive enrichment experience which progresses their social skills and fills their emotional cup.

We're reserving packages now—don't let the busyness of the season take away from your dog getting everything they need to thrive (and relax a little!).

📸 Dude is a Giant Schnauzer, an "intelligent, powerful, and energetic German working dog" pictured here enjoying outings, structured walking, and enrichment with careful attention to his breed and individual temperament needs.

28/10/2025

Over the last year, there is one area I (Nicole) have gained quite a lot of additional experience in:

Helping shy and anxious pups build their confidence - my favorite work! 🌟✨🤩

As a shy and anxious person myself, I can certainly say I relate! 😅😂 The uncertainty, shakiness, rapid heartbeat... it can be TOUGH! 😓

Luckily, these experiences helped build a lot of sympathy that translates well into careful observation, quiet guidance, and gentle challenges to help some of the sweetest souls to come out of their shells so that they can really open up and thrive! 🥹

We have had the honor and privilege of working with dozens of families with anxious and shy dogs! Whether that be getting them accustomed to visitors in the house for vacation pet sitting, helping them work through fear and stress surrounding riding in the car, providing structured socialization so that dogs can "graduate" to regular doggy day care, or working 1on1 in home regularly through enrichment-filled visits and field trips to new places.... each and every success story leaves us overflowing with gratitude and bliss for each pet we encounter! 🐶🐱

We love to tailor plans to the individual needs of each pet and work with families towards their goals! We always take a gentle approach, as it's often kindness and patience that really go a long way for these sensitive friends! This may look like conducting multiple "meet & greets" in home, planning "trial" visits prior to the date care is needed, happy visits at the facility, or shadow visits to introduce staff to the pets at their own pace! 🩷

All of us are extremely passionate and dedicated in the work that we do, and the results don't lie! 📸 Pictured below: Anxious Aussie puppy, River, who recently had a successful and productive "trial visit" to prepare him for services!

26/10/2025

The absolute worst problem to have as a small business: WE'RE FULL! 😆

🗓️ We are starting JANUARY waitlists now as training programs, packages, and enrichment & exposure services that are on limited-enrollment availability are full through December.

❗Pet sitting is reserving for holidays, dog walking is ready to help you out for these rainy-and-cold days, and Dog Days Out are available on-demand with day by day availability (sometimes those fill, too!).

Thank you all for a wonderful year of adventure into the newness. It's such an incredible privilege to wake up every day and get to work alongside all the humans and animals in our care.

❤ Jordan and Nicole

26/10/2025

Options, options, options: so many options! ✨

I get excited, and in turn rambl-y while on the phone: so to save you the frantic-scribbling-on-a-notepad while we chat, I made this simple graphic detailing our top 3 service options for behavior support! 😇

We designed Cloud 9 with long-term support of Kalamazoo with Community, Wellness, and Excellence in mind. We are proud to present these services to the pet people in our community dedicated to their best friends. 🐶🐾

25/10/2025

Meeting needs comes first! 🐾🌲🍖💧

There tends to be a divide when working through behavior challenges. The two 'camps' are somewhere between "I don't care about obedience" and "strict obedience, restriction, and structure resolves behavior problems."

As always, ✨nuance✨ is the name of the game.

For us, that means that:

➡ "Obedience" (response to cues) is not where we start—we first look to understand the function of the behavior, which may be helped OR harmed by "obedience.

➡ Suppressing behavior to "just get rid of it" without consideration for safe, healthy outlets is going to be heavier-handed, but faster, and also in our opinion, not fair to ask of captive, emotional creatures that are our canine companions.

➡ "Structure" - aka restriction - is only fair to add into dogs' lives AFTER their physical, mental, emotional, social, and instinctual needs have been met.

➡ Clear handling is something that happens throughout daily life, and relationship is built as a two-way street of understanding your dog and them understanding you. It DOES take more effort, and to us, the beautiful result of that is always worth it.

We like obedience training AND we like ethical, modern, holistic behavior change. You don't have to sacrifice one in order to get the other. 🤷‍♀️

24/10/2025

Meet Zetta & Duke! 🐶🐶 After not being able to leave the home without them due to behavioral needs for years, we came in to help the family attend a wedding with full comfort after completing our Comfortable Pet Introduction Package to design a care protocol, thoughtful introductions, and Meet & Greets prior to the trip! ❤

The result? Knowing these two beagles were comfy-cozy back home with C9C pet sitting. It's SUCH a privilege to be entrusted with your high-needs pups!

Address

Opening Hours

Monday	06:00 - 23:00
Tuesday	06:00 - 23:00
Wednesday	06:00 - 23:00
Thursday	06:00 - 23:00
Friday	06:00 - 23:00
Saturday	06:00 - 23:00
Sunday	06:00 - 23:00

Telephone

+12692902175

Website

http://kzoopet.com/

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