Defy Gravity K9 Rehab & Training

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Defy Gravity K9 Rehab & Training DGK9 utilizes Balanced Training methods for behavior modification.

Here's something that most people forget when working with their dog: training is a way of life, not just a here and the...
29/07/2025

Here's something that most people forget when working with their dog: training is a way of life, not just a here and there, sort of thing.

So if you can get in the mindset of "everyday life training" while living and working with your dog instead of "here's the allotted training period" you will be able to start to catch all those little "life" moments that equate into actually living and being with your dog.

We challenge you to be consistent with your dog and work continuously with them through everyday life. You'll find that once you start living training instead of simply doing a regimen that you will grow a closer relationship built on respect and trust.



Intuition. Navigation. Empowerment.These three things are the very recipe we provide to everyone whom we work with. Ever...
28/07/2025

Intuition. Navigation. Empowerment.

These three things are the very recipe we provide to everyone whom we work with. Every training session has these three simple ingredients. Every single time.

Why? Because consistency is key and we need to be able to inspire, equip, and encourage everyone we work with during the training and far after their dog leaves training with us. Because otherwise, the owner will not be successful on their own.

With each new training, we have to be intuitive and be able to read the situation. The owners may tell us one thing, but the dog tells a completely different story all through body language. Is there a stimulus that causes over excitedness or is there hidden anxiety, frustration, anger, fear, etc?

This leads to the next ingredient: navigation. This means being able to see ahead. Once we evaluate the situation, we then come up with a plan of action that we convey in detail thoroughly to the owners so that we are all on the same page with what training needs to happen. And not only that, but what needs to happen in the coming weeks or months.

Once this plan is in place and everyone is on board and in agreement, then we shift to empowerment. We equip every owner with the know-how to help their dog stay in the best headspace possible, how and when to make corrections, the intensity the corrections should be made at, how to set rules/boundaries/limitations in the household, and the proper moments to give affection. We pass on that knowledge to every owner so that they can be successful with their dog (or future dogs they may get) long after we leave. Because honestly, we can balance the dog, we can train the dog, but ultimately, it is up to the owner to keep all of this alive and going strong.

We lay the groundwork, but without consistent work from the owner, the dog and owner will fail. This means physical and emotional shifts for many owners to overcome in their daily life with their dogs. This is why we work so hard to educate owners and help them learn to read their dog's body language and to help fulfill their dog's needs daily.


Until you do the work, until you fix yourself, until you rebuild your relationship, until you understand what helps and ...
27/07/2025

Until you do the work, until you fix yourself, until you rebuild your relationship, until you understand what helps and what hinders progress...you’ll never know what you can have.

Dogs are capable of amazing transformations, but only if there’s someone to lead them.

What could you have? Who could your dog be?

You’ll never know until you do the work.




P.S. pictured is Raksha (on the left) who is still adoptable through Allie's Hope For Paws Dog Rescue. Someone needs to scoop this young lady up and add her to your family! She is precious!

I absolutely love getting client updates like this! 🙌🏼Bentley recently trained with me for two weeks on off-leash recall...
25/07/2025

I absolutely love getting client updates like this! 🙌🏼

Bentley recently trained with me for two weeks on off-leash recall, heeling, and obedience commands. Truly remarkable dog and truly phenomenal owners who have kept his training alive and thriving! Their relationship has improved exponentially for the better!

This can also be you with your dog! If you'd like information on my training programs, please don't hesitate to ask.

24/07/2025

Thursday morning, and it's WAY overdue laundry day. Dolly handled it like a champ!

I want to challenge you and your dog today to do something similar. Have them relax on "place" (cot/bed/etc) while you do your normal house chores, while your children play, and while life goes on around them. It doesn't have to be sterile. Have fun with it, and really challenge both you and your dog.

24/07/2025

Enjoy a little snippet of 5 month old Dolly Doodle at the park this morning/afternoon ❤️

Nope, it’s not the training. Nope, it’s not the tools. Nope, it’s not the amazing presence you have. For many dog traine...
22/07/2025

Nope, it’s not the training. Nope, it’s not the tools.
Nope, it’s not the amazing presence you have.

For many dog trainers, their job title can mislead them. They get so focused on the dog and the amazing work they are able to do with the dog that they forget what actually changes dogs deeply and permanently.

Owners.

You can be an amazing trainer, but without owner follow through, owner transformation (lifestyle and emotional), and owner desire to put in the above work to get the desired outcome, all that amazingness will be for naught.

Yes, owners need the boost, insight, and the foundation you can provide, but the only thing that will create lasting and continuously improving results are changes in the environment the dog lives in every day.

Whatever YOU do, if it isn’t passed on, understood, and implemented by the owners, it will fade. Promise.

So this means we’ve got mutual responsibilities going on. We need to train the dog and get them into the best space. We then need to train the owners and help them to understand what they need to do and why they need to do it. And then, it’s up to the owners to make it all stick.

Trainers can struggle by being too dog-centric and missing the human element (you have to be a great communicator with humans and actually care about them, too). They can struggle by taking whoever comes through the door (taking just any client guarantees you’ll have many who aren’t as committed as you are). And trainers can struggle because they forget that they’re only the beginning (you are at best the reset or new launching point, not the finish line).

When trainers and owners both understand how the process works, both parties can find success and dodge disappointment and frustration.

Whatever the dog experiences consistently and continuously is what the dog will become. So unless the dog is going to live with you, the trainer, you better make sure you and your owner/client understand this concept very clearly.





P.S. Check out how much little Miss Exie has grown! She was adopted last month and is spending the week with me ❤️

Rest easy, K9 Groot. Your fellow officers have it from here 😭 I am so proud of K9 Groot and all he accomplished. I was b...
22/07/2025

Rest easy, K9 Groot. Your fellow officers have it from here 😭

I am so proud of K9 Groot and all he accomplished. I was but a small stepping stone on his journey to becoming an absolutely beloved K9 for the Maverick County Sheriff Department. Groot was one of those special dogs who taught me so much with hunt drive building. He was truly one in a million. He was such a blessing to me and to the many people he helped.

21/07/2025

The work that looks like just having a dog "place" or doing commands such as sit, down, stay, place, etc. is actually requiring the dog to do something different than they normally would when they are excited, anxious, fearful, etc. Instead, the dog learns to tolerate what is going on around her and relax to "life" as it moves past in a much healthier state of mind.

Obedience commands are non-negotiable, but we work up to "real life" situations by starting puppies and adult dogs off in more sterile environments and working their way up towards larger distractions and outdoor work. Otherwise, we would be setting the dog up to fail by throwing them into hard to handle situations that we have not patterned and trained for.

Indoors, "place" commands are a fabulous tool to utilize for when the doorbell rings, guests come over, vacuuming, answering the phone, UPS/FedEx deliveries, playing with kiddos, eating supper, life moments, etc. but it has to be patterned first before asking the dog to stay on "place" for an extended period of time without prior training and being held accountable for non-compliance. So it becomes something where the dog learns to ignore life going on around until released to roam freely. Basically, it is a means to an end of negative behavior. Because staying still is much harder for dogs over moving around, barking, and pacing.

We train dogs for life and in life situations but by starting them off slowly until they are patterned enough and can hold their own. So don't let little life training possibilities pass you by when you think you don't have the time to train. It can be as easy as having your dog relaxing on her "place" (whatever you choose that to be) while you clean the house or the kiddos play ;)


What’s the number one cause of behavior problems? Likely, it’s not what you think. When dogs fill emotional gaps within ...
20/07/2025

What’s the number one cause of behavior problems? Likely, it’s not what you think.

When dogs fill emotional gaps within us, gaps that should be filled by other things (family, friends, romantic relationships, self-love, self-care, etc.) we find ourselves unable to provide for them what they truly need.

And it’s not for a lack of information, resources, or effective approaches — no, it’s the lack of willingness to search them out.

Why?

Because when your dog is everything, the most difficult thing to explore is anything that might make them “unhappy” or uncomfortable. Even if in the long run, the exploration would create exactly what you DO want: happy, comfortable, and balanced dogs.

How do I know? Because I’ve been there. I’ve done all the stuff our clients have. I’ve created the mess and have had to deal with the consequences of it. But I’ve also found the way out.

How did I get there? Honesty. Honesty with myself, and all I was unintentionally creating in our world. So I made a promise to myself and my dogs. I'd fix us — as best as I could — so I could fix them. Of course, there is no fix; just progress, but that’s good enough.

After lots of studying and an obsessive drive to make my “mess” better, I did. While still a work in progress, I kept my promise to the dogs and myself. I shifted from leaning on them to leading them. I gifted them with a human who put their true “happiness” and comfort above my own needs. And what transpired was something close to a miracle.

Different me, different dogs.

Did I use the tools and the training and all the resources? You bet. It wasn’t simply a “change your mindset and your dogs are all better” feel-good, new-age approach. But the mindset shift WAS the gateway to begin looking for what was missing, to begin searching out, and to begin putting in the hard work to create the changes I desired.

As long as you’re broken, the chances of you having healthy, un-broken dogs are just about zero. But if you’re willing to be honest with yourself and willing to do the uncomfortable work, the chances of massively turning things around are enormous.


You don’t love:-A misbehaving dog into a well-behaved dog-A fearful dog into a confident dog -An aggressive dog into a s...
19/07/2025

You don’t love:

-A misbehaving dog into a well-behaved dog
-A fearful dog into a confident dog
-An aggressive dog into a safe dog
-A reactive dog into a non-reactive dog
-An unreliable dog into a reliable dog

These aren’t love or connection issues. They’re leadership issues. And they won’t be “fixed” by attempting to love them better. But they can be made better if you’ll agree to lead and share all that comes with leading.

The funny thing is, when you choose to lead, you actually choose to love. Not in the easy, feel-good, superficial fashion, but in the hard, uncomfortable, truly transformative fashion.

The choice is yours. And so are the results. Just don’t lie to yourself about what you’re actually doing.


Leadership & SkunksI taught a class on leadership (4 classes, to be exact). I spoke on what a leader is and the qualitie...
18/07/2025

Leadership & Skunks

I taught a class on leadership (4 classes, to be exact). I spoke on what a leader is and the qualities that make up a good leader. How to gain respect by first giving it while also adding value to others around you by seeing the value in yourself.

I wanted to find a way to make the information relatable to the crowd I was speaking to and contemplated on how to do so. I was honestly struggling a little on finding a good analogy.

And then, the morning of the class there it was... a skunk.

Yes, there was a skunk on my daily morning bike ride to run and exercise the dogs. Now, being the leader of these dogs, I told them "on-by" and without hesitation they went right past the skunk within 6 feet of it without paying it any attention. And it scurried on its merry way down the road.

And then the light bulb went off. The Lord sent me a skunk to relate being a leader to something as simple as that. Being a leader requires you to see and plan ahead. To prepare and also be able to see the consequences of bad choices.

I knew the consequences of upsetting a skunk, I had prepared the dogs through training leading up to seeing the skunk, gave the dogs clear directions to leave it be, and navigated through the situation with ease and without any issue. Now, the dogs didn't need any explanation as to why I asked them to leave the skunk alone, but people do require an explanation to navigate through possibly bad situations and keep them safe. But both require clear and consistent guidance from their leaders.

As the owners of these dogs, we must be able to see and plan ahead for potentially hazardous scenarios. But you know what? You should be doing that in your everyday life as well.


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Why Choose Us?

We’ve been there! That’s right, we’ve been the people with the unruly dogs that everyone avoids. We’ve been the people whose dog is aggressive. We’ve been the people that couldn’t go to the dog park. We’ve been the people whose dog controlled the walk. We’ve been there! We understand what you are going through without a doubt.

Here’s the good news, it doesn’t have to be that way! Once we applied our proven dog psychology techniques, our pack became balanced almost overnight. This can be the same for you too!

We are certified in dog psychology and will help you to read your dog’s body language to what they are trying to tell you. We decided on the name, Defy Gravity, as not so much of a physical thing (however exercise and obstacle training goes along with it), but we also rehabilitate death row dogs that we have given another chance at life and have now found loving homes for. So in a sense, we are beating the odds for these dogs and “defying gravity”.

Here are a few of the things that we can help you and your dog with: