Dog Training in the North Bay

David currently runs his own full-time dog walking business, where he works hands-on with dogs of all temperaments and energy levels every day. Through this work, he gained a deep appreciation for canine behavior, communication, and the importance of structure and consistency.

His interest in training grew after working with one of Koru K9’s top trainers to help his own reactive dog, an experience that showed him how powerful the right training approach can be in improving both behavior and quality of life. Inspired by those results, David decided to pursue dog training to help other owners build stronger, clearer relationships with their dogs.

He uses a balanced approach, combining positive reinforcement with fair, appropriate corrections, and focuses on practical, real-world skills that help dogs and humans succeed together.

Debbie Port grew up riding and training horses professionally. She trained her own dogs on the side and over the years got interested in dog sports. Over the past 15 years she has taken clinics and seminars to better her training for her dogs.

As she educated herself more she decided to switch from helping horse owners to having better relationships with their horses to helping dog owners to have better relationships with their dogs. She attended the Micheal Ellis School for dog trainers and is an AKC Evaluator for the Canine Good Citizens, Community Canine, Urban Canine and Tricks Dog certifications.

Committed to providing the most effective, convenient solutions to her clients dog training needs, Debbie advidly pursues ongoing continuing education and provisional development by attending several seminars per year and keeping current on all industry literature.

When not helping clients to enjoy easier lives with their canine companions, Debbie trains her own dogs in IGP (Schutzhund), ring sport, AKC obedience and dock diving.

Jourdan was born and raised in Santa Cruz County. Her passion and love for dogs started at a very young age. Jourdan has owned high drive, working breeds her entire life, and realized, at a young age, that she had a natural affinity for training. The beginning of Jourdan’s career in canine training started with her seeking a higher level of training for her Australian Cattle Dogs.

She took them to an Obedience & Agility class at a local police K9 training facility. The facility owner had been training dogs fro over 30 years, and immediately identified Jourdan’s potential, and offered Jourdan her first apprenticeship.

Upon completion of this apprenticeship, Jourdan began private lessons, and group classes in obedience, protection, and agility, as well as board and trains for dogs with behavior issues, and for mobility and medical alert service dogs, and puppy raising. Jourdan’s interest for protection training and sports was peaked, and she began attending protection and obedience seminar or workshop she could.

Through these seminars and workshops, Jourdan has trained with some of the best, and most inspiring trainers in the world. She has competed at a national, and International level with her personal Belgian Malinois, and has trained and titled multiple dogs / breeds.

Jourdan who is forever a student of her craft, is happy to pass along her years of experienced, and education to her clients, and is excited to see her client dogs become happy, confident, engaged dogs.

Maddie has always had a passion for dogs. Aside from growing up with them, as soon as she graduated high school she was volunteering with a local German Shepherd rescue and shadowing a balanced trainer. After that, she began working for a company that did behavior modification and working dogs.

From there, her passion grew for working dogs and she started working with detection canines in the school system and conservation detection canines that detect invasive species. Maddie was a competitor on Americas Top Dog Season 2 and is now working towards PSA (Protection Sport Association) titles with her Malinois.

When Maddie is not working with dogs she enjoys working out, traveling and hiking (dogs are typically still included here though!).

Kathi has been working with dogs professionally for over 13 years. Her parents allowed her to get her first dog at 14 years old only because she promised to train him. She signed up for obedience classes and overtook it by week 5, helping the other students and becoming the instructor’s assistant.

She started going to client’s homes to teach private lessons when she got her driver’s license at 16 years old, and started teaching group classes for the Auburn parks and recreation department. After a little while, she wanted to do more than obedience and behavior modification, so at 18, she got her first German Shepherd and started dog sports and Search and Rescue.

She has titled several dogs in AKC obedience and rally, National Association of Canine Scent Work, Schutzhund/IPO/IGP, and Working Dogs of America venues, as well as certified in Search and Rescue for live find and human remains detection. Kathi uses balanced training methods to teach behaviors from obedience to searching to behavior modification.

Jefferson has over 15 years of experience training and rehabilitating dogs. He holds a Foundation Level Huntsmith Trainer Certification through Ronnie Smith Kennels, where he spent a month as an apprentice. He also holds a Certificate through the Balanced School of Dog Trainers and spent some time with Jonathan Katz of Chicago Canine Company learning more about Protection Work and Decoy Work.

A true outdoorsman, Jefferson and his Pudelpointer, Gunner, are an amazing team together. Gunner is a bird dog and loves spending time hunting with his dad! Jefferson’s down to Earth and straightforward nature make him a favorite with many of our clients.

Lindsey has been training dogs for over 13 years. Her passion for dogs started as a child, and only grew more as an adult. After volunteering at a dog shelter in college, she decided that she wanted to spend her career helping dogs with training and behavioral needs.

She attended the Michael Ellis School for Dog Trainers, and ended up working for the school as a training instructor for 6 years.​She became fascinated with Belgian Malinois early in her training career, and now currently breeds, trains, and raises working Belgian Malinois. She competes with them in a sport called Mondioring.

Lindsey is passionate about helping dogs and owners better understand each other to make life together more enjoyable. She considers herself a reward based trainer, but believes that punishment is a necessary part of the learning process. She uses prong collars and electric collars in a fair and consistent manner so the dog has the best opportunity to learn how to properly behavior in the world.

I love dogs! They bring me so much joy! I have more than 20 years of experience working closely with dogs from raising and training my own to working as a veterinary nurse, veterinary practice manager and providing pack hikes and dog walking, grooming and boarding services. I have also worked for many years as an educator and have trained other educators in the field of environmental conservation.

I found Koru after adopting my fourth dog Max, a 100lb doberman, hound, shepherd mix who was extremely reactive and aggressive on leash. Having had such an easy time training all of my previous dogs using a positive only approach, he felt impossible to train. As a last resort I looked for a company who specialized in training and rehabilitating aggressive dogs.

It was a life changing experience and from that point on I was a firm believer in a balanced training approach. All dogs are different and we need to adapt our training methods to their varying needs and environments. I have always dreamed of being a professional trainer so I went on to complete Koru’s Balanced Trainer Academy: Master Program.

My favorite thing about training with Koru is seeing the transformation in the dogs’ behavior when they are given clear boundaries and consistent training. I am passionate about coaching clients to bring out the best in their dogs so dogs are not given up or put down due to behaviors that could have been managed with balanced training tools and methods.

When I am not hanging with a pack of dogs I enjoy volunteering at an equine therapy program, paddling in the bay, camping, cooking for my children and all of their friends and spending lots of time outdoors with my dog and human family.

I began training at a very young age with my own American Eskimo from the basics to tricks. That’s where my spark and love of dogs began. Shortly after I knew I wanted to work with dogs, but never really knew what exactly. Little did I know training dogs would become a passion for me and then into my career.

I trained under great mentors that were balanced trainers that have made me the trainer I am today. Working from pet dogs, to dogs with behavioral issues to sport dogs and competing in the sport IGP with my personal dogs. I’m also an active certified explosives K9 handler with my yellow lab and have been working in detection for the past 3 years and it’s been great being able to learn more skill sets!

In my free time, I also enjoy spending it with family or traveling, as well as enjoying time with my pups!

I’ve been a K9 Handler with Nevada County Sheriffs Search and Rescue and California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA) since 2011, and with El Dorado County Sheriffs Search and Rescue for the last 2 years. With these entities I train and deploy dogs in Search efforts for missing and deceased individuals in suburban and backcountry terrains throughout the state of California.

I also serve as Mentor and Primary Evaluator for CARDA and K9 Team Lead for El Dorado County SAR. Search and Rescue sparked my interest in Obedience training and K9 scent work. I enjoy teaching handlers how to build drive in their dogs and utilize that drive to hunt specific odor.

Whether it’s human remains, natural oils, narcotics, or even certain nuts or bed bugs, teaching a dog the game of how to find what we’re looking for is sometimes challenging and always rewarding. In scent work classes, we teach the dog to associate odor (birch, anise & clove) with a reward: either high value food or a toy.

Once the dog understands the association between odor and reward, then we create the game of hunt for odor. In 2016 I became a certified dog trainer through Animal Behavior College, and in 2018 I left my job as an Animal Control Officer with Nevada County Sheriffs Office to strike out on my own as a dog trainer.

Through my company I offer Basic and Advanced 1-2-1 Obedience, behavior modification for aggressive and reactive dogs, 2-6 week Board and Train, day training, and scent work classes.

Continuing Education

• 3 day K9 Handler Development class with Cameron Ford of Ford K9, June 2020
• 2 week K9 Police/Professional Detection Training Seminar, October 2020
• 1 week K9 Sport Detection Training Seminar, again with Ford K9 in Las Vegas NV, March 2021
• Annual Locating the Dead training in San Luis Obispo, CA. This is a specialized and restricted Cadaver K9 training utilizing whole human cadavers in various scenarios including submerged in water, buried, in burned vehicles etc.
• In November of 2021 I organized a 3 day Canine Cognition Clinic with Ford K9 for our County and regional Search and Rescue K9 teams.

Jennifer has always had a fascination with animals, particularly dogs. She grew up always intrigued by animal behaviors and dreamed of becoming a local zoo keeper as an adult. Fast forward to after college, a mess of a German Shepherd Dog somehow landed into her home which opened the door to her dog training adventures.

After mentoring and shadowing under a few balanced trainers, Jennifer was introduced to the world of sport dogs and working dogs. Venturing into competition has allowed Jennifer to learn and read dogs to a higher degree, understand their behaviors, and bring the skillset to her pet dog training program. Jennifer enjoys working with clients on troubleshooting and developing a better relationship with their dog(s).

She strives to strengthen the communication and engagement of the dog and owner team to create a healthy relationship. Jennifer has two Belgian Malinois and a German Shepherd and they all compete in a variety of sports!

Jenn Cassens lives in Penn Valley CA and started training Search and Rescue dogs in 2016. She currently works 3 SAR dogs: a Golden Retriever and two Belgian Malinois. With a lifetime of training and riding horses, training dogs was a natural evolution.

She and her husband Rich Cassens, also a KoruK9 trainer, volunteer for their County Sheriffs Dept K9 Search & Rescue Team and are Mentors and Evaluators for California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA), and specialize in Basic Obedience, Scent Work, and Behavior Modification.

Jennifer has been training dogs for nearly 20 years. She has been around animals her entire life. From a young age she was exposed to all sorts of animals, from domesticated small pets to exotics and livestock. She began her journey with dog training after going to a nearby Schutzhund (now IGP) trial.

From then on- she was hooked and knew that this was what she wanted to pursue. After that, she spent many years showing, training, trialing and titling dogs. She has participated in many dog sport and training seminars and has learned from the best professionals available.

Not only does she train dogs and help their owners, but she holds a current license issued by the California Veterinary Medical Board as a Registered Veterinary Technician. She is extremely qualified and experienced in Veterinary Medicine and has worked in Specialty Practice, experiencing the most critical of cases.

She has multiple certificates in a wide variety of areas and continues her education every possible moment she can. She has gained excellent animal care and husbandry skills through this education and experience. Her passion for working with animals has allowed her to create a career doing what she loves… helping dogs and their owners co-exist.

Elena has been professionally training dogs for over six years, with experience ranging from family companions to working and sport dogs. With a B.S. in Animal Science from UC Davis, she brings a strong understanding of animal behavior and learning theory to her practical, relationship-focused approach to training.

Elena is an active competitor in Protection Sports Association (PSA) and has extensive hands-on experience with a wide variety of breeds, temperaments, and behavioral challenges. She is passionate about helping owners build clear communication with their dogs while creating reliable, practical behaviors that translate to everyday life.

When she’s not training client dogs, Elena can usually be found working with her own dogs or golfing!

Hi, I’m Amanda! I’ve been working with dogs since 2011 and began training professionally in 2016.

I’ve had the opportunity to learn from experienced trainers across the country who specialize in hunting dogs, protection dogs, competition dogs, and behavior training. This has given me experience working with many different types of dogs and personalities.

My training focuses on helping dogs understand what is expected of them, build confidence, and learn how to make good choices even when they’re distracted, nervous, or in challenging situations. I also teach owners how to communicate clearly with their dogs, set boundaries, provide structure, and confidently handle their dogs in everyday life.

I currently compete in a national dog sport called PSA with my two German Shepherds. My older dog, Boden, competes at Level 2, and my younger dog, Scythe, has earned her PDC.

I also have a special place in my heart for dogs that need a little extra help. My dog Courage was a very fearful stray when he came into my life. With the help of my other dogs and the behavior-training experience I’ve gained over the years, Courage has grown into a confident, happy dog who can enjoy life off leash!

Whether your dog needs basic manners, better obedience, more confidence, help with problem behaviors, or simply a better relationship with you, my goal is to help you build a dog you can enjoy and trust in everyday life.