San Francisco Dog Behaviorist

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.

Becca has been training dogs professionally since 2011. During that time, she has made the transition from a purely positive trainer to balanced training, after seeing the limitations of purely positive training, particularly when it comes to behavior modification. Becca managed a successful daycare, and board & training facility in her home town of Chico, CA.

Her experience at this facility allowed her to gain invaluable experience in dog behavior through working with a wide variety of dog breeds in diverse environments. Becca’s own personal dog, Smokey, a German Shepherd mix, proves that, at 12 years young, it’s never too late to train! A year later Becca adopted an Australian Shepherd, named Bentley, who had resource guarding issues as well as reactivity towards people.

We are happy to report that, through balanced training, Bentley is a calm, cool, and collected guy, and is one of our staff dogs used to help other reactive dogs. Becca has continued expanding her training by obtaining her certification through the Balanced School for Dog Trainers.

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.

From the time she was young Celeste always had a deep passion for animals. Learning as much as she could and spending her free time with the family dogs. In her early teens she got her first dog Dakota, who had severe fear aggression towards people, and fear-based reactivity towards other dogs.

She reached out to local trainers to work with him. That turned into Celeste mentoring with those trainers and eventually becoming their assistant trainer. These trainers worked for an animal shelter, and Celeste assisted them in training and rehabilitating the shelter dogs that had behavior issues.

She learned the importance of timing, consistency, and balance, and worked Dakota through his behavior issues. Dakota was such a success story that he became their go-to demo and training dog! Little did Celeste know at that time that she would eventually end up fulfilling her mentors’ role, and become the lead trainer for the shelter.

Celeste was also responsible for evaluating the temperament of all the dogs at the shelter, giving her a tremendous depth of experience in dealing with a wide variety of breeds, temperaments, and behavior issues. In her spare time, she began training Dakota in sport work — successful competing with and titling Dakota.

It was through this process she discovered her passion for German Shepherds, and went on to compete with and title her first GSD, as well as train him up to be her Medical Service Alert Dog. Since that time, she has also gone on to start her own, successful breeding program for German Shepherds as well.

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!).

Izzy has spent her entire lifetime surrounded by animals and was always the resident expert for all family and friends with pet questions. At an early age, Izzy began pet sitting and quickly became comfortable with a plethora of animals and animal husbandry techniques. As she continued to expand her animal care network, she remained close with her two family dogs, Scout and Sequoia.

Although her love for all animals persists, her true passion remains in dog behavior. Izzy began studying her own two German Shepherd’s behavior and researching operant conditioning and classical conditioning. Her German Shepherds sparked an ongoing curiosity obedience training and she was inspired by her dogs’ ever-present drive to learn and engage.

This continued interest in training led her to volunteer countless hours at the Humane Society of Ventura County. Her time working with high risk shelter dogs gave her the opportunity to work hands on with many difficult cases and observe behavioral changes brought on by a highly stressful kennel situation.

Her natural ability to read canine body language made her one of the few volunteers who could handle the more difficult dogs in the shelter. She committed to help as many reactive dogs as she could and make training her career. While seeking a training school, Izzy met Heather, an animal behaviorist with 10 years of experience and a degree in behavior and neuroscience.

Heather recognized Izzy’s natural talent and immediately took her under her wing and into her internship program. Under the guidance of a behaviorist, Izzy practiced training fundamentals with several dogs with varying degrees of reactivity. Over the course of her internship, Izzy worked with several challenging cases of human aggression, dog aggression, fear reactivity, resource guarding and more.

It quickly became clear, training dogs saves lives, and this constantly fuels her passion to learn more and grow as a behaviorist. Izzy continues her education by attending seminars and seeking her perfect working dog companion who will most likely be another German Shepherd. Once she finds her future working dog, Izzy wants to continue to expand her knowledge of the field by competing in PSA, GRC and scent work.

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.

Juliana combines a strong academic foundation with extensive hands-on experience to help dogs and their families succeed. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Molecular Environmental Biology with an emphasis in Animal Health and Behavior from the University of California, Berkeley in 2022 and went on to earn a Master of Science (M.Sc.) from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 2025.

Her education provides an in-depth understanding of animal behavior, learning theory, and the science behind canine health and behavior, allowing her to approach every dog with both compassion and evidence-based training methods. Beyond her formal education, Juliana has dedicated herself to learning from some of the most respected professionals in the dog training industry.

She has worked alongside and been mentored by experienced trainers, continually refining her skills through real-world application and continuing education. She regularly attends professional seminars and has immersed herself in a variety of canine disciplines, including behavior modification, scent detection, and working dog sports.

This broad experience allows her to tailor training to each dog's individual needs while drawing from a diverse toolbox of proven techniques. Juliana's passion is helping families develop the kind of dog that truly complements their lifestyle, creating reliable, lasting results that allow owners and their dogs to confidently enjoy life together.

Hi my name is Mikayla, I have been working with dogs for almost 7 years now. I have two dogs of my own. Jupiter, who is my 5 year old rescue, she is the one responsible for getting me into dog training. My other dog Saturn, is just about 2 years old now and we compete in dog sports.

While training dogs is my life I also currently study Aerospace Engineering at San Jose State University. Hence, my dogs are named after planets. I also work with and train local police K9 units in Cambpell, Santa Clara, Yuba County, Fremont and Richmond.

My goal as a dog trainer is to teach owners how to enrich your dog's life through clear communication, building a strong relationship and providing proper outlets so your dog can be an active member of the family. I look forward to meeting you and your dog and helping you guys conquer anything.

Tino has been involved with working dogs from a very young age. Originally born in Mexico, he and his family managed a large ranch that was their livelihood. They owned a large pack of working dogs who were a integral part of their every day life, playing countless roles to help his family.

Even as young as 5 years old, he was tasked with caring for his own pack, this gave him a fantastic foundation in dog behavior and understanding different dispositions. As he got older he moved to the states, while he took a break in school he quickly got back into working with dogs once he graduated.

He eventually moved to Northern California where he met a training club and quickly learned to be a decoy as well as trained his own personal dog in protection. Since then he has been hooked, he has been decoying and working with protection dogs for over 5 years and now managed a ranch with his wife, Celeste.

Bringing back some of his roots he also now trains his dogs to help aid with daily chores on the ranch, including managing the livestock. It has also created a great environment to work with his clients in, offering many new distractions and experiences they would not get to have in a city environment.

My name is Halle Tennison. I have been working with animals my whole life. I personally have rescued and rehabilitated two adult huskies and an adult pit bull. All of which were intense, behavior modification cases. I have been trained through multiple eight hour sessions of animal nutrition through Pet Food Express and Just Food For Dogs to be able to solve food allergies, sensitivities as well as other dietary related issues.

I have successfully passed the Animal Behavior College of Santa Clarita’s internship and hands on externship program of positive reinforcement training. I am certified in Animal CPR and have worked with the Humane Society of Silicon Valley as an assistant for over half a year. I use the LIMA (Least intrusive, minimally adverse) approach to my balance training to ensure maximum success with dogs.

I have seven years private client experience with behavioral modification in all sizes of dogs. Please reach out to me at any time with any dog related product or dietary concerns.

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.

Jennifer has never been a stranger to dogs, Born into the world of dog shows, her grandparents have been breeding AKC Champion sporting dogs for 50+ years in Redwood City. She has been attending dog shows since she was born. Jennifer showed her first dog when she was 10 years old and ever since then, it has stuck.

She competed in Junior Showmanship, and received thousands of dollars in scholarships, and has been featured in newspapers such as the Fresno Bee and San Mateo Daily Journal. Jennifer has qualified for one of the world's most prestigious dog shows, the Westminster Kennel Club, 5 years in a row for junior showmanship. Jennifer took to the dog shows and got serious when she started working for various professional dog handlers.

There she learned many “tricks of the trade” handling many different breeds ranging from Dachshunds to Black Russian Terriers, but the one that made the biggest imprint on her was grooming. Jennifer learned grooming styles such as hand scissoring, hand stripping, and mastering AKC breed cuts. She is passionate about transforming her guests into well-groomed, clean, and happy dogs.

Jennifer got sucked into the world of dog training through her ex-business partner with whom she traveled the country by attending multiple training seminars taught by world renowned trainers, PSA Decoy camps, grip development seminars, dog sport obedience seminars, French Ring seminars, and attending PSA nationals.

Jennifer actively competes and has titled in PSA and French Ring, she is also the lead decoy of the Bay Area PSA Club. Jennifer is also learning how to train and build sport and police K9s.

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!