Meet Katie Morgan of Forever K9 Training in Hampshire and Dekalb

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Morgan.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Katie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
When I was in college I was struggling with what I wanted to do for a living. I was taking psychology courses and just felt lost because although I enjoyed my classes, I just felt an emptiness and lack of purpose. What I did know is that I loved my beagle Timon, I had begged my parents for him on my 15th birthday. Timon went everywhere with me and I held to my promise I made my parents that I would do all the training and take care of him. I thought to myself that I had done really well with training Timon, and I would like to get more involved with dogs.

From there I started volunteering with local shelters and investigating dog training certifications in the meantime. I then started my dog training certification at Animal Behavior College. After receiving my training certification I got a job at the humane society that my internship for my certification was at. I spent 7 years at that humane society until I felt like I just needed to do more, and I was in a good place to do more. My friend Rob had recently opened up Hampshire Pet Resort and Spa in Hampshire and was looking to evolve his training program. I also had the owner Michelle Thomas of Gone to the Dogs in Dekalb wanting to incorporate a solid training program in her facility.

I remember sitting down with my husband and saying, “so how do you feel about this…” He was extremely supportive and really gave me the “push” to move forward. So thus started Forever K9 Training. It was really just the right time and place, I had wonderful facilities with fantastic owners who had the same viewpoints and philosophies as I did. I had/have a supportive husband who is okay with me spending a lot of my evening’s teaching, as I also have a full-time job as a social worker. It really would have been foolish not to take the opportunity to grow and really do the training I wanted to do as all the cards were playing out perfectly in front of me.

Has it been a smooth road?
There have been some obstacles but they have all been good learning lessons. There is no easy road in animal welfare, and the majority of my training experience comes from working with shelters, humane societies and rescues. You really have to be objective and not subjective in those roles. I’ve spent a lot of training hours into dogs that eventually had to be euthanized due to no progress and no results. Those are always hard to take but in the end, you have to look at what is best for the animal and the community. You always have to look at the bigger picture no matter how attached you get to the dog in the process.

Those experiences though really helped me get to where I am today and to always provide the facts to owners and what I can and cannot do, and sometimes educating owners that their expectations are unrealistic. I’m not one of those trainers that will tell you I can help, if I know I really can’t. Sometimes, I’m not the best trainer for a client, and being able to admit that sometimes is hard. I am happy I stuck out my time in animal welfare as long as I did though, there were many many times that I wanted to leave, the politics can be really hard to manage and work around, but if I had left all those times I wanted too, Forever K9 Training, would not be here today.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Forever K9 Training story. Tell us more about the business.
Forever K9 Training is really a set of dog training curriculum that I created. My specialty is really socialization and aggressive behaviors. I have a unique set of classes that the primary focus is relationship building with your dog. I spend a lot of time educating my clients on dog development and helping them learn how to connect with their dog through positive reinforcement, force-free training. I promote clicker training but do not force clients to use it, all my clients have the option to use a clicker or not. Some of my classes include Obedience with Games, which is your basic obedience class but I use games like Tic-Tac-Toe, Jenga, Musical Chairs, etc to help teach and strengthen cues.

Obedience is really boring, so this is my way of making obedience fun and interesting for clients. Rehabbing the Reactive is another popular class and one of my favorites. This class uses Emma Parsons curriculum and teaches owners how to better manage their reactive dog. In 8 weeks we have profound progress, from week 1 of dogs being unable to look at each other without barking, lunging, growling at each other, to week 8 of everybody in class parallel walking with each other. This is one of my favorite classes because during the 8 weeks the owners become a support system to each other which is SO important in having a reactive dog because you often feel really alone and frustrated.

When I had my dog Kesha who was reactive with people, I often described it as a prison sentence, she was my commitment and I was going to give her the best life I could, but with that came a strict set of rules, we often didn’t take her into public because of the way she was which was hard. There are so many owners out there with reactive dogs who often feel so alone and helpless, Rehabbing the Reactive gives those owners a support system of other owners along with supplying them with the hope that their dog can have a much better life than what they currently have. Rehab really strengthens the relationship of trust that the owners have with their dogs. You really get to see owners start to understand their dog better and you see so much progress in this dog, the dogs increase in confidence and owners who now feel empowered and confident in handling their dog.

One of my other favorite classes is my Kids and K9s Superhero class. This class is specifically for kids and their dogs. This class follows a storyline of villains “Bonnie and Clyde” who are actually my dogs Mia and Capone. Bonnie and Clyde break into an animal shelter and steal all the toys from the shelter dogs. In this class, the superhero and their sidekicks (the dogs) learn superpowers to capture the villains. Each week we start with a short video of the villains and where they are. In our last week, the superheroes use all of their superpowers learned to capture the villains. I love this class because kids really start to connect with their dogs.

Not every many facilities have classes for kids, especially kids under 12, and this is a really fun way to strengthen dog/kid relationships, along with educating kids about dog training. The kids are always very engaged in the storyline and it is really just an all-around fun class! K9s in the City is another really fun class I have, where we meet in public places and we work proper manners in public. I love this class because we get out into the community and the public gets to see well-behaved dogs. This class also gives owners confidence in their handling skills in public. I have a bunch of other classes but these are my favorite ones, and I am always looking for fun things to do. I don’t want to be your average trainer, I want to have fun, and I want to show owners that dog training is fun, it doesn’t have to be your typical boring sit, stay, down.

I am lucky to have Rob and Michelle who are EXTREMELY supportive of every crazy idea I’ve thrown at them. I’m sure they get some anxiety when they hear me say “I have an idea, tell me what you think…” But they always respond, “YES! Let’s do it.” What I am most proud of is being able to offer affordable dog training to owners, I’m not in this for the money, I’m in it to enhance the lives of dogs and their owners. I’m proud to say that Forever K9 Training’s classes won’t be like any other training program you have been too. I’m proud to have fantastic relationships with my facility owners, because I really have no desire to have my own facility, I want to be able to spread Forever K9 Training’s curriculum as far as I can, and that is by creating great relationships with other existing facilities who have the same philosophies and will allow me to come teach my curriculum.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I think the dog training industry will start to get interesting, right now there are no regulations in the dog training industry. Any John Doe can call themselves a dog trainer and have no experience. After some large national animal abuse cases found in some dog training facilities, some states such as New York and California are trying to change that by attempting to pass laws that will regulate the industry requiring certifications. I hope Illinois turns to that as well. There has always been a big divide in dog training too, you have your positive reinforcement force-free trainers and you have your forced based trainers. I can only hope that this industry moves towards positive reinforcement, force-free training, but who knows what will really happen. I’d like to see trainers work together more.

Most trainers don’t like to refer to other trainers or it’s the constant battle of philosophies. I’d like to see trainers starting to work together more and push the differences and constant arguing to the side, after all, we should all be working towards the same goal – enhancing the quality of life for not only the dog but the owners as well. I do think in the next 5 to 10 years though people will continue to spend money on their dogs/pets, and will continue to treat them more as a family member and not just a pet.

Pricing:

• Rehabbing the Reactive is $150 for 8 weeks
• Kids and K9s: Superheros is $100 for 4 weeks
• Obedience with Games is $145 for 8 week
• K9s in the City is $115 for 5 weeks

Contact Info:

• Address: 225 Industrial Drive Unit 9 Hampshire IL 60140 (Hampshire Pet Resort and Spa)
• 2270 Barber Greene Road Dekalb IL 60115 Gone to the Dogs
• Phone: 815.255.0038, 815-758-7877, 224-218-1222
• Email: Foreverk9straining@gmail.com

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