About Top Tier K9 – Blackwater Bay

Top Tier K9 Blackwater Bay

Top Tier K9 Blackwater Bay is a dog training program serving the Blackwater Bay and Milton area. It builds each program around the individual dog, the owner's goals and the real-world situations they face, whether that means a family companion, serious behavior concerns or a service dog.

The trainer

Owner and trainer Madeline Romito is a Navarre Beach local and a graduate of Navarre High School, Pensacola State College and the University of West Florida. She writes that she has served as a United States Coast Guard officer in search and rescue for more than nine years, and that her dog training spans family obedience, behavior modification and service dogs. She works with families, owners facing reactivity, anxiety, aggression or destructive behavior, people who need a service dog for a disability, veterans and first responders seeking dogs for PTSD-related needs, and owners of high-drive breeds.

Method and programs

Training follows Adaptive Reliability, an approach created by Top Tier K9 founder Jeff Minder that teaches dogs to make the right decision as environments change. Owners learn to communicate clearly, reinforce good behavior, correct unwanted behavior appropriately and read body language. Basic Obedience covers sit, down, climb, recall, leash manners and social behavior. Advanced Obedience adds off-leash work, distance commands, duration, advanced recall and public-access manners. Both are board-and-train programs lasting three or four weeks.

What to ask

Ask what each program costs and how follow-up lessons work after the dog comes home.