About Cirius Kennels

Cirius Kennels describes itself as "a family owned dog kennel located in Stormville, NY about 70 miles north of New York City in Dutchess County of the Hudson Valley Region." The training side sits inside a working-dog household rather than beside it, and that is what makes the business distinctive in this metro.

What is on offer

The training statement is broad and geographic: "We offer dog training for all breeds of dogs and other services in Dutchess, Putnam, Westchester, Orange, Ulster and Sullivan Counties." Two specialties are named that almost nobody else in the metro publishes. The first is tracking – the site lists "Tracking/Searching Techniques" among its services. The second is therapy work: "Therapy Dog Services – Registered with The Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs." The kennel also sells premium dog food and offers boarding. The service-area list the site publishes for its work reads like a map of the southern half of this metro and beyond – "Fishkill, East Fishkill, Beacon, Hopewell Junction, LaGrange, Poughkeepsie, Beekman, Wappingers, Carmel, Mahopac, White Plains, Holmes, Brewster, Pawling, Cold Spring, Newburgh, New Windsor, Marlboro, and more."

The working dogs behind it

"We are currently raising our kennel of Labrador Retrievers who are used for hunting, search and rescue, and therapy work." One of them, Boomer, is described as "a trained and certified therapy dog who loves to be around children," and the site records that during June and July he worked at the East Fishkill Public Library on a children's reading program – the kind of specific, checkable local detail that a reader can use to judge whether therapy work here is real or decorative. The site also links out to national reading-with-dogs programs.

Training advice the site gives away

The kennel publishes plain guidance rather than only selling: "Most puppies are capable of beginning basic training at the age of 5-6 months old depending on the individual. Don't wait until too many bad habits have developed before you think about training your new pup." It is old-fashioned advice and it is stated as a rule of thumb, not a marketing hook.

What to weigh

This is also a breeding kennel – the site carries litters, sire and dam pages and health-testing notes for its Labradors, and it takes deposits on puppies. A reader coming here for pet obedience should be clear which side of the business they are booking, and should ask what a training program actually looks like: its format, session length and price.

What to ask

Ask who does the training and whether there is a class timetable.