About VIP K9, LLC

VIP K9 is the trainer for Le Roy and the eastern side of Genesee County, and it publishes more about how its people think than most businesses this size do.

The trainers

The owner owns four Labrador retrievers, each of which the site says is a certified therapy dog, one of them also certified in tracking, trailing and scent detection. She describes extensive training with other professional dog trainers in basic and advanced obedience using positive reinforcement, and says she is "well-versed in the use of remote collars and other training tools".

What makes the profile unusual is the thirty-five years she spent before this working with children and adults with severe behavioral disorders related to autism spectrum disorder or mental illness. The site draws the line between the two jobs explicitly: "dogs, just like people, engage in behaviors (both positive and negative) for a variety of reasons. Determining those reasons is at the root of improving behavior, overall."

The second trainer came from horses and has what the site calls an extensive background in horse training and balanced training. She teaches obedience work and e-collar training, and the site says her own dog's significant anxiety-driven behavior problems, and her success with them, are part of what she brings.

What clients describe

One published account describes months of work on a dog's habits in which the trainer would "take the time to not only provide us with the tools and strategies we needed… but also to educate and teach us about each of them", and another describes deciding to have a puppy and its owner trained there together.

The grooming side

Grooming is the other half of the business, run by a Penn Foster certified groomer who is AKC S.A.F.E. certified and pet first aid and CPR certified. It is not training.