About Us

Jessie is a graduate of Tarheel Canine's master trainer program and has had the privilege of working with and learning from the top trainers in the industry. While attending Tarheel Canine she had the opportunity to work with countless pet owners and dogs of all ages, breeds, and temperaments.  

She spent eight months learning the on and off leash obedience progression, behavior modification, and how to teach owners the most successful way to live with their dogs under the guidance of her mentors. 

She also had the opportunity  to handle and train dual/ single purpose police K9's for narcotics and explosive detection, tracking, apprehension, and obedience. 

She competes in the protection sport of PSA with her Belgian Malinois Fay and recently earned her entry level certificate for the sport. PSA is a sport that tests the dogs power and intensity in protection work as well as their control and motivation in obedience. Training for this sport has allowed Jessie to learn invaluable skills that help her in training pet dogs such as  problem solving, perseverance, finding what is motivating to each individual dog, and to ENJOY the process of training. 

She continues to attend seminars around the US and train with other professionals in the industry to improve and build upon her techniques as a pet and sport dog trainer.

While Cody is not an obedience trainer there is so much work that is done behind the scenes to make sure dogs that stay with us  are happy, comfortable, and content. 

He is always up to be a training distraction, film a training outing, or handle our personal dogs to provide training opportunities to the dogs currently in our programs. Cody works with all our board and trains to ensure they will listen to a variety of handlers at all different skill levels.

Cody is also learning the skills needed to decoy for our PSA club and is advancing his training skills through working with our cattle dog Luca.   

Luca is the first puppy I raised from 8 weeks old, ACDs are very high energy working dogs and I was so excited to have a dog that could take my training to the next level. At this point training was still a hobby for me. Luca became very reactive at about 6 months old (very common for this breed) even after going through what I thought was proper socialization practices and having good genetics. It was very frustrating and draining to deal with on a daily basis. I worked over the next four months to solve his issues and help him move past them, I tried many methods and techniques, reached out to all kinds of trainers with no success. Through Tarheel Canine we finally received the guidance and help we needed to solve these issues.  Looking back now, having to work through and solve those problems was so necessary to my career. I know now what dog owners go through when they have a reactive dog. Luca is now such an amazing and essential part of my company as he is the perfect ambassador to how a proper communication system, obedience, and boundaries can turn behavioral issues around. He often serves as test dog and helps us out with evaluations and follow up lessons. 

Fay is a Belgian Malinois that was born and raised in Holland and imported  to Tarheel Canine as a police dog prospect. When I arrived at Tarheel I immediately knew she was special. Her small size and deep red coloring was so eye-catching. I continued on with my schooling over the next 6 months knowing she was above my skill level. Well the universe decided I was ready for her after she sustained a foot injury that led to me fostering her for school while she recovered. After the first day I knew there was no way I could live without her. This dog and I were made for each other. There is not a day that goes by where I am not in constant awe of her. Over the last months of my schooling I trained her with the help of my instructors in protection work, sport obedience, tracking, and narcotics detection including schedule 1, 2, and 3 drugs. After moving back to Michigan we have continued to train for the protection sport PSA and recently passed our PDC (protection dog certificate) in May, we plan to continue on our competitive journey and see how far we can go. Despite Fay excelling in protection sports she is very social and excels at boosting young puppies confidence and is often my first choice when a dog is nervous or unsure around other dogs. 

Pepper is the newest member of our pack, she is approximately one year old and is from the same rescue we got our first dog Kit from. Despite her small size she has a large personality. She is on the more reserved side (most likely due from lack of exposure). We are slowly but surely building her confidence up and are looking forward to including her in our lessons soon. 

My training career started with my first rescue dog, an orange mutt named Kit. I began teaching her the basics of obedience and off leash reliability. Our days consisted of long off leash hikes through the woods and exploring new places. Seeing her so happy and free was an incredible feeling and something I hope to bring to every owner/dog we work with. Without Kit I would never have found my passion, I owe her everything. 

2017-2020