Training & Her Tribulations

Trainer Profile: Katherine

Katherine is an experienced and deeply intuitive dog trainer whose methodology stems from a lifetime of working hands-on with dogs and horses. Her journey began in childhood with a natural, instinct-driven understanding of connection through engagement—jumping obstacles, playing hide and seek, and instinctively building relationships based on trust and mutual respect. This approach matured into a refined, structured philosophy grounded in natural leadership, not domination.

She trained under Genesis K9 Security Group in Cullinan, South Africa, completing DH1, DH2, and DH3 under SASSETA-aligned modules. These levels include:

• DH1: Fundamentals of care, obedience, and control of service dogs
• DH2: Advanced obedience, agility, and patrol techniques
• DH3: Tactical deployment, protection, and real-world operational applications

She has been practicing bite work with K9 Conservation since her dog, Shadow, was a puppy. Shadow is now 8 years old and has also completed Level 1 Agility Training with a club in Plumstead, Cape Town.

Katherine groups dogs into categories such as Hounds (e.g., Weimaraners), Shepherds (e.g., German Shepherds), and Terriers (e.g., Staffies, Pitbulls, Jack Russells), understanding that genetics and breed drives play a pivotal role in behavior and training. She works with varying types of drive—ball drive, prey drive, and food drive—to ignite motivation, engagement, and performance in her canine students.

Her training philosophy emphasizes leadership, boundaries, and structure without cruelty—seeking instead to meet animals at their instinctive level with empathy, energy clarity, and the right tools. She guides her students with the same direct energy. While this can be confronting for sensitive handlers, her role is to ensure the communication becomes clear—usually correcting the owner’s misunderstandings more than the animal’s behavior.

Training isn’t just about commands—it’s about timing, technique, and tools. It’s about understanding pressure and release, natural canine psychology, and most importantly, knowing that discipline is not abuse. Whether she’s addressing the differences between collars and harnesses, or explaining why constant pressure fails where sharp, clear corrections succeed, Katherine’s feedback is rooted in the ultimate goal: creating functional, fulfilling, and respectful partnerships between humans and animals.

She acknowledges the emotional difficulty of training—for both dogs and their owners. Repetition and tone, often misread as harsh, are critical in establishing structure. She’s seen time and time again how handlers can misinterpret firmness for rudeness when it’s really clarity and consistency that the animal needs. In truth, most issues lie with the handler—not the dog.

Katherine teaches not just skills, but transformation. Her approach is rooted in honoring the animal’s nature, cultivating trust, and fostering a bond built on mutual respect and clearly defined leadership.