About Us
Master Trainer Sonja Heritage, owner of Heritage K9, offers 20 plus years of real world, high-drive, international working dog experience, in addition to 6 years as Head Trainer at Search Dog Foundation, to offer you, and your dog an optimal training plan. As a handler, trainer, instructor and evaluator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its disaster response system since 1997, she has worked with thousands of dogs, owners and handlers and continues to do so. As the head trainer at SDF, she designed and implemented their rescue dog candidate screening and training protocols and their disaster search training props. Sonja also implemented that training plan, trained the trainers and conducted their and training courses, all with great success! She also continued their training with field visits while working towards certification with their sponsoring agency and beyond.Sonja’s disaster response experience as a K9 handler is extensive. Here are her most memorable deployments by date: 20. Montecito Mudslides 201819. Haiti Earthquake. Port–au- Prince, 201018. Hurricane Earl 201017. Earthquake Chile 201016. School Collapse, Port–au- Prince Haiti 200815. Hurricane Gustav 200814. Hurricane Ike 200813. Hurricane Ernesto 200612. Hurricane Isabel, Fairfax VA 200511. Hurricane Ophelia 200610. Hurricane Rita, Dallas TX 20059. Hurricane Katrina, Gulfport MS8. Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans LA 20057. Earthquake, Bam Iran 20036. Space Shuttle Columbia, TX 20035. Pentagon Attack, 20014. Pentagon- Operation Nobel Eagle –Human Remains Recovery 20014. Hurricane Floyd 19993. Earthquake, Toliou, Taiwan 19992. Earthquake, Izmit Turkey 19981. US Embassy, Nairobi Kenya 1998 Sonja is highly respected in many venues of the dog world from law enforcement, FEMA disaster search and rescue, sport, and detection to obedience and behavior issues. She has had outstanding mentors and continues to watch, listen and learn from those who walk the walk, and in doing so, has a multitude of training techniques, tools and protocols that most trainers have never had access to. All dogs aren’t the same and one training plan or philosophy does not fit all. At Heritage K9 we LOVE what we do and we would love the opportunity to help you and your dog!
We’ll only consider one-to two board & train (B&T). dogs at a time to ensure that each dog is treated as an individual and that they all have their needs met. We are balanced trainers and use a reward based training program using markers for better communication and immersion training. We also add a combination of physical conditioning, brain games and enrichment activities along side our training so that your pup is happy and tired at the end of the day. A tired dog is a good dog we say!
OUR SERVICES
Board & Train Packages
Your dog will actually live in our home with us, sleeping in a large crate with a nice bed, fresh water and several different types of chews, relaxing in between the many training sessions every day. They’ll sleep well after a long and rewarding day of learning and enrichment. Since your dog lives in our home, your dog gets to watch our personal dogs throughout the day in a practice called “Immersion Training”. Dogs learn through observation, both good and bad, so this helps them understand these new behaviors (and the rewards that come with them) practiced throughout their day. Our dogs look happy so it must be good!
Service Dog Training
Heritage K9 offers a variety of Service Dog Packages that are customizable for your needs! Our service dogs are trained to the highest standards with health and the well being of your pup being first. All of our service dogs produced from our program are able to work in any environment (schools, restaurants, stores, hospitals, planes, trains…anywhere!), have reliable obedience and quality tasking training to set both the handler and dog up for long term success.
We can evaluate your dog to see if they have the possibility of being a service dog. We will be very honest and fair with our evaluation but this does not guarantee acceptance into our service dog training programs. We can also help you find a prospect, find and help raise a prospect, we can also help you through private lessons or virtual lessons. We have had dogs from breeders, from rescues, from the shelter and even (one!!!) stray who turned out to be amazing (K9 Bodhi!). With over 20+ years of experience and having matched handlers & K9, evaluated hundreds of dogs for all sorts of programs you can trust in our opinion. We want to make sure both you and your dog succeed!
Heritage K9 Offers a variety of service dogs including:
PTSD Service Dogs
Medical Alert Service Dogs
Other Psychiatric Alert Service Dogs
Allergy Alert Service Dogs (Peanuts, Shellfish, Gluten, almost allergens just please mention your allergens in your consult, thank you!
Boarding
If we have worked with you and your dog, we are happy to offer boarding services to you - if we have room! We can refresh your dog’s training, add a bit of odor work, agility, direction and control training or simply let them relax and play while enjoying house time with us! We also offer grooming services like, Bath and Blow Dry, Ear Cleaning, and Nail Trims.
We promise to keep your family pup, sport, search, detection, or high energy dog entertained and happy until you return!
Private Lessons
Once a week or twice a month, we offer private lessons with our Master Trainer Sonja Heritage. These lessons are customizable for you & your dog. We can meet you at work, a park, your home, our home, or wherever you need a bit of help. We have lots of options! We’re very good at home management, multiple dog issues, problem solving or assisting you in your training goals. We are here to help!
Puppy Board & Train
Need help with your puppy? Need a break? Want help creating a fun learning foundation so your pup can grow up to be the dog you dream of? Well this is the program for you! We will teach your puppy how to communicate, learn, problem solve, and be more confident in new situations. will teach manners, polite greetings, bite inhibition, leash walking 101, place, sit, wait/stay, down, and the all important recall.
All this while having fun and getting yummy treats! And we also teach YOU.
Behavioral Modification
With over 20+ years of experience with truly drivey dogs that for most normal people would consider “aggressive” (they just need boundaries & a job!) we have many tools in our tool box. We have worked with hundreds of dogs, with many different behavior issues. We begin with an in-home assessment. It’s important for us to see the home/yard layout, family members, other animals and overall environment. This will help create our training program.
Many dogs showing aggression are doing so out of frustration or fear. The more subtle signs were missed so the levels increased until we have an issue. Good news is - we can help your dog learn other ways to handle their fear, frustration or whatever is causing their aggression. And we will teach you how to anticipate situations that may trigger your dog, and show your dog that you also see the problem, and have a plan to keep them safe. This is unbelievably effective! We have helped many people with dogs that are on their last chance, dogs who other trainers have sent back etc.
This program takes time and we take a slow approach to build trust with your dog and to get to the root of the issues. Rehabilitation takes time, patience and commitment to learning new leadership skills. The owners must work closely with us to be successful. Our training plan is different for each dog since each case is different. When you call to schedule an assessment, we will explain our pricing and availability.
This is a very rewarding program for us personally. Let us help you.
Detection Dog Screening & Training
Heritage K9 offers a range of detection dogs for your or your agency's needs. Drug, Black Powder, Allergens, Glucose, Human Remains, etc., we will train a dog for your specific needs. Each canine is carefully screened and health tested before we begin our training program, or we can screen your dog.
FEMA Disaster Search Dogs
Our dogs are screened to the FEMA standard and are hip and elbow cleared as good or excellent. They are trained to perform a strong bark alert at source of either Live Human or HRD-never both. These dogs are all high prey and hunt drive with strong work ethics.
Training Workshops
We have some exciting & challenging workshops planned for 2024. From FEMA/USAR Search Dogs to Nosework, we offer all sorts of workshops for all sorts of agencies, task forces and individual handlers/owners.