Service dog in training · 18 months old
Axiom
Axiom is preparing to become his handler’s next service dog. At 18 months, he is still learning and growing into that role.
About K-9 Battalion
People and dogs, working together.
Our founder, Ronda Bowser, brings decades of dog behavior and working dog training experience to this work.
Our purpose
Make meaningful support possible.
Our work includes training service dogs for veterans and helping veterans train dogs they already have for service-dog or emotional-support roles. We aim to build supportive partnerships without placing the full cost of training on the veteran.
The work calls for an understanding of both sides of the partnership: what the person needs and what the dog can learn to do reliably.
Our beginnings
Why we began.
K-9 Battalion grew from our founder Ronda Bowser’s work training dogs for veterans at Puppy Hotail & Spa. From the outset, the aim was to help cover the cost of raising and training dogs so a veteran’s ability to pay would not decide whether a partnership could begin. Ronda’s work has included medical-alert and mobility or stability dogs, as well as emotional-support partnerships.
We see the dog as part of a wider circle of support. Daily routines, getting out into the community, and relationships with family all matter alongside the tasks a dog learns.
Our beginnings and Ronda’s approach were profiled by Julia Tellman in “Do no harm” (Teton Valley News, February 2019).
Meet the dogs
Two chapters in a service dog partnership.
Axiom and Freyr share a handler. One is learning the work; the other has retired after years of service.
Retired service dog · 11 years old
Freyr
Freyr spent nine years alongside his handler as a service dog. Now retired at 11, he represents the trust and history that grow over a long partnership.
Their experience is one example of the commitment behind a service dog partnership.
Ronda Bowser. Photo from Puppy Hotail & Spa.
Founder
Ronda Bowser
Ronda is a dog behavior training specialist with more than 30 years of experience. Separately from K-9 Battalion, she has trained working dogs since 2007, including search and rescue and law enforcement dogs. She founded both K-9 Battalion, Inc. and Puppy Hotail & Spa in Teton Valley, Idaho.
Her work with search teams has included missing-person investigations and partnerships with law enforcement agencies. She brings that working dog background to the training of service dogs.
Where the work happens
Space to learn, play, and practice.
Our founder also operates Puppy Hotail & Spa. Its 32-acre property includes 13 play yards and miles of mowed trails used for dog training. Explore the setting where this work takes place.
Training & facility