After more than 20 years of working with my own dogs, teaching obedience classes for another school, training assistance dogs for three local non-profit organizations, and learning all I could about canine training and behavior, I decided it was time to start my own school. My goal was to have a dog training school where positive techniques and methods were the norm; where slip release, pinch/prong, and chain link/choke collars were unheard of; where force, pain, and punishment were not options; where people would enjoy bringing their dogs and where dogs would enjoy going. The result was that Cloud Nine, Inc. opened its one door in spring of 2000 in a small, single room, studio-like warehouse in downtown Hopkins. Owner and head trainer: Dawn Falk; silent partner and marketing expert: Gerry Schmitt.

We started with a few evening obedience classes and doggy daycare - the only one in the western suburbs at that time, in fact. Gerry's efforts at getting the word out to surrounding veterinary clinics along with her other marketing strategies allowed us to grow steadily until we had a full selection of evening obedience classes, some weekend offerings, and enough students to fill them!

As our excellent reputation spread and our client base grew, doggy day care gave way to daytime classes, and our schedule gradually expanded to include puppy classes, agility classes, Rally O classes, therapy dog classes, private lessons/problem behavior consultations and our signature small dog play group. We even added a tricks/freestyle class and took a stab at having a canine drill team! More classes meant adding training staff, and in the last few years both Mary O. and Sarah P., having started out as Cloud Nine students, have become Cloud Nine instructors.

Though we were happy in our cozy little air-conditioned, one-bathroom training studio for many years, our growing agility program, with students who now compete at the national level, really dictated that we find a bigger place. Three commercial realtors and as many years later, we finally found a suitable building - still in Hopkins - with three doors, four bathrooms, and a dedicated training ring that is as big as the entire old studio.

We are barely settled into the new facility and already we have some exciting things in the works. We have just added a "Doggy Gym" activity to our schedule along with obedience and agility "run and dones". Soon we will start hosting seminars by locally and nationally known experts who will cover topics such as agility, obedience, dog behavior, canine structure and health. We are launching Haylee's Heart, a food shelf for dogs. And we still have designs on getting that doggy drill team up and running. So stay tuned and check back often because you never know when one of our new classes or services might be of interest to you!

People often ask how/why Gerry and I chose the name Cloud Nine Training School for Dogs, and there are three reasons. First, at the time we conceived Cloud Nine, I had nine dogs. Second, Gerry's art director back then created an adorable logo that lent itself to the name. Third, I wanted to run a dog training school where dogs would be happy to come, where they would be on cloud nine.

Mission accomplished.