Hi! I'm Dawn Falk, a self-proclaimed dog-a-holic and owner of Cloud Nine Training School for Dogs. I have been living with, raising, training, showing, breeding and rehabbing dogs for nearly 30 years, and I've spent much of that time helping other people learn how to do the same. Currently I have two German Shepherds, a Border Collie, a Sheltie, several English Toy Spaniels and a handful of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.

The first dogs I had as an adult were Shelties: Ginger and Sophie. Not only did I have fun with them, but I earned several AKC performance titles with them, learned a lot from them, and got a solid introduction to the world of animal training with them.

Ready for more of a challenge, I adopted a black lab mix from the shelter who had a few behavior problems. With a positive approach to training and some gentle behavior modification techniques, Axle eventually became a highly skilled service demo dog for both Helping Paws and Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota, and he spurred me to try a toy dog next: a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

CH Be Bop A Lula, CD, affectionately known as Piper, turned me into a devoted Cavalier person, and she taught me that training a small dog is, indeed, a lot of work - more than I ever expected. With tons of patience, many treat rewards, and lots of determination, I passed the Canine Good Citizen certification with Piper, completed her AKC breed championship, and even earned an AKC Companion Dog title with her.

Piper motivated me to expand my training knowledge and skills even further, and I traveled to Hot Springs, Arkansas, to study operant conditioning with Bob and Marian Bailey. I invested more than 200 hours in the Bailey and Bailey workshops, where chickens served as the behavioral models, and came away with a graduate level understanding of the principles of operant conditioning that is somewhat unique to the trainers in the Twin Cities area. Once I successfully shaped the behavior of a chicken to weave, walk through a tunnel and climb a ramp, I felt ready for my what was to be my greatest training challenge yet: an English Toy Spaniel.

The English Toy Spaniel is the most difficult breed I've worked with so far. Small, intense, quirky, emotional, and almost cat-like, the English Toys I've owned and trained have really made me earn my reward-based training stripes. The result is that one of my dogs, Darla, is the only one of her breed ever to have earned the AKC's Master Agility Champion title (three times) and to have qualified for both the AKC Agility Invitational (five times) and the AKC Agility Nationals (twice). To learn more about my RumRiver Toy Spaniels, both ETs and Cavaliers, check out www.rumrivertoyspaniels.com.

And just when I thought I had reached my peak on challenging dogs to train, along came Dixon, the sheltie I adopted recently from MN Sheltie Rescue. It's an understatement to say that Dixon has issues; and it's even more of an understatement to say he is providing me with a whole new level of training and learning experiences. So as difficult as he is, I'm grateful that we found each other. My hope is that my rehab work and training with this little guy will allow him to become a competition agility dog one day. You can learn more about our journey together via his blog: Dixon's Digest, The Diary Of A Rescued Sheltie.

On my way to Cloud Nine, I spent a dozen years training service, hearing, and therapy dogs for placement and certification; I served as Director of Training at Twin Cities Obedience Training Club in Minneapolis; I served as Program Director for Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota; I presented seminars on topics such as bite prevention and operant conditioning/clicker training; and I recently became a Canine Good Citizen evaluator for the American Kennel Club.

In addition to all that I do with my own dogs, a great source of joy for me continues to be the hundreds of students who bring their dogs to classes each year at Cloud Nine. I am privileged to be able to work with, assist, and learn from each and every dog/handler team that comes through the door, and I hope I will get the chance to meet you and your puppy or dog in an upcoming class soon!