Matt Hammond, owner of Quality K9 Concepts (QK9C for short), was in the army for ten years as a dog handler. He started QK9C in 2003 after leaving the army. “We do basic pet training, behavior modification for dogs who have aggression towards food, people, or other dogs, and territory elimination. We also do service dog training and we breed and train detection dogs for government contracts and detection services for explosives and narcotics,” says Matt.
“QK9C is really a hobby that got grossly out of control. I was just helping some friends and then I’d do another job and then another one…,” shares Matt. “Everything with a dog stands off from an obedience relationship. If you live an active lifestyle and you’re always hiking, out in public, or on vacation, you want your dog to be a part of that. The best way to make that not an inconvenience or a headache is to have that obedience foundation. It’s reassuring to know that when you pull up to a hotel and you're getting stuff out of the car, you can put your dog in a down. You know he's not going to run across the parking lot and you’ll spend hours looking for him in an unfamiliar neighborhood,” says Matt.
There are eleven trainers at QK9C, seven of which are in the CSRA. All of the QK9C trainers are educated and are continuously learning by taking classes and attending seminars. “We treat each dog as if it were our own, and we’re not heavy with them at all. We would rather the dog work for us for food than work for us for correction. We have the ability and the training to correct bad behaviors if we need to when they come up,” says Matt.
“The great thing about our company is because there are so many local trainers, if one of them gets into a bind with a dog and they can’t figure something out or the dog is not responding to them, they’ll call the other trainers or they’ll call me and we’ll work together to fix the problem. You’ll have nine sets of eyes looking at the dog,” says Matt.
The QK9C team takes everything into consideration when training dogs. They sit down with the owner and go over what their needs are in a dog and what will make their perfect pet. They then go train the dog based on that information. “One of the things that we tell all our people is when you come to us, we’re going to teach you emergency downs and basic commands. We teach your dog how to function and live around you and your lifestyle, not what we want them to do but what you need them to do and form our obedience packages around that. We’re not just a money-making machine; we care about the dog more than we care about the income from it and are here to help people with their animals any way that we can,” says Matt.
If you are interested in having your dog trained by Matt and the trainers at Quality K9 Concepts, call (706)739-7592. For more information about all the services they offer, please visit their website www.qk9c.com.