Hello!
At KJ K9, we believe that every dog has the potential to be a well-trained, obedient companion. Our owner and Training Director Kelley Ortega, has been working with animals for the past ten years and professionally training dogs for five years. Kelley has been decoying (PSA and IGP) for three years and is currently a part of the Canis Fortis PSA club based in Lometa Tx. She has a strong history of working with advanced sport dogs and prioritizes her ability to read dogs both in bite work and pet training. Kelley has three dogs, Gracie, Dixie, and Scooter who often assist as demo dogs. In her free time Kelley enjoys weightlifting, baking, being outside with her dogs, and reading dog training books!
Fun fact: All photos on our website are of our client and personal dogs! No stock photos here!
My Story
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Kelley has always enjoyed working with animals. Originally from the mountains of Virginia, she started working with horses and eventually turned it into a full-time job.
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Kelley's interest in dog training started when she adopted Scooter, a senior yellow lab mix from the local animal shelter. Scooter had been at the shelter for over a year and his lack of teeth and his laid-back personality gave Kelley the false idea that he would be an “easy” first dog.
Thus began a string of Scooter the old toothless dog breaking through windows to escape the house and go on personal adventures through creeks and cow fields. Finally, after having to jump in a creek to rescue Scooter from drowning in 15℉ snowy weather Kelley began to research how to train dogs and purchased a crate.
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When Kelley married her husband, Brendan, they moved to Fort Liberty, NC where she had little to do but teach scooter tricks. Not long after, Kelley got a job at a local Pet Store Chain as a trainer. While she loved training dogs and her clients, she felt unfulfilled by the limitations the retail chain set for the training program. Kelley set out to educate herself further by listening to every podcast on dogs she could and watching videos all while experimenting with new training ideas on Scooter. Eventually, she began working with a local trainer and was hooked. The training style and methods used made sense and Kelley wanted to be a part of it. She reached out to the owner and asked for an internship. For weeks, Kelley spent all of her days off at the training center learning everything she could.
During this time, Kelley adopted Gracie, a 12-week-old Golden Retriever Mix. Gracie went to work with Kelley every day and continues to go to most places with her.
After months of learning, Kelley was offered a job as a beginner trainer which she took with great enthusiasm.
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Later Kelley was promoted to being a Trainer and Behavior Specialist and began to collect her client base and started to work from her home In North Carolina.
Currently, Kelley is running KJ K9 in Copperas Cove. Scooter is learning more tricks every day and Gracie is continuing to develop into a competitive obedience dog and is currently training for a PSA PDC sleeve division as well as continuing her training in tracking and narcotics detection.
Kelley enjoys going on adventures with her dogs, going to the gym, and decoying with the Canis Fortis PSA club in her free time.
She continues learning more about dog training through books and other resources.
You can check out Kelley and her dogs on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok.