K-9 Companions National Headquarters

03/07/2026

Taking the dogs on a walk to visit our donkey neighbors is one of the things we love to do on a beautiful day. A good training program should include real distractions.

03/05/2026

Training service dogs to navigate the world effectively necessitates extensive distraction training. Our feline companions assist us in this endeavor. Maverick, a service dog in training for veterans, is supported by one of our affiliated non-profit organizations.

03/04/2026

One trainer plays the part of the mother walking the dog in the store. The other trainer plays the autistic. Child tethered to the dog. The dog has to learn not to be overly sensitive to the child’s movements. service dogs

02/23/2026

Hearing alert Service Dog Training. The dog alerts the handler to the noise. Then shows the source of the noise.

02/22/2026

Training Autism Service Dogs requires the trainer to mimic the autistic child’s behavior, in order to teach the dog when to interrupt it. service dogs

02/21/2026

Service Dog Training in public. It's important to make sure that Service Dogs will perform in any environment. Our franchisees are taught to work in all environments the client might find themselves in.

02/21/2026

Great News! We are getting ready to launch our K-9 Companions-Boot Camp Franchise this month! We will be training others to be successful in the business of dog training including SERVICE & THERAPY DOGS!

01/24/2026

01/22/2026

Indiana Bones “Indy” is being trained as a service dog. He’s just starting his journey at 10 mos. He’s off to a great start!

10/30/2025

*Preventing unwanted litters is a goal we all share—but it's time to rethink the surgical approach. Hysterectomies and vasectomies, which preserve hormonal balance, can safely be performed as early as 8 weeks of age, making dogs sterile without disrupting their natural hormones.

New peer-reviewed study published in Nature:

How a dog’s lifetime exposure to his own hormones (before being neutered) affects how well he handles aging and frailty later in life.

Study Background

• Frailty = when older dogs (and people) become weaker, less resilient, and more prone to illness and death.
• Most research looks at how to prevent frailty — this study looked at what makes some dogs bounce back better after frailty sets in.
• The focus was on the HPG axis — the hormonal system that produces testosterone and controls reproduction.

Key Findings

• Dogs neutered very young (before 2 years old) had:

o A much higher risk of death once they became frail.
o About 16% higher mortality for every small increase in frailty.

• Dogs kept intact longer (more than ~10 years) showed:
o No increase in mortality linked to frailty.
o Their hormones seemed to “buffer” the negative effects of aging.

• Each extra year of natural hormone exposure reduced frailty-related death risk by ~1%.

What It Means

• Hormones from the te**es may protect against the worst effects of aging later in life.
• Removing them too early could make dogs less resilient to age-related decline.
• Frailty isn’t just about getting old — it’s also shaped by early-life events like the timing of neutering.
• This supports a “life course” view: what happens early in life affects health decades later.

Why It Matters

• The study suggests timing of neutering might influence how well dogs age.