Where can you Volunteer and receive Double the Benefit for your Efforts

Did you know you can Save a Dog and at the same time Empower a Person?

Puppy Raising for CrittersWork Service Dog Partners does just that.

The dog you mentor for CrittersWork will have the best opportunity of becoming a service, assistance, hearing, psychiatric assistance or therapy dog for some person who desperately needs the skills this dog could provide.

Your efforts will not only give this dog a forever home that creates an extremely special relationship for person and dog, this dog becomes a life changing partner.

Recent statistics report that more than 19 percent of our population over age five suffer from a disability. Together we can benefit the daily lives of many people by partnering them with a Service Dog.

This all starts with YOU, Puppy Raisers are an essential part of our organization. The Puppy Raiser fosters a service dog candidate under the age of sixteen months from anywhere between four to fourteen months.

Be part of the solution!

Service Dogs are capable of retrieving items, opening and closing doors, pulling wheelchairs, stabilizing a person who needs assistance walking, alerting the hearing impaired to important sounds, and even searching for a person afflicted with Alzheimer’s or Autism.

Help us make changes in two lives.

You’ll be glad you did.

423-552-1416

Email: volunteerinfo@critterswork.org

Help us break the cycle of destruction of adoptable dogs and at the same time empower the life of a disabled person.

Introduction

Our Online Store is now Open!

http://www.crittersoncloudnine.com

Katherine "Kat" Rollins, CPDT

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. ~Herm Albright, quoted in Reader's Digest, June 1995

Kat's K9 Cadets Dog & Puppy Training

Training

Behavior Modifications

Trainer Academies & Internships

Natural Foods & Treats for a Healthy Pet

89 Kennel Lane, Greeneville, TN 37743

CPDT - Certified Pet Dog Trainer

k9cadets@greatandsmall.net

www.greatandsmall.net/Training/train.html

Memberships:

APDT - Association of Pet Dog Trainers

AKC - Canine Good Citizen Evaluator #23859

PCSA CPCT - Pet Care Services Association

ABMA - The Animal Behavior Management Alliance

NAPEW - National Association of Professional & Executive Women

Celebrate Your Mentor!

Graduate of Pat Miller's Trainer Academies at:

www.peaceablepaws.com

Dog Trainer Search

http://www.dogtrainersearch.com/dogtraining/Kats-K9-Cadets-Dog-Puppy-Training.html

APDT Listing

http://www.apdt.com/po/ts/us/details.aspx?slne=3559

Classes Page

http://www.dogtrainersearch.com/dogtraining/Kats-K9-Cadets-Dog-Puppy-Training.html

Kat's Blog's

http://www.boardingkennelmanager.blogspot.com/

http://dogtraineracademy.blogspot.com

http://www.greenepets.blogspot.com

http://www.greatandsmallkennels.blogspot.com

http://critterswork.blogspot.com

Kat's Calendar

http://www.google.com/calendar/render?cid=k9cadets%40gmail.com

423-552-1416

800-887-6592 fax

K9Cadets@greatandsmall.net

CrittersWork Service Dog Partners

Katherine Rollins, President/Ceo

Training Assistance, Hearing, Therapy and Search Dogs for the Disabled.

Natural Foods & Treats for Your Healthy Pet

"Witness the Miracle of True Partnerships in Action"

357 Kitchen Branch Rd, Greeneville, TN 37743

423-289-5987

800-887-6592 fax

Kat@critterswork.org

www.CrittersWork.org

All Creatures Country Club

Boarding / Grooming / Training

Natural Foods & Treats for Your Healthy Pet

"Treat Your Pet to a Vacation in the Mountains"

345 Kitchen Branch Rd, Greeneville, TN 37743

PCSA - Pet Care Services Associaton

423-639-2920

800-887-6592 fax

accc@greatandsmall.net

http://www.greatandsmall.net/accc/accc.html

All Critters Bed n Biscuit

Boarding / Grooming / Training

Natural Foods & Treats for Your Healthy Pet

"Come Camping With Us!"

113 Kennel Lane, Greeneville, TN 37743

PCSA - Pet Care Services Associaton

423-639-5975

800-887-6592 fax

acbb@greatandsmall.net

http://www.greatandsmall.net/acbb/acbb.html

President/Executive Director

GreenePets Foster Network, Inc.

800-887-6592 fax

GreenePets@gmail.com

www.petfinder.com/shelters/TN258.html

Rescues Are Dropping Like Flies

Today I have had occasion to try to locate a breed rescue that could take a young Husky whos owners have moved away and left to fend for himself.

It is astonishing how many rescue links are dead out there on the web.

This is scary stuff. At a time when dogs are being dumped in our mountains in record numbers, rescues themselves are going under as quickly.

Our own GreenePets has had to stop taking in dogs, only the occasional Service Dog trainable candidate makes it through our doors, because due to lack of funding my husband and I personally support nine dogs five of which we never asked for.

One thing about small rescue organizations, everyone is hidy ho on the start up, then the volunteers and board members usually walk away down the road leaving the originator with dogs who are not adoptable but must of course be cared for, exercised, fed, socialized and veted. (My case.)

We can't support any more dogs, my husband and I are currently supporting 5 rescues in our kennels with no hope of adoption, and four personal dogs who travel back and forth from our kennels to our home daily. Some of the rescues we have had for five years.

All of our personal dogs are rescue, even though I did adopt one purebred Dachsie from a rescue in Nashville and had him trucked in for my husbands birthday two years ago. Even our little Houston was a rescue who had been dumped in Georgia when a puppy mill went under. He is a very special little guy, who still has issues two years later due to lack of adequate socialization during the critical learning periods. My reason for this adoption was an article I read about older men needing small dogs, and my husband has always been partial to the little Dachsies who have kenneled with us.

Please, we know that everyone is in a terrible crunch right now, but at least spay and neuter the pets you have. Don't be responsible for bringing more lives into this world with no one to care for them.

Consider when you do adopt taking on a dog who is older. You can see the temperament you will be living with when you adopt an older dog. You won't be going through all of the puppy capers that many people are clueless about and which usually result in the teenager dog getting dumped along a country road before his is a year old.

Please, Please, Please support the rescues out there. These dogs have no one to speak for them, and people in rescue really can't afford to do what it is they do, still the dedicated ones keep going.

Kat

Stop the Frivolous Lawsuits!

Frivolous Lawsuits!

There has got to be a way to stop these lawsuits. Even though the defense wins, the small business goes out of business, and everything you have worked for all your life while struggling to stay afloat goes to the lawyers.

If the people bringing these suits would have to reimburse who they are suing when the suit is either thrown out or they loose, this nonsense would stop! You would not find the suers so willing to go ahead if they had a penalty staring them in the face.

People can sue for any reason under the sun, and it doesn't cost the suer a dime to get the lawsuit into court, but it does cost the defending party, usually everything in trying to get the suit dismissed.

I am going to be posting these as I find them. I feel very strongly about this that things have to change, and I think change will have to start with our state legislatures. We the people have the power in numbers. Please write your legislature before you too are sued by some lowlife looking for a free handout or just to hurt you because they don't have a life other than harming others.

They stated on Fox News just last night that the person bringing the majority of the frivolous lawsuits against Sarah Palin worked for Obama during his election. There is an awful lot of hate building in our country, whatever happened to Love Your Neighbor? Sarah Palin has already spent in excess of 1/2 Million dollars defending herself against nothing. In no case was she guilty of any wrong doing, and she should never have had to waste all that time and money in the first place.

The lawyers have brought this about, because they get paid no matter what. And what better way to drum up business than clogging our court systems with stupidity.

I am currently being sued, and so like Sarah Palin, and Sidney Helen Sacks, I fully understand the costs, frustrations, business time lost, lack of sleep and health destroying aspects of finding myself in a situation where I am having to defend everything I have striven to do right in my life from some lowlife who has decided he can try to take it away from me and also close my business.

Stop These Frivolous Lawsuits!

Why join an organization?

I feel it is important to support organizations that bring together people that share your business ideals.

Organizations like APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers), PCSA (Pet Care Services Association), and CCPDT (Certification Counsil for Professional Dog Trainers) help bring about changes for the good and standardization in our industry.

The people who volunteer and work for these organizations are to be commended for their level of committment to us and for ourselves in making the committment to be doing the best we can do for our clients.

My membership with the Association of Pet Dog Trainers has helped me to stay up on the latest sciences of training behaviors, meet other positive trainers, and meet the some of best people in the business.

Attending our six day very intense extremely long-day conference is something I look forward to all year long. So much is learned, and so many new friendships are formed. I return home with tons of new things to think about and many new talents to add to my bag of tricks.

I arrive at the conference dreading how exhausted I will be by the end of the day, though each new day finds me up and at it again, I can't wait to get the new day started. I must confess that I have not been able to stay up to watch my favorite program Hannity while attending a conference, I am out like a light as soon as my head hits the pillow and I wake up sometime way into the night to turn the TV off. Getting old I guess.

The APDT brings together trainers who are serious about their craft. We are availed of the opportunity of meeting the best trainers in the business who take time out of their own lives to present at our conferences.

It is really wonderful to be able to sit in a session with one listening to one of your favorite authors present the latest and greatest on their speaking topic.

I am praying that I can find the finances to be able to attend this fall. For several years I have been wanting to meet Steve White, and he and his wife Jennifer will both be presenting this year in California.

Gosh!

Come Camping With Us!

Our All Critters Bed n Biscuit is a short drive from town.

Nestled on a private lane, secluded from the traffic, your pets will have a wonderful camping trip with us!

Indoor/outdoor covered runs allow your dog to choose which part of his suite he wishes to recline in. Our graveled exercise yards are a step from the veranda.

Lots to see and do plus many friends to enjoy companionship with.

Give us a call: 423-639-5975

Dog Trainer Apprentice Programs

In a major effort to make a positive influence in an animals life, I have developed a Dog Trainer Apprentice program for persons who live near enough to Greeneville to be able to travel to our training center once or twice a week for several months.

I am a positive dog trainer, and my methods encompass Classical and Operant Conditioning. Our apprentice programs will take you from a raw recruit if that is where you are now, and expose you to the science behind positive dog training.

I use clickers as event markers for training new behaviors, and the mechanical aspect of using this tool is also taught to our Apprentices.

During the Apprenticeship, you will work with rescue dogs, students dogs, and potential service dogs as you develop your own positive training skills.

Our goal is to train our Apprentices to the point where they too can become Certified Professional Dog Trainers.

There are three levels of the Apprentice program, and you can go through as many or as few of the levels as you choose. There is also a "Pre-Apprentice" program which will help you to decide if dog training is really for you.

Trained dogs seldom find themselves abandoned. Dog training saves lives.

Dog training and working with dog lovers is the best thing I have ever done in my life. The dogs really appreciate you helping train Mom & Dad.

Critters On Cloud Nine Store is Open

After several months of work, we have finally launched our natural foods store.

Currently we are carrying many of following brand names online:


Ark Naturals
Canidae
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul
Diamond Naturals
Natures Variety
Old Mother Hubbard
Primal
Solid Gold
Taste of the Wild
Timberwolf Organics
Wellness

Those that don't appear at our online store will be coming soon, we hope....

All of the above brands are usually in stock at our All Critters Bed n Biscuit store at 113 Kennel Lane, Greeneville, 37743. To check an availability, please call 423-639-5975.

Taste of the Wild and Natures Variety are both grain-free products and we are having excellent results feeding these products to our allergic dogs. Thus far, we have itchies fairly under control, and we have yeasty ears totally under control with Taste of the Wild products.

We would all appreciate your input on what is working for you that is not causing the immune systems of your dogs to become worse, which are such treatments as steroids and antibiotics.

Chemicals are the cause of our dogs problems and our health problems as well. We live in a toxic world.

Welcome to all

I have been planning to start a blog about our life and livelihood for several years now. Sorry for me that it has taken so long.

A little about us. My husbands family has owned the land our farm is on since 1810. I can't imagine living anywhere else, though I was not born in Tennessee.

In the early 1990's I really wanted out of the corporate world, and wanted to go back into training dogs. So, I started a game plan that included becoming a certified positive dog trainer, and I started researching kennels and kenneling.

I guess the best way to handle this blog is to work forward from the starting point.

A. I hated the corporate world.

B. I still had to eat.

C. I was pretty sure even back then that being one of the "boomers", I was never going to get to
retire and kick back.

D. This brings me to the big hurdle, what was I going to do that would be able to keep us eating and a roof over our heads.

E. I won't go into just how it came about that it would be a boarding kennel, but suffice it to say that was the direction I headed in.

F. Time for research, writing a business plan, planning the facility, building the facility, writing the operations plan, and learning everything I could about dogs and kenneling. I spent over three years in this phase.

G. Breaking ground on the boarding kennel facility, this was June of 1997.