Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Marderosian.
Hi Rachel, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I began working professionally as a dog trainer in 2016 after completing an apprenticeship program. My interest in dog training was sparked several years prior when I was struggling with conflict between two dogs in my own household. In order to help my dogs I started searching for a dog trainer and ended up hiring a trainer who came highly recommended, but was uncredentialed. I was dedicated, and followed my trainer’s homework instructions to the letter. Unfortunately, my dogs’ behavior problems escalated severely as a direct result of the training advice I received.
This kicked off a deep dive into researching canine behavior and training methods. As I learned more, I discovered that the interventions recommended by the trainer I was working with were considered outdated by the leading professionals in the field and that many of these methods had been proven to be emotionally harmful or even dangerous. I developed a passion for preventing other families from experiencing the same harms my dogs had gone through at the hands of a professional who marketed their services without acquiring even the minimum standard of education.
I gradually worked my way up from my apprenticeship position to a mentorship role in dog training focused on general manners skills for pet dogs. I loved seeing the relationships between dogs and their humans deepen as they became better at communicating with one another. I didn’t want to just teach dogs to be compliant, I wanted to teach them to joyfully engage in the work we were asking of them. Each dog I trained with taught me something new, and it was profoundly rewarding to see my own enthusiasm for training reflected back by the dog at the other end of the leash.
In 2018 I received a job offer from K9 Turbo Training and leaped at the opportunity to join Metro Detroit’s most trusted team addressing advanced behavioral concerns. Katelin Thomas, CDBC and Kate Wilson, CBCC-KA who founded and lead K9 Turbo Training were my heroes and I couldn’t believe I was going to have the chance to work alongside these incredible behavior consultants. At K9 Turbo Training I was able to engage in formal continuing education through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers and received my Certified Professional Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA) credential. Surrounded by an incredible team, I soaked up every bit of information I could get from them on how to help dogs struggling with anxiety, phobias, and aggression.
After 3 years of training and behavior consulting with K9 Turbo Training, our general manager position opened up and Katelin asked me to fill the role. This wasn’t an easy decision. I loved working directly with my clients and their dogs. It was easy for me to see six or seven cases in a day and wake up the next day wanting more. Switching roles would mean taking a huge step back from training, but it also offered the opportunity to grow our team and multiply my impact by developing other trainers. I accepted and spent the next four years pouring my heart and soul into K9 Turbo Training’s operations.
Eventually, Katelin began to talk about taking a step back and feeling torn between the needs of the business and the needs of her family. At that time K9 Turbo Training was (and still is) the love of my life, and she asked whether I would be open to purchasing the business. I thought back to who I was when I started in this industry and what had kept me in it this entire time. I had gone from a girl who just wanted to save her dogs, to a professional who was capable of helping other people save their dogs, to a leader who could grow a team that could save dogs across a region. There was nothing I wanted more than to shepherd K9 Turbo Training into its next phase and discover how our impact could continue to grow.
Katelin and I shed so many tears over that transition, but in November 2025 we signed the paperwork and I became sole owner of K9 Turbo Training. One chapter was complete, but it also felt like I was stepping into something unimaginably exciting. Of course I have strategic plans and visions for where our company is headed, but I am also certain that I haven’t scratched the surface of what is possible. In another ten years, who knows what we’ll be able to accomplish? The one thing I can say for sure is that for as long as I’m capable, I’ll be fighting to ensure that every person who needs help with their dog can access qualified, safe, and compassionate training services.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Like countless other businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly affected K9 Turbo Training. Before the pandemic shut down services, we had been primarily sending trainers to clients’ homes for individual appointments. There was no way we could continue to offer the same services during lockdown. We were forced to lay off the majority of our staff, but I was kept on because I was one of the few trainers who was easily able to pivot to offering online training. I worked day and night with our general manager at that time, Margo Butler, to develop new online training programs, including a free social media based dog training challenge that pulled in thousands of participants from across the country.
In the end, all of the adaptations we were forced to make left us stronger. We ended up leasing our own facility and now had a robust list of online services, but it certainly wasn’t an easy road to get there. I’m so grateful that the changes we made ended up being the right ones, because at the time it felt like there was no guarantee that we could keep going. We just had to rely on small successes every day and hope that they would add up to be enough.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about K9 Turbo Training?
K9 Turbo Training is a force-free dog training company offering a wide range of training services from group puppy kindergarten classes through advanced manners, and private training including high-risk behavior modification of dogs displaying aggression. Our “force-free” methodology means we achieve our training results without taking shortcuts that cause physical and emotional harm to the dogs we’re working with. We teach our clients to deeply understand their dogs, and teach their dogs to find calm and confidence in the trust they’ve built with their people.
We solely offer dog training services (no daycare, no boarding) which is extremely unusual for a company of our size. The vast majority of pet services businesses are focused on daycare or boarding, because these services have great revenue margins and they tack on dog training as an afterthought. By operating in professional training services only, we retain qualified, career driven staff much longer than most pet services businesses. Our trainers are full-time professionals in this field – not hobby trainers, not kids who have “had dogs their entire life”. We require all of our trainers to achieve industry-standard certifications before being allowed to maintain their own caseload without supervision.
Because our trainers are highly qualified and work closely as a team, they are able to push each other to the very cutting edge of best practices for training and behavior modification. Continuing education is mandatory, but I don’t have to pull teeth to get my team to engage with it. They take everything I offer and ask for more, because each of them is just as passionate about this work as I am.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
My mentors, Katelin Thomas and Kate Wilson were instrumental at every level of my growth and professional development. From dog behavior to business management and team building, they have been either by my side supporting me or pulling me forward to learn everything I need to be successful. I have never been more loved and more challenged by anyone. I will always be grateful that they took the time to see me, and believed that I was worth their attention. Although I now have the privilege to call them close friends, there will always be a part of me that remains in awe of them as dog professionals and as purely incredible human beings.
I also cannot talk about my dog training career without a shout out to my best friend Laura Maihofer, CBCC-KA. We met shortly after I began learning about dog training, and she had started in a professional training role not long before. She was the first to suggest that I develop my passion for researching dog behavior into a training career, and we have grown in parallel as behavior consultants ever since. This work can be emotionally heavy, mentally taxing, and physically demanding. She has always been there to support me on the hardest days when I needed someone to understand that training dogs is not just “playing with puppies”.
Pricing:
- 4-week Puppy Pre-K classes for dogs 8 – 16 weeks old: $199
- 6-week Puppy Manners classes for dogs 16 weeks – 6 months old: $249
- Online Crisis Management appointments with a certified behavior consultant: $175
- New Rescue Dog Consultations: $145
- Group training workshops: $49/45 minutes
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.k9turbotraining.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/k9turbotraining/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/K9TurboTraining
