By MCKENZIE GERNES/Murphy News Service

An uncommon corporate partnership between K-9 trainers and pet boarders is working to educate dog handlers at ADOGO Pet Hotels.

Three Iraqi war veterans with skills in military-style training of dogs are teaching advanced canine handling skills to the staff of Twin Cities ADOGO pet-boarding company. It is part of a continuing-education program aimed at enhancing management of daycare and boarding of dogs at ADOGO’s three Twin Cities locations.

Off Leash K9 Training of Central Minnesota is comprised of military veterans Cassie Walsh, Andy Smith and Jessie Mackela. Walsh served as an analyst in the U.S. Army from 2002 to 2006  and was stationed for a time in war-torn Tikrit, Iraq. Smith served in the Army after high school and became part of the Tactical Explosive Detection Dog (T.E.D.D.) handler team. He and his dog Marley were the first of three teams in his unit to find explosives while on his second Iraq deployment. And he trained at the famous Vohne Liche Kennels, which is now using some of that franchise’s training methods. U.S. Marine Corps veteran Mackela was a training instructor and is a K-9 handler after two deployments to Iraq, teaching and handling explosive-detection dogs, with a specialty in scent detection.

This is a new venture in the pet hotel business says John Sturgess. He is a former “people” hotel executive and is founder and president of ADOGO. “There aren’t a lot hotel companies that have partnerships like this, in fact when we looked we couldn’t find any.

“The Off Leash K9 Training Central MN company represents the best in class training that you can give your dog and we are excited to be able to use their advanced skills and to honor their service as part of the continuing education for ADOGO’s staff,” Sturgess said. Previously, ADOGO had its more experienced trainers educate new employees.

“The staff are very good at what they do, but my goal is that we are best in class in offering these services,” Sturgess said.

Sturgess said he has the utmost respect for the military and it is part of why he chose to partner with Off Leash. “The military is the best,” he said. “They are training large groups of people every single day and we have the best military in the world. I think the training level is absolutely incredible.”

Safety first. That is the motto Walsh said is of the utmost important in the military, a value the group hopes to instil at ADOGO. “The main focus of this program is going to be on handling skills for when the dogs come through the front door to the daycare area and then back out the front door at the end of their stay,” Walsh said, adding that a focus of the program is to make sure all dogs in daycare are engaged so that they have a more pleasant boarding experience

“ADOGO is doing the right thing by improving their dog-handling skills with this veteran-owned company here in Minnesota,”  said Brad Christensen, who works often with vets on VA loans at Leader One in Eden Prairie.

Sturgess said he hopes ADOGO’s staff members attain different levels of experience through ongoing training.

Reporter McKenzie Gernes is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.