About Us
John
(Founder/Owner NW K9 Obedience LLC)
NW K9 Obedience was founded in 2023 by John Knoke with the goal of establishing better relationships between K9s and Handlers/Owners. John uses a Stress Ecology philosophy to further the bond between Handlers/Owners and their K9s. This enables John to work with some of the most reactive/aggressive dogs to further their rehabilitation and become stable/neutral members of society.
John holds a bachelor’s degree in Criminology from Capital University; after which he enlisted into the U.S. Army. During his time in the Army, he served in many roles including: Infantry Mortar Section member attached to an Infantry Company, CBRN (Chemical-Biological-Radiological-Nuclear) Company Representative, Ammunition Handler for Company size Combat Outpost as well as a Medical Evacuation Driver in Afghanistan. Like many Veterans, John worked daily to find where he was best suited after his time in the military and worked many different jobs. Some of these included running a Soils Laboratory for a Geotechnical Engineering firm as well as working for Amazon Corporate as a Risk Specialist. During his time at Amazon, he adopted his dog Arie from Shepherds without Boarders. Through his work with Arie, he saw his passion for dog training, and decided to leave the corporate world behind to pursue his passion of working with dogs. John attended a 1000 hour Master Trainer Academy/Train the Trainer course in Oregon during 2023 to further his knowledge and understanding of K9 behavior, Obedience Training, Tracking/Trailing, Detection, Bite/Decoy Work, Bite Development, Reactive/Aggressive Dog Rehabilitation, Service Dog Selection/Training.
K9 Arie
(Black German Shepherd Mix)
was a surrender to the Shepherds without Boarders Rescue and was adopted in 2019. Due to the adoption, there was little known of how Arie was raised/trained. John spent time working with Arie and training with multiple trainers. It was with her that John’s passion for dog training developed further. John worked with Arie daily and was able to train her as his personal Service Dog. Their bond together also developed into an amazing Tracking/Trailing (SAR type) team, as they worked to expand their knowledge and ability to track over longer distances as well as complex problems through Advanced Urban and Wilderness Tracking Seminars. Additionally, Arie is a detection prospect for Contraband (Narcotics, Fentanyl and Firearms).