For this episode of Community Conversations, our host ST Billingsley spoke with Nick White, the Founder of Off Leash K9 Training, located in Prince William County.
Q: So tell me about your program.
A: So I started Off Leash K9 Training about six years ago. I’m a former U.S. Marine, former U.S. Secret Service, and now we’ve grown to 88 locations throughout the United States. And our headquarters is right here in Prince William County.
Q: What’s different about your training, compared to some other training companies?
A: So what we’re really well known for, and what really separates us apart from everyone is we do very military, police-precision style…meaning all of our dogs are outside, off leash, high-level distractions – downtown [Washington] D.C., Times Square [in] New York, Hollywood Boulevard – just crazy distractions, and that’s really what sets us apart from everyone else.
Q: So do you guys [train] a certain kind of dog, or do you train all types of dogs?
A: We do everything. Our motto was “any size, any breed, any age” so we do everything from four pound Chihuahuas to 200 pound Mastiffs to pretty much everything in between – and all behavioral issues as well.
Q: I know you do some work with Prince William County – you do some philanthropy-type work. So you work with the animal shelter in Prince William County. Can you tell me about being on the board there, and tell me what you do there?
A: With the Prince William County Animal Shelter and the Humane Society, I helped to start their Warrior Buddy program. Essentially what that is, is it pairs returning military veterans with a shelter dog. They’re paired kind of strategically, so we ensure that the dog is getting the right owner, and the owner’s getting the right dog. And then we help provide training for that as well.
So we do a lot of stuff with the animal shelter – we’re very big advocates of getting dogs out and keeping them out, so we assist with training. Recently, we’re helping to provide adoption fees for dogs that are getting picked up from the shelter. So essentially the owners can come in and get the dogs for no fee.
Q: You will actually go and evaluate dogs for the county. What is [entailed] in all that?
A: Essentially, some dogs come in that have behavioral issues – we do a lot of work with the Fredericksburg SPCA as well, and they do a lot of things where some of these dogs have issues that are not adoptable. And what we do is we go in and work with these dogs, and try to get them to the point where they’re adoptable, so now they can get into a home with a family.
Q: So you do work with some celebrities. So what kind of things do you do there, or who have you worked with – tell us a little about that.
A: Recently, I’ve kind of – all I do at this point is run the business, and travel throughout the world training for high-profile clients. I recently did actor Ryan Reynolds’ dog – he’s known for Deadpool, and many other things. I leave in four days to do John Cena’s dog – everyone knows who he is, big WWE wrestler, and pretty much on everything. And I’ve done a lot of the UFC guys, UFC Champion John Jones, and I’m traveling next month to go to Dubai to train for a family, so I’m kind of all-around at this point.
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