About Us

K9 Cadets is here for ALL dogs. We accommodate from the biggest to the smallest, the naughtiest to the nicest and every other canine in between. We don’t just make bad dogs good; we make good dogs great.

We are unique in the industry. First and foremost, we are a training facility specialising in a wide range of training methods for a multitude of behavioural issues and training. We believe in natural dog psychology methods and continue to study K9s on a daily basis to learn all they have to teach us. This allows us to work and communicate with dogs in their natural language producing clear, effective results quickly. We also use our pack to work their magic in helping all our dogs develop in a natural and healthy way. Our pack is highly trained and leads as an example for all our new dogs to follow. We believe in relationship-based training, teaching you and your family how to be the best leader for your dog – the key to fixing your dog is you.

All staff are highly trained by K9 Cadets owner Kim Lux who has over 13 years of professional experience working in the industry as a dog behaviourist and pack trainer. She has worked under, and studied from, leading trainers/dog psychologists in NZ and the world. She is also raising a mixed breed pack of her own (currently living with her partner and their 10 dogs). Alongside rescuing, rehabilitated and re-homing many other dogs she understands first-hand what comes with living with dogs with multiple energy levels, breed traits and behavioural issues. Running this business is not a job – for her it is a lifestyle. With a passion for behaviour work, Kim has considerable experience training and helping dogs with behavioural issues and their owners. She has vast experience to assist with all and any issues including aggressions and anxieties.   

Our goal is to provide all of our cadets with a fun day alongside the highest of standards in training, understanding and care and all of our staff are focussed on this. They are trained to have a clear understanding of dog body language/communication and how a pack (including us) works as one. Our aim is to send every dog home a little bit better than when they arrived, and we are continuously working hard to further train up and develop our packs. We also offer individual one-on-one training should you and your dog need it.

K9 Cadets is here to help you. We offer multiple services conveniently located all in the one place with passionate, caring, highly proficient and experienced staff that you and your dogs know and trust.  We are here for Daycare and development, Homestay (their home away from home) and a training facility to help you when things go wrong, get a bit tricky or your just wanting more knowledge and help with the basics.

And we LOVE when our clients continue the training we do here at home. If you’re keen, we will help you follow through with this from the second you pull into our carpark. We want you to be able to keep your dog balanced and focused from opening your car door on drop off to closing it at the end of the day. Great things happen when we become our dog’s leaders. 

Assessment Day – Compulsory for all New Cadets

Each dog is unique, therefor has individual needs which need to be met. We meet a range of dogs showing different levels in confidence, insecurities, rank, energy levels, medical issues, learning capabilities, training and behavioural issues. This is why your dog will need to attend an assessment day or assessment consult when starting with K9 Cadets for any of our services.

An assessment day is a one-on-one day with a K9 Cadets trainer at our facility. Your dog will need to be dropped off to us in the morning and picked up at the end of the day. We will chat with you on drop off to go over your dog’s individual needs and requirements and have a discussion on pick up about how your dog did and make a plan on how to move forward from here.

Or focus is to assess your dog while building a healthy and positive relationship with them, and them with us, our pack and the K9 Cadets environment.

If your dog is in for training we start of by setting your dog up so it displays the behaviour you are having issues with. This allows us to read your dog in person and get a fair overview of exactly what is going on.

After this and for all other dogs we start with a leadership walk. This is a relationship building walk allowing us and your dog to get to know each other. We establish the role of leader, guider, protector and companion. This ensures your dog has trust and confidence in us. We will then start to teach your dog everything it needs to know to attend K9 Cadets and to succeed in its training and thrive with us. This gives your dog a clear understanding of what we are wanting when we have requests. It allows us to introduce your dog to our pack and environment knowing we can do so safely while stress free as possible on your dog. It insures we know and our pack know we have control of your dog when bringing it in.

We will also utilise the pack as the dogs can often tell us things we cannot see. The pack can help settle a dog in, make it feel safe and welcome, calm it down or help us teach it rules and boundaries if needed. If necessary for your dog’s assessment we will take it off site to public places.

Location

Our Farm

In May 2019 K9 Cadets was lucky to secure its very own private 12-acre adventure playground. We have two large fully fenced dog paddocks, our own forest, large ponds, waterways, native bush areas, a doggy playground, logs stacked up to climb on, and plenty of shelter for when it rains. It’s all located right next to Riverhead and Kumeu townships.

We have a building specifically dedicated to the business, housing our office, staff quarters, washing facilities, built in dog bath and our homestay dogs home away from home headquarters. This building is located right next door to our home where we live, so your dogs are always super close to all of us. We have an audio and visual monitoring system linking the house to the homestay headquarters allowing us to watch and communicate with the dogs quickly 24/7 even at 2am if someone needs an urgent toilet break.

Getting your dog to us

School Bus Service $7 per day per dog

Our Doggy school bus aka Jumbo Hiace Van offers a pick-up and drop off service to and from your home on Tuesdays, Wednesday, Thursdays and Friday within the following areas:

Service locations:
Riverhead / Kumeu and Huapai (North side of state highway 16) / Whenuapai / Herald Island / Hobsonville Point / West Harbour / Westgate / Massey (north).

Times:
Morning pick-ups are between 7.30 – 9.30am and afternoon drop-offs are between 2.30pm – 5pm.

Access:
You do not need to be home, but we will need access to the area your dog needs to be picked up from and dropped off to. This often means we need a spare key or code access etc.

Owner pick-up and drop-off to the farm

Unable to do either of the above, bring your dog to the farm during our pick-up and drop off hours.