Meet the Trainer: Keena
Why I Built This
Where it Started
In 2018, I adopted my dog, Lexa, while working under a master dog trainer who became my mentor. She was nine months old – intensely reactive and chronically vomiting everything she ate. I did what most new owners do: I trusted the standard answers and assumed it would resolve.
It didn’t.
That experience forced me to look deeper. I began studying canine biology, digestion, and the gut-brain connection. I explored probiotic protocols, nutritional foundations, and how environmental stress impacts regulation. Over time – through research, adjustments, and consistency – Lexa stopped vomiting. As her physiology stabilized, her behavior began to stabilize too.
That was the moment I fully understood that behavior is not separate from physiology.
Two years in, I reluctantly reached out for structured training support for her reactivity. With tools and consistency, she could pass other dogs. On paper, it looked like progress.
But something was missing.
She was compliant – yet mentally quiet in a way that didn’t feel like true stability. The spark, the softness, the joy I knew at home felt muted. I realized there is a difference between suppression and regulation. Between control and relationship.
Where it Changed
That realization reshaped the direction of my work.
While working at Hollywood Feed (a holistic pet store) for nearly three years, I spent my free time digging into research databases, learning how to evaluate ingredient sourcing, macronutrient balance, and micronutrient density. I spent six months researching how to properly formulate balanced raw diets for my own animals. I’m not anti-kibble. I’m not anti-industry. But I am deeply aware of how confusing marketing can be – and how little foundational education most owners are given.
In 2021, I brought home my Australian Shepherd, Reign, and began training her for cardiac alert service work from eight weeks old. Raising and training a high-drive, high-metabolism breed deepened my understanding of how individual dogs have vastly different nutritional and energetic needs. When she struggled to gain weight despite eating what “should have been enough,” I learned firsthand how critical adequate animal protein and metabolic support are for working dogs.
These dogs shaped how I see the work.
What it Taught Me
I began specializing in reactivity and nervous system-based training because I saw how often relationship was lost in the pursuit of obedience. The dogs who struggle aren’t “bad.” They’re overloaded. Dysregulated. Misunderstood. And their owners are often exhausted and discouraged.
Those dogs call to me.
My mission isn’t to create dependency or sell subscriptions. It’s to educate, structure, and empower owners to make informed, biologically sound decisions for their animals – decisions that support regulation, resilience, and relationship.
Behavior is biology.
And biology responds to better inputs.
Behavior Is Biology. Support Should Reflect That.
I help modern dog owners build calmer routines through structured movement, regulation-focused support, and practical daily systems. Behavior isn’t random — it reflects environment, rhythm, and nervous system input.