About Us

WHO IS RIDLEY K-9 ACADEMY?

Ridley K-9 Academy was founded in 2007 by Garrett Ridley. Garrett runs the academy with his wife Courtney. They are located in beautiful Placerville, California. Ridley K-9 Academy is looking to serve all dog owners looking for professional dog training in the greater El Dorado, Sacramento and Placer Counties. We also serve the rest of the nation.

WHO IS GARRETT RIDLEY?

Garrett Ridley has been mentored and trained by two expert trainers for over 5 years. He has had the opportunity to learn from both these expert trainers who had different training philosophies and methods. Ridley has had extensive experience training with positive / reward based training methods and old school compulsion training methods. Garrett recognized the benefit of both methods and one without the other ended with an unbalanced dog.

Ridley's other passion is decoying for sport protection & police K-9 dogs. Garrett is a helper for NorCal Valley K9 Training Club. Being a decoy has given Garrett a better knowledge and understand about reading canine language and aggression. Garrett is a certified decoy and loves participating in local Police K-9 trials here on the west coast.

WHAT DO WE STAND FOR?

Ridley K-9 Academy stands for...

• Integrity
• Character
• Reliability
• Professionalism

We believe in being straight forward with you about your dogs training needs. We stand for teaching owner / handlers how to successfully communicate and teach their dogs. We believe in supporting you and your dog through a positive and extremely rewarding training experience.

WHAT KIND OF TRAINING?

Fair and Balanced training! Our dog training methods are based on a four phase training program. You will learn classical and operant conditioning as well as modeling theory to train your dog. We believe in teaching you how to read your dogs language so you can properly use the training knowledge you will receive.

WHAT IS OUR TRAINING PHILOSOPHY?

Our philosophy is to build your dogs intense and wilfull desire to work for you by using positive reward based training methods. We believe in being proactive instead of reactive with dogs. We rather be proactive so we can reward our dogs positive behaviors. By being proactive you will be able to keep your dogs from correction & manifesting unwanted behaviors. We only use negative reinforcement or punishment to correct unwanted behavior when we know our dog knows and understand what we ask of them.

WHY DO WE TRAIN?

Garrett trains because he loves helping people learn how to properly communicate, understand and strengthen their bond with their canine companion. The best reward it so see the joy in people and their dogs when they finally communicate clearly with each other.