Meet Our Trainers
Morgan Dondlinger, Owner
AKC CGC & Trick Dog Evaluator
Canine CPR & First Aid Certified
Dog Photographer
Morgan has a strong passion for dogs and their training. Professionally she has been caring for and training dogs for seven years, starting her career at Leashes and Leads, and then opening Courteous K9 with a business partner. In 2021 she decided to start her own business, The Modern K9.
Her various roles have included daycare, boarding, training, and being entrusted by her clients to bring their dogs into her home for extended periods with the board and train program. Additionally, she competes in various sports with her dogs, Chevy, Kimber and Spire.
Morgan's interest and love for dog sports began when she was 12 with the 4-H dog program she competed in with her dog Tucker. Tucker and Morgan received many honors in obedience, rally, and agility. During their 4-H journey, they had the opportunity to compete and win at the state level multiple times. After she began working at Leashes and Leads, Morgan started taking various classes with Chevy and began competing with him in obedience, rally, and agility, earning various titles and honors.
When not working with client dogs or competing with her dogs, you can often find Morgan out camping, hiking, or paddle-boarding. Morgan's dogs enjoy participating in these hobbies as well, whether it's paddle-boarding with her on a lazy summer day or car camping on a late fall night.
Follow Morgan's pack on Instagram for more photos and updates! @theminnesotaherders
Meet Morgan's Dogs
Revvin' To Go CD RM2 RAE NAP NJP DS DDB CGCA CGCU TKA
Chevy is the Aussie that helped to develop Morgan's love and enthusiasm for dog training and sports. Chevy often works with Morgan as her model to help develop her photography skills. He is affectionately known as "Mr. Perfect" among his closest friends. Chevy is a natural in all sports he competes in and has earned titles in agility, disc, dock diving, canine good citizen, and multiple trick titles. Chevy's currently working towards achieving his goal of becoming a rally champion.
Chevy loves all people, and Morgan tried to use this love of his and train him to be a therapy dog. Unfortunately, his love of belly rubs got in the way, making him inaccessible to many of those he would be seeing. When not hard at work seeking belly rubs or strutting around the ring, Chevy can often be found on the search for snacks. Chevy considers himself a snack connoisseur by constantly trying new snacks. Feel free to ask him for recommendations for you or your pup!
Additionally, Chevy loves to be active and explore new places. He frequently goes on expeditions to various state parks with his mom, where in addition to hiking and camping, he enjoys rolling around in the new environment to really get a feel for it.
Rising Sun Rebel of the Royal Fortress CGCA CGCU TKA
Kimber is Morgan's "pandemic puppy" and queen of the house. She recently began agility training and is starting to get her feet wet with dock diving. Almost immediately after Morgan got Kimber, she developed a love for disc, a sport that she continues to excel at. Kimber's goals for 2023 include working towards rally, obedience titles, and competing in agility
Newbold Spire
Spire is the newest addition to Morgan and Lucas’ pack. Spire was born on May 25, 2022 in England, and arrived in the United States on August 10, 2022. She is very bold and outgoing, and is already learning some basic obedience and agility foundations! She comes from strong herding lines, and Morgan has plans to introduce her to it in the future.
Some of Spire's hobbies include attempting to help with household chores such as putting the sheets on the bed, and attempting to sort socks. She also loves to snuggle with her mom when she’s not throwing toys around.
Morgan's goals for Spire are to compete at high levels of agility and competitive obedience as well as play around with herding and dock diving.
My Little Bear RN CGCA CGCU TKA
Koda was originally Morgan's mother's dog. When she was no longer able to care for him, Morgan took him in. Originally Morgan planned to train and re-home him; however, he found a special place in her heart! When Koda was ten weeks old, he ran away and was lost in the woods for three weeks. With the help of Minnesota Sheltie Rescue, they were able to capture him; however. As a result, he was very skittish around people. Since taking him in, Morgan has worked to build his confidence around people. Over time Koda has become off-leash reliable allowing him to hike off-leash with his mom and enjoy the many beautiful parks the Midwest has to offer. Additionally, Koda has found joy and confidence in training and competing in barn hunt and rally.
Maddie - Groomer, Trainer & Class Instructor
AKC CGC & Trick Dog Evaluator
AKC Fit Dog Evaluator
Updog Judge
Maddie joined our team in Fall of 2022 to assist and eventually teach classes. We recently had the opportunity to offer Maddie a full time position to help with daycare as well as add on her own segment of the business; grooming!
Maddie has been attending rally classes since we started offering them. She has always had a love for pets; her parents fostered that love by fostering cats & dogs through her hometown Humane Society.
In 2017 she started her career as a Dog Grooming through a local salon in Winona, and the rest has been history. When she isn't grooming, she is training and trialing in a variety of sports with her dogs Whiskey, Santo, and Peach. In her off time she normally has her nose in a book down by the Mississippi River.
Meet Maddie's Crew
Peach
Santo
Whiskey
Lily
Tori - Trainer & Class Instructor
Tori joined our team in Fall of 2022 to learn how to train dogs and teach classes professionally. Tori has always been surrounded by dogs and has a love and passion for improving the skills and relationship between a dog and their owner. Throughout her life, she has developed a love for larger breeds such as Great Danes and Mastiffs. Her dog, Jericho is currently a service dog in training, to assist her in a variety of ways. This training is guided by an former AKC instructor that is familiar and experienced in methods of training a service dog.
After gaining experience and a foundation in dog training and teaching, Tori is planning on going to school to be a dog behaviorist. Tori has a special passion when it comes to service dogs, and their training. She knows first hand how a well trained service dog can improve the quality of life for its owner. She has aspirations of starting a service dog program in the Rochester area in the future.
In her free time, Tori enjoys hanging out and doing things with her family. Her and Jericho like to explore the outdoors through nature walks. She finds enjoyment in nature photography and painting. Her faith is a major part of her and her families life. Every Sunday they can be found with their church family. Additionally, service dogs aren’t just something she is interested in professionally, but a part of a lifestyle; she regularly attends service dog meet ups and is active in the service dog community. Finally, she has passion in training Jericho, and helping friends and family with their dogs. Regardless of how busy her day gets, she makes it a priority to train Jericho for at least 5 to 10 minutes a day.
Meet Toris' Dog
Jericho is Tori’s service dog in training, and what one might describe as a gentle giant. He is a dane and mastiff mix brought to the midwest from Virginia; when it snows he MUST romp around in it to really get the feel of it. Of course he has a jacket he wears to ensure he doesn’t actually become one with the snow. He takes his job as a service dog very seriously and absolutely loves to go to work, however snacks are one of his favorite pastimes. Recently he has been exploring freeze dried treats such as beef liver. His favorite time of the day during the week is when Tori comes home from her office job, causing his butt to go into full wiggle-butt mode, and warping the space time continuum. His other hobbies include snuggling with his humans as well as developing relationships with the local rabbits and birds through cardio exercises.
Jericho’s goals for the next year include fine tuning his skills as a service dog, and becoming that dog that his mom can rely on when she needs him the most. He also aspires to taste some other types of freeze dried snacks, such as chicken and pork (Chevy is assisting in this endeavor). In addition to his service dog training, he has goals of assisting his mom learn to train dogs through pretending he forgot everything he has learned, in order to reinforce her learning of training principles. Finally, Jericho may even try some competitions with his mom!
