About Cosmic Dog

Kathleen has always been a free-spirit who hoped she would one day find what she was meant to do in this life. When she discovered games-based dog training and dog behavior consulting, her passion ignited. The difference it made in her two ‘Naughty but Nice’ rescues was incredible, and it lit a fire inside her. She changed careers at 40 years old and became a certified Professional Dog Trainer through  AbsoluteDogs and now teaches here in Lafayette and online, helping to share this incredible training program.

Phillip Valentine is Kathleen's loving husband who has been a lover of animals since childhood. Phillip has been around animals all his life, living on farms caring for all sorts of creatures including dogs, horses, chickens, snakes, fish etc. Phillip has always lived a natural lifestyle, bringing his passion to natural food store management, where he managed stores such as Natural Grocers, Whole Foods and others. Now, Phillip is a Cosmic Dog Training partner helping to train the dogs and handling the marketing side of the business.

Koda was our first rescue and the reason we are here. He is a 5 year old, ‘Naughty but Nice’ Rhodesian Ridgeback/Boxer/Pitbull mix. At 10 months old he was about to be put down for severe separation anxiety along with a whole slew of other behavior struggles. While he is still deemed ‘Naughty but Nice’, an endearing term coined by AbsoluteDogs to describe our sweet dogs that struggle with behavior, he is living a happy life, full of enrichment, games, fun and understanding. Koda loves getting pets and lovin’s, the orientation game, two paws up, middle, left and right spins and hiking our beautiful Colorado trails.

 Leo came to us as a foster. His litter was the first litter we had fostered and Leo bonded with Koda almost instantly. When we took him to adoption events, Koda would lie on the couch, whining, staring at the door, waiting for Leo to return. Which he did, week after week. We had no intention of keeping another dog at the time, but there was no denying that Leo belonged in our family. So, we adopted the sweet Shiba-Inu/Shar Pei mix who was afraid of every person and everything, save Koda, and thus began our journey to finding a better way of training and a way to help these sweet boys live their best lives. Leo is our 4 year old, sweet, gentle, loving soul, full of fun, silly, joyous life! He loves chilling outside, watching over his chickens, and occasionally playing with them, nose touch, two paws up, anything to do with playing with balls and hiking. 

Arrow is our newest addition, an adolescent Border Collie that came to us all the way from our trainers at Devon Dogs, in Devon, UK, home of Absolute Dogs. He is a Devon Gem, a fiery creature, full of life and ready to help show the world game-based dog training. He loves playing with toys, pinecones, socks, and anything else that can be animated or chased! He’s magical and full of passion! A perfect addition to our loving family.