Biographical Information for Lori Peper-Rucks, Trainer and Director

Lori also instructs group-training classes for the public, along with private training and lessons for individuals. All training is done in a motivational style so it makes sense to the dogs and is more enjoyable for the handler. By training with this theory as her foundation, it makes more successful K-9 handler teams.

Lori started training dogs in obedience and competing in trials in 1975. She also competed in conformation and was a professional handler. She then pusued her interests in tracking and schutzhund. Lori has also trained hunting dog. Although this is not something she has personal interest in, she has successfully trained pointing, flushing and retrieving dogs for enjoyable hunting companions.

Naturally, the next step for her was to take her gifts for training and do what she enjoys the most and feels great gratification- training dogs to be of service for people to make their lives and jobs easier,

Lori's competent background in training has allowed her to train highly effective K-9's for law enforcement, private investigators and security agencies. She trains the dogs for tracking/trailing, apprehension, narcotics detection, arson, bomb detection and cadaver, with obedience as a foundation for control. She tries to custom train dogs for the needs of the individual departments.

Having a K-9 in the department is a great advantage and tool. Having a K-9 that is trained to track/trail human scent, makes them invaluable is going after a suspect whether day or night because they use their sense of smell not sight to find the suspect. Having a K-9 trained for apprehension allows the officer to have immediate backup. Unfortunately our growing problems with drugs, a narcotics detection K-9 is a very valuable tool for locating drugs in vehicles, buildings or when thrown during a chase. K-9's are also a good education tool, when going into schools and in public.

Lori has advised and helped agencies put K-9 programs in place. She assists with suggestions; from funding and policies to helping with certifications. She has studied many training theories and has based her theory on Gottfried Dildei's method and based narcotic detection on Jack Robicheaux's method. Lori has put a bit of her own theory along with theirs and came up with a motivational training theory which makes sense to both dog and handler, making training more enjoyable. This is necessary for good and competent dog/handler teams. Lori always says "If it doesn't make sense to the dog, it's just another theory". This is important, because if it makes sense to the dog, it empowers and allows the dog to think and not be handler dependent. This is very necessary for working K-9's.

Lori believes SAR trained dogs to be a very valuable tool in finding lost people, disaster victims, cadaver, and drown victims in the water. That is why she dedicates so much of her time and energies with the United K-9 Search and Rescue.

Lori also trains Service Dogs for people with disabilities. Mobility and sensitive detection, and hearing dogs are two types of canines that can help a person with a disability live a more independent life. Mobility Dogs are trained to assist people to do daily tasks of retrieving, opening doors, turning off/on light switches, and a variety of other tasks. Sensitive Detection Dogs can detect such changes in the body as seizures, severe diabetes, and narcolepsy. Hearing Dogs can assist those who have experienced hearing loss by alerting them to sounds such as door bells, fire alarms, and the telephone.

Lori has frequent media interviews and writes articles on issues concerning the use and training of service dogs, search and rescue dogs, and dogs that are trained for narcotics detection, tracking/trailing, agility, apprehension. She is often asked and does give seminars and demonstrations for many organizations, schools and agencies.

Lori has bred German Shepherd Dogs for over 25 years and Labrador Retrievers for 9 years. Her knowledge in producing dogs that are physically sound, intelligent, have excellent temperament, and proivde reliable, trustworthy companions is extremely useful in breeding for working dogs.

Lori's knowledge in training speaks from her vast training interests and experience in putting handlers and K-9's teams together in various fields. She feels fortunate to be able to share her gift with so many people, making this world safer and more enjoyable.