How ReviveK9 came to be!
We all have a journey that brought us to where we stand now; the paths I have taken in life have been a bit unconventional but always led me back to dogs.
Born in Portland, OR and raised in Washougal, WA I was very sheltered to the world, I didn't have much direction after high school graduation and really just focused on the task at hand throughout my grade school experience. I did take a few volunteer opportunities including one at a local vet clinic where I learned the veterinarian career was not for me after passing out cold during an abscess surgery on a cat's paw. Yuck!
At 18 years old I realized that the traditional journey of high school graduation to college was not in the cards for me, I immersed myself in school, sports, yearbook and newspaper I had little direction after graduation. My extracurricular activities throughout high school taught me so much that I use on a daily basis today.
At one point during my high school career I was told the Coast Guard was one of the hardest military branches to get into, that was when I learned that I will do what it takes when someone tells me that I can't do something.
I started the process for enlistment, I never hit a hiccup and was the ideal applicant for any of the military branches, my recruiter let me select my bootcamp date and he actually ended up making that date his ship date for 12 other young adults to be sent out together. I spent my last summer couch surfing from family member to family member and living life to the fullest before joining the work force.
Summertime in the Northwest is amazing, rivers, hiking, road tripping the different climates, beach, boating, tubing, it was the perfect ending to my childhood.
September 11th, 2011, I shipped out to Cape May, NJ. "It's just eight weeks" they say, basic training is no joke, it was the worst, best, most humbling and rewarding experience of my life. Still today, 12+ years later, I contribute a lot of who I am to my bootcamp experience. It showed me that the sky is the limit and you can do anything you set your mind to. I also got to experience a lot that I never dreamt of learning about, seamanship, firefighting, team building and leadership.
Before basic training bootcamp approached they told us our new duty station, I requested a boat in the sunshine. They went down the list in alphabetical order and I heard my name "Breazeale, Pensacola...." I thought they said California! Never in my short life of living had I heard the name Pensacola, all I knew about the South East part of the country was Mardi Gras and Hurricane Katerina. Like I said, very sheltered!
I finally got a chance to use the computer to research my new home and found out Pensacola was actually in Florida! Oops! Google Images showed me the most beautiful beach I had ever seen and I literally couldn't believe it was a place that existed in our country, how could I have not known of such an amazing place!?!
Graduation came and went, I arrived in Pensacola and was in disbelief of how beautiful it was. I bought a Jeep and took it to the beach... Learned the hard way that the beaches on the gulf aren't supposed to be driven on... Another Oopsy!
Once I got passed the initial shock of a new place with beautiful beaches and dolphins I focused on my new job running search and rescue as well as law enforcement missions on the small boats. Learning how to be a Boat Crew Member and Boarding Team Member is a long and stressful process, never in a million years did I see myself putting on a uniform that included a gun and gun belt, after all I had only seen guns and never shot one prior to this position. It was a huge learning curve for me and I struggled a lot trying to learn the ropes.
During my training for law enforcement I did end up getting injured during a training evolution that included being pepper sprayed and fighting off a bag man, I heard my Training Petty Officer say "Don't go easy on her!" to my bag man/ opponent. Unfortunately he didn't, I ended up getting hit on my upper body where my shoulders rotated and my hips stayed put. This experience threw my spine out of alignment, essentially spiraling my spine to the left. Six months of treatment and my spine was set back to where it needed to be but because of this injury I experienced soft tissue damage that I still struggle with today.
At this unit and because of my injury I had spent a lot of my time around the unit and standing dispatch watch, we were a first responder unit where we worked alongside other first responders. We were very lucky that our unit had a station mascot named Gibett. She was a black lab rescued from a hurricane that hit not too far from Pensacola, she lived at the unit full time and she turned into my right hand lady.
She was amazing, we worked on all kinds of tricks and she was always a show stopper when we had tours and field trips come to the station. The most amazing part of this dog though was her ability to connect with people in some of their darkest times, being a first responder unit we saw so much tragedy.
Gibett was able to bring a little bit of sunshine to so many people, people who had just lost a loved one and who were devastated, she was able to bring them a smile. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, it inspired me.
My injury ended my military career, I knew I had always had a passion for animals and Gibett was the cherry on top. I peeked out a local Service Dog nonprofit who was what the training industry calls "positive only" and shadowed their program for two years which included me being a puppy raiser for one of those years. Boots came into my life and we got to raise each other through attending college together and living side by side. A year into his program they asked me if I wanted to keep him. I said "Absolutely!", he is still by my side today and is my right hand man.
After working several jobs that included pet sitting, nannying and a variety of other jobs while also attending school I got hired on by a franchised company who's training style was ecollar only. While I don't like to go into the specifics of my experience with them I will summarize by saying that they taught me a lot about what I didn't want to be as a dog trainer. I wanted to prioritize quality over quantity where they had that priority flipped.
After a year working for them I found out I was expecting a beautiful baby girl, I took training clients until I was six months pregnant and politely bowed out of my position. After my daughter was born we got to enjoy her first year together while I continued schooling and studying as much as I could about dog training. She turned a year old and I found a local trainer that was hiring so I took the leap back into the work force!
Six months into this position Covid hit leaving me without a job and a bit lost, one thing I did have an advantage of was that I was getting requests individually for me to come and help with peoples dogs and since I no longer had a boss I was finally in a position to be able to train the dog in front of me rather then using a cookie cutter/one size fits all training style.
I studied as many different resources I could, I started learning how to cater training programs to the individual dog and their humans. Around this time is when I met Catey at another training facility, found out she was local to Pensacola and offered ReviveK9 as a resource. Since this introduction, we have grown ReviveK9 into a resource for dog owners to come and stay.
This next phase is one of learning and transition, I am almost done with my Bachelors in Psychology, helping in running Tampa Bay Women's Professional Network, learning from as many resources as possible while staying true to my morals of quality over quantity.
We might not know what the future holds but we do know that we are onto something through ReviveK9, we want to continue assisting owners with their dogs and be the last trainers they ever need to have in their life. We are reaching for the stars and can't wait to see what is on the horizon as we build this legacy.
