Inspiring Conversations with Ben Landkammer of Calibrated K9

Ben, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I had been in Tennessee about a year when my best friend ended up in north Florida at Top Tier K9’s School for Dog Trainers. He was there for a 4-day SERE/Search and Rescue with Your K9 seminar, then to earn his working dog certification over the following 2 weeks. Having heard all about the school and people for the year prior, I went down to hang out and see what it was all about. I was instantly sucked in, and over that long weekend found an unknown to that point passion for training on both the pet and working dog side of things.

At that point, I was 9 months into a corporate gig that was…less than desirable. After getting back from the seminar, I signed up for the first live online class and put myself through a year and a half of schooling and weekend seminars, while working full time. A chance to grow a passion while working on a way out of an untenable career situation? I threw myself at it.

Having completed my master’s a year before moving to Knoxville, I applied that level of thinking and analysis to what I was learning. A bonus was that Top Tier, in addition to teaching modern, effective training methodology and philosophy, also focuses on business development. Even better was that many of the business concepts taught were things that I had never touched on while earning my MBA, so that kept it engaging on a whole separate level.

The curricula start with the basics of pet training, then if desired working K9 disciplines can be studied. The final class in the working K9 block was hands on-get a pup and train it in as many working dog areas as desired and fitting to the breed. This is when I ended up with Kato, my all-black German Shepherd. We hit the ground running at 8 weeks old, working through thousands of reps of basic and advanced obedience, bite work, scent detection and tracking.

I woke up, trained, went to work, came home at lunch for a quick potty break-for Kato, went back to the office to eat lunch at my desk, finished the workday, and went home to train. One day in the midst of all this, I went to Crafter’s Brew in Oak Ridge with Kato, and a gentleman asked if he could meet him. Think tall, burly, movie star good looking, tattooed biker dude. We end up talking for a few hours after he finds out that Kato was learning all this-and it turns out that he is on a search and rescue team that is looking for a K9 unit.

After a couple of discussions, Kato and I started showing up to the Tuesday night workouts in October of 2017, in Maryville. I completed paperwork, trainings and the physical fitness requirements, earning my K9 Specialist designation summer of ’18, and added my Ground Pounder designation the following January. Kato and I started going on every mission we could…So through him one passion led to another. The privilege of being able to operate on BUSAR (Backcountry Unit Search and Rescue) (teambusar.org) feeds my need for time in the mountains (I grew up in western Montana, doing ALL the outdoor recreation), and also a long unfulfilled desire to give back to the community in a way that truly impacts people’s lives. And we get to do it in the most visited national park in the country, with a bunch of rad teammates. I tell people often that it is the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever been part of…

All while starting the business. I left my corporate job in August of 2018 after booking enough work to survive 2 months, and have barely had time off since. Growing this business has been equally as fulfilling as my time on BUSAR, and I am grateful every day for the people who trust me with their dogs and training needs, many of whom I now get to call friends.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Early on struggles were learning website development, social media marketing and how to manage multiple lessons a day, drive time and client work schedules in order to schedule and teach take-home lessons. And burnout from working long weeks from home. It’s all worth it, but the hours can be long.

We’ve been impressed with Calibrated K9, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Calibrated K9 covers dog training needs from on-leash obedience and off-leash obedience, behavior modification, protection work, tracking, scent detection and service dog training. All of this is offered through Board and Train programs, with a heavy emphasis on the education of the owner in end-of-week take-home lessons.

Boarding and private lessons are available to prior Board and Train clients/dogs. I love protection and tracking work, and in conjunction with a recent move to a property where I can host lessons and classes, will be offering protection and tracking club to those owners and dogs who are interested and meet a certain level of obedience and sociability.

The idea is to develop a tight-knit community of folks who come together regularly to work their dogs and progress the skills and understanding of these (and potentially other) disciplines, and have a lot of fun doing it!

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Persistent (and occasionally marginally intelligent) work ethic, a TON of outside support, a little luck and amazing clients who spread the good word.