Jake started his animal career at the age of 11 volunteering at a wildlife refuge in Oklahoma where he worked with all manor of wildlife.

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At 21 Jake trained a bloodhound, Porter, in search and rescue. He and Porter traveled from Kansas to Indiana to become an officially certified team. They returned to Kansas and, after helping with rescue efforts in the wake of the Joplin, MO tornado, started working for a local sheriff department performing searches for missing people.

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Jake returned to Indiana to become a master trainer under John Holcomb where he sharpened his skills in training for obedience, personal protection and scent detection.

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After his internship with John and VonBernd he became a contractor in Iraq training and managing a large bomb dog detection operation.

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After managing a large cattle operation back in Kansas; Jake, accompanied by Shelby, returned to Indiana to start the first commercial site of VonBernd K9 Training Center in Crawfordsville with John in 2016.

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In 2017 John added an additional location in Terre Haute. At the end of 2019 Jake and Shelby moved the Crawfordsville location to Brownsburg. And in 2026 they finished construction on their brand new location on their home property in Putnam County.

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In the little free time he has, Jake enjoys spending time with his wife and 2 little girls going on adventures and enjoying their small farm. He loves hunting, fishing, and anything that involves animals.

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His biggest passion is helping people. Whether that is through bringing peace to their household by teaching their dogs obedience, placing a service dog with a hero that is suffering with PTSD, or adding peace of mind to a home with a personal protection dog.

Shelby has always had a love and passion for animals. She grew up with a therapy dog, Tug, in the house that went to school with her mom. She found the training that Tug went through fascinating and the impact that he had on students and teachers incredible.

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Shelby received her Bachelors in Animal Science from Kansas State University in 2013 and met Jake soon after while working on a vet crew at a feed lot in Kansas. She moved to Indiana with Jake in 2016 to help with VonBernd!

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Shelby has worked for many veterinarians in Kansas and Indiana helping with both large and small animals. She runs her own small business breeding cattle through artificial insemination. She also loves capturing a pets personality through photography and has been blessed to be able to grow her creativity and offer pet photography services though VonBernd.

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In 2019 Shelby turned her focus to helping manage VonBernd and becoming a mother. She manages the office, runs social media accounts, and much more behind the scenes and is usually who you talk to if you email us or get a text reminder of your appointment.

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Shelby loves watching movies with her family, cuddling her pets, being out and nature, scrapbooking and being creative.

Thanos is a purebred Cane Corso. He is blue (what they call grey in the dog world) and absolutely beautiful!

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He is a certified personal protection dog, has fathered many cane corso puppies, and brings a lot of comfort and cuddles to his family.

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If you come in for training and need some doggy distractions, Thanos is probably who you will see!

Brandy is the brat of the Skillett family. Her favorite thing to do is eat. She loves any and all kinds of food and will happily perform tricks for said food.

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While she weighs 50 pounds, she believes that she is a small dog and expects to be cuddled as such.