About Katerina Rekowski

“Great dog trainers have broad skills, not inflexible ideologies.” – Ralf Weber

Katerina Rekowski is the owner at Guardian Dog, a small kennel www.guardiandog.net located in Macomb County, Michigan. She specializes in breeding an aboriginal breed of working dogs known as Central Asian Shepherds, with a focus on maintaining the utmost quality and upholding the highest standards. She is also the owner of Certified Dog Trainer of Michigan, LLC.  Katerina's love and devotion to this breed inspired her to write a book about the breed, Central Asian Shepherd.

Central Asian Shepherds are serious dogs that have evolved incredible working qualities over four millennia to aid in guarding property: livestock, a home, or a family. Katerina is extremely committed and dedicated to this unique breed of dog. In 2002, she graduated from the Rostov State University of  Economics with a Master’s Degree in Economics, then graduated from Animal Behavior College in 2010 as a Certified Dog Trainer.

 "Be firm in all you do. Be gentle in how you do it." - Chad Mackin

First and foremost, Katerina is a professional dog trainer with over twenty years of experience working with various breeds, specializing in aggression management and obedience. She began with training her own dogs and now has decades of proven results with her clients. Her background in breeding and training intractable guard dogs influences her work as a professional trainer. Her ability to understand the mindset of guardian breeds allows her to be willing and able to understand the psychology of any breed. Upon first meeting a dog and his owner, Katerina is able to assess the underlying issues or bad habits.  She will then use her knowledge and wealth of experience to create a custom training plan with the owner’s input, and put the plan into motion.
The foundation of her personalized approach is both positive reinforcement of good behaviors and correction of inappropriate ones. Katerina’s unique approach included a system that she has developed through years of research and personal experience; she believes in training both the dog and their owner, focusing on fixing misbehavior without intimidation. This training ideology results in a dog who enjoy the training process instead of resisting it. Her ability to train both dog and owner is a lifelong achievement; she is proud to inspire lifelong bonds between the two. Her number one priority is to ensure that all her clients feel comfortable with the training results and can live in harmony with their loyal friend.