Founder and Board Members

Alexandra has spent her life surrounded by dogs since a young child. Growing up her father bred and raised 20 to 25 dogs at a time for hunting. Alexandra spent many years learning how to train dogs to track and hunt animal for food for their family. She also spent time with the local Sheriff Office K9 team, laying tracks for the blood hounds for training. 

  At the age of 17 Alexandra enlisted in the United States Army as a 31K; Military Working Dog Handler. After basic training, she was sent to Lackland AFB to attend Military Working Dog School where she graduated top of her class receiving the Top Dog Award from the school. The next four years working and training numerous MWDs in detection of explosives and narcotics, extensive obedience training and obstacle courses as well as patrol bite work. 

  Throughout her time as a handler she was selected to go on 9 different secret service dogs with her bomb dogs MWD Charley & MWD Oki including missions for Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense , Joint Chief of Staff, she also assigned to both the Democratic & Republican National Conventions of 2016. During this time, she conducted thousands of explosive sweeps to provide security to the military installation and fellow soldiers. She also attended an advance k9 decoy course. In 2017 Alexandra was honorable discharge from the Army and continued her career in the dog world in the private sector.

  She worked for Service Dog Express a service dog company that trained service dogs for a large range of disabilities, AMK9 where she trained police K9 dogs for law enforcement agencies & other federal agencies.

In 2018 Alexandra began her own dog training company called Command K9 Behavior which is the sister company to Command K9 Service Dogs. She also became an explosive detection dog handler for Garrison & Sloan working on the Disney Cruise Line in Port Canaveral, FL, ensuring the cruise ship, guest, staff,  luggage and port were free and clear of explosives. 

In 2019 she became the head trainer for another nonprofit training service dogs for disabled veterans. 

  During this time Alexandra attended Jo Thor Dog Trainers Academy and after a couple years obtained her Master Dog Trainers Certificate.

Alexandra is a 100% disabled veteran herself but had such a love for the dog that she wanted to begin an organization that would help fellow veterans like herself get through the daily struggles brought on by service-connected disabilities. She has her own service dog named Trump, who helps her with mobility, PTSD, Panic Attacks & depression. He has been her service dog for almost 3 years and has made a remarkable impact on her daily life. Throughout her own experience in the military causing physical and physiological disabilities, she has learned the true impact a properly trained service dog can provide to someone’s daily life. Alexandra wants to share her knowledge and training with other veterans to provide the best quality of life possible to those who have gave everything to out country

Gem comes from a family of military serve members. Her father was a Chief Warrant Office and served in Korea and Viet Nam.  She married a Chief Warrant Officer and has been married to him for 50 years. She has two children, one of which served in the U.S. Air Force. Gem spent 30 years working for the Department of the Army as a civilian in many different capacities. She started her career in Hohenfels Germany as a morale welfare and recreation clerk and worked her way up through the ranks as a support technician, logistician, technology management and support, a human resource specialist. She served in the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army (OAA) and was assigned to the Pentagon in 1999. She was promoted to Director of the Strategic Planning office and was serving in that position in the Pentagon during 9/11 where her organization was severely impacted by the events of that day. During the months that followed, Gem worked as a logistician coordinating donations made to the Department of the Army from private companies and individuals helping to get the Army back into operational order. Her follow-on assignment was as the Director of the Resource Operations Center for the OAA. She was responsible for the execution of over $200M in support of Army Programs each year. In her final assignment Gem served as the Chief of Staff for Army Headquarters Services (AHS). She was responsible for managing over 700 personnel in 15 support Directorates for Army personnel and organizations located in the Pentagon.  During her career she was awarded numerous awards to include numerous Commander’s Service Awards, the Superior Civilian Service Award, and the Meritorious Service Award to name a few.  She retired from federal service in 2013.