About Us
K9 Fitness Solutions is all about helping you to help your dog progress in fitness so you can have the confidence to know you are doing everything possible to keep your dog safe while enjoying the sport you both love. We have been doing this since 2015.
Sonnet Jarvis, DVM, CCRT
Sonnet Jarvis, DVM, CCRT (Certified Canine Rehabilitation Therapist) practiced small animal medicine in the Valley of the Sun for over 14 years before pursuing her dream of opening her own physical rehabilitation and conditioning clinic. She is the founder and medical director of Arizona Veterinary Physical Rehabilitation, a clinic in Phoenix focused exclusively on pain management, injury recovery, return to lifestyle, and return to sport programs and fitness for dogs.
It is Dr. Sonnet's rehabilitative background that drives her to educate others on the importance of injury prevention through proper fitness and conditioning. She has been certified as a personal trainer for people through the National Academy of Sports Medicine since 2013, with specializations in corrective exercise and youth exercise. She became a K9 Fit Club Trainer in 2014 and a Certified Canine Fitness Trainer in 2016. As a FitPAWS Master Trainer Instructor she helped develop the live lab portion of the CCFT program through the University of Tennessee, and taught it for several years.
She combines her knowledge of human fitness and exercise with her canine rehabilitation skills and veterinary medical expertise. Trained to evaluate your dog's whole body for weakness, imbalance and dysfunction, Dr. Sonnet combines all elements of fitness to maximize your dog's physical potential in one comprehensive fitness program.
Dr. Sonnet is a member of the American Association of Rehabilitation Veterinarians and the International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management. Dr. Sonnet has been featured on NBC's EVB Live show, NBC's Morning Show, and ABC's The List for her expertise in canine fitness and exercise, and on The Animal Rescuers for her rehabilitative work with rescue groups.
I first met Michelle when she brought her agility dog Zar to see me. Zar had seen several doctors already but Michelle was seeking another opinion. During the exam, Zar clearly indicated to me that he had a pain in his left stifle, not his right. This ended up being a partial tear in his cruciate ligament. He underwent surgery and returned to me to begin his rehab with the hopes of getting back to his sport. Michelle was truly committed to Zar and his comeback in agility. She was committed enough to drive 3 hours one way to see me. Out of this desire and commitment was born our friendship.
After that, she brought several of her other dogs to see me for evaluations. She wanted me to find their weaknesses and teach her how to improve them. She, like most of us, wanted to avoid future injuries. From this, we joined forces with a mission. Our mission is to bring safe, but effective, canine fitness to all canine athletes like yours, with the hopes of helping you avoid what Michelle and Zar went through.
Dr. Sonnet
Michelle Fromm, CCFT
Michelle Fromm, CCFT is a dog trainer and K9 sports competitor in many different venues. She trained her first dog in obedience in the early 90's. She got his CD (a bullmastiff) but then had trouble in open when he was not able to do the broad jump without hurting his neck. While at an obedience trial however, she saw an agility demonstration and was immediately fascinated with the sport. She decided to train her 7 year old German Shepherd in agility and their first competition had her hooked on this new dog sport.
Dog training and learning more about dog behavior have become her passions. She has trained and competed in many dog sports to include herding, agility, obedience, rally, conformation, barn hunt, schutzhund, and flyball. She has put more than a hundred titles on her dogs to include high in trials in obedience and herding, and advanced titles in many venues.
She is a former judge for agility and rally, and has taught agility and obedience since the late 1990s through her own business and for local clubs. She has also assisted her students in obtaining many titles and has been particularly successful with jump training and retraining performance problems.
With her involvement in K9 sports, and in the process of dealing with injuries in her own and in her students' dogs, she has become an advocate and student of K9 Fitness.
Michelle's other passion is her breeding program dedicated to performance oriented Swedish Vallhunds. She travels to Sweden frequently to increase her knowledge and background in the breed. Through this passion has come an increased study of canine structure and the correct temperament for a good working dog.
Over decades of competing in agility and other dog sports, my dogs have had a fair share of both minor and major injuries, which sidelined us from our sport. In 2005, my prime agility dog suffered a minor cruciate tear. Despite surgery and rehab, she was never the same.
Then, when my second agility dog also suffered a minor cruciate tear and doctors had difficulty diagnosing it, I went looking for someone with a different approach. Through a mutual friend, I found Dr Sonnet Jarvis. She was able to diagnose the cruciate tear that others had missed. After his surgery, Zar and I started rehab with her — I was determined that Zar would make a full recovery, and return to agility, as close to 100% as possible.
I am thrilled to say that Dr Sonnet helped me achieve just that. Zar returned to agility and kept competing into his teens, and he lived to almost sixteen. He was never lame again after the rehab work. He never stopped trying to "cheat" on that leg, which is exactly why the ongoing fitness work mattered — it is what kept him sound for the rest of his life.
After such a successful rehab, I started taking my other dogs to Dr Sonnet to look for weaknesses. She helped me with fitness programs for each of them, with the goal of preventing injury. While my breed has certain things that can be common, they each had different weaknesses. She taught me what I needed to know to address each weakness.
With Sonnet's encouragement and mentoring, I became a Certified Canine Fitness Trainer and I am a firm believer in the importance of canine fitness. I now have developed a good eye for picking up weakness before it becomes injury.
Michelle
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