Chris kept mushing part-time but went back to college full-time, eventually graduating with a degree in journalism and media arts. He fell in with a production company and, before long, found himself deep in the world of reality TV — shows like Mountain Men and all the chaos that comes with them. He loved the stories, the travel, the unpredictability. But while he was off chasing wild storylines for the camera, dog training quietly shifted from hobby to side hustle to the thing he actually wanted to do for a living.

So he and his wife went all in. They moved into an off-grid yurt — no running water, no driveway, just a lot of mud, pine trees, and a hell of a view. Part adventure, part necessity: living cheap was the only way to walk away from TV and build something real with dogs. That yurt was home base for over two years while he got Run Your Pack off the ground. It started small, but before long he was traveling to teach seminars, building a working dog club in Missoula, and signing up for PSA competitions.

He founded Montana's first PSA club — now Dirty Bandana Working Dogs, which he co-owns with Tommy Meredith — competing with his Dutch Shepherd Oaken, earning multiple High Protection awards and a PSA Level 2 title. Oaken has since retired from competition and now focuses on wounded game tracking, detection work, and still assists with bite work and protection demonstrations at high schools and for law enforcement. Today Dirty Bandana hosts PSA competitions, training weekends, and seminars covering obedience, bite work, tracking, and more — and Chris remains actively involved as co-owner and instructor.

He produced the NePoPo® online Silver School and has taught NePoPo® Gold Schools across the country. He teaches K9 handling seminars to canine teams around the country and deploys his own tracking dog for military evasion training.

Eventually, the family moved back onto the grid. The yurt became his backyard training and studio space. These days, Work Your Pack is the main gig. Most days you'll find him traveling, filming, or editing — sometimes in front of the camera, often featuring trainers and experts he's had the pleasure of meeting and learning from along the way.

As for the current crew:

• Liesel Weapon — German Shepherd, tracking/trailing and nosework specialist, occasional movie star (she's met Ed Harris, Robert Duvall, and Garrett Hedlund).
• Oaken — Dutch Shepherd, bite work and demo dog. Liesel and Oaken are usually the duo rocking aviators together in the Work Your Pack banners.
• Boston — Blue heeler rookie, already stealing scenes in tracking and soon to star in the Paddleboard with Your Dog course.

All three will be featured in the upcoming Scent Detection course — stay tuned.

If he's not filming, training, or brushing dog hair off his clothes, he's probably with his wife quietly wondering how their three young kids somehow ended up in charge of everything. He does manage to escape to play hockey a couple times a week — his one non-dog thing.

As of writing this, there are over 4,500 students from all around the world enrolled in Work Your Pack — and that number keeps growing. He's going to keep making courses and expanding the catalog, with the goal of educating, entertaining, and inspiring you to get out there and actually have fun working with your dog.

These are the courses he wished he'd had when he was first learning, and he hopes they make a real impact for anyone willing to put in the work and apply what's inside.