Meet the Trainer

Hi there, I'm Destiny Duenas, the founder and head trainer of BK9S. I have always been an animal lover! With having involvement owning / handling different types of reptiles, fish, birds, small animals (mice, rabbits etc.) and farm animals.
My other big passion besides dogs are horses! Before becoming a dog trainer I was an equestrian. I owned a horse named Cinderella for about 5 years before having to re-home her due to my health declining and struggling with financial issues.

My dog journey begun in Aug 2019 where I was introduced to the dog world at Petco and begun the process of becoming a trainer- in training.
Almost a year later and having some training experience under my belt, I finally got my very first dog, Bambi! Unfortunately within that waiting period, I was really struggling with my mental health. I regressed heavily with my mental health which led me to getting diagnosed with a few disorders. For example one of the symptoms for one of these disorders is agoraphobia ( fear of crowds and people). Little did I know that the next three years were going to include some of the most difficult moments of my life. I struggled with going out to run a simple errand. I couldn’t drive to a destination that was no more than 10 -15 minutes away. I just wanted to stay at home alone.

If it wasn't for one of my friends, I would have never discovered Sheltie Facebook groups or service dog training. I found a wonderful breeder named Sandra who runs Highland Shelties and Aussies and did an amazing job raising and caring for Bambi before handing her off to me in May 2020.
Bambi has been my parter in crime for the last 4 years. She is the one who taught me what a dog is truly capable of and most importantly she saved me in my darkest time. She helped me thrive and gave me confidence once again to go out in public to do her service dog training.

All of my jobs / careers have been involved with animals. From my first job at Petco (2018) to Now ( 2025 ). I’ve worked for Miami Dade Animal Services ( the shelter ), a dog training facility, and Chewy!
My job at the shelter was to care for the dogs and cats. I would deep clean the kennels and room / s daily while managing enrichment, laundry, feeding, and walking the dogs.

Chewy was quite the experience! It was such a new and exciting experience to work for their Studio. I was the animal handler for the production team - meaning I was the person behind the scenes getting the animal to perform the behaviors you see on Chewy’s ads and social media content. Yes, whenever you see animals in TV or ads, there’s ALWAYS a trainer on set!

My journey with Bambi has been an amazing. We’ve discovered so much in the dog world together. Starting with earning trick titles from the AKC. We soon got involved in sports like agility, frisbee and FastCAT. We also explored the world of pet production and have also been focusing on training specific cue for production sets.

Thanks to Bambi I have discovered a burning passion for training dogs and helping not just them, but their owners thrive and feel confident.

Let's Train Together

Ready to build something better with your dog?