ABOUT OUR TRAINERS
Meet The OLK9 Team!
Evan Carson
Evan Carson is the president and owner of Off Leash K9 Training locations serving the Lehigh Valley, Scranton, Bucks County, Salt Lake City, and Northern Utah. Before he owned a training business, he was an Off Leash K9 client looking for help with his own dog.
Evan had always loved dogs and enjoyed training them, but his Dogo Argentino, Capone, presented a challenge he couldn’t solve on his own: serious reactivity toward other dogs. In 2011, Evan began private lessons with Off Leash K9 Training and Nick White. Seeing what Capone could achieve changed the direction of Evan’s life. He continued through basic and advanced training with Capone, then began training his Springer Spaniel, Penny Lane.
That experience gave Evan a new career goal. After years of working toward it, he opened the Lehigh Valley location in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in May 2017. He expanded into the Scranton area later that year and took over the Salt Lake City and Northern Utah locations in 2018. Today, he leads a team of trainers across Pennsylvania and Utah while continuing to work with dogs himself.
Evan’s approach has grown well beyond the obedience work that first drew him into training. He believes dogs need clear communication, boundaries, and the freedom to make good decisions. Play is a central part of his work: it builds engagement, confidence, and a stronger relationship between dog and owner. When a dog struggles with reactivity or aggression, Evan focuses on changing how the dog responds to the world around them, so progress carries over into everyday life.
Outside of work, Evan enjoys time with his two daughters and his dogs, Arya, a German Shepherd, and Seven, a Belgian Malinois. He also enjoys hiking, defensive training, and continuing his education through dog training seminars.
Karsyn GARRETT - Trainer
Karsyn Garrett is a trainer with Off Leash K9 Training in Utah. She grew up caring for all kinds of animals, including llamas, goats, and horses, but dogs were always her favorite.
Karsyn began her career in the medical field. Outside of work, she enjoyed training her own dogs and caring for dogs belonging to friends, family, and coworkers. What started as a hobby became her passion after she helped her roommate work with Beau, a two-year-old pit bull who had been mistreated in his previous home. Beau struggled with severe separation anxiety and fear-based aggression. Progress took time, but watching his confidence grow and his relationship with his owner improve showed Karsyn how meaningful dog training could be.
That experience inspired Karsyn to adopt Blue from a shelter in August 2021. She has a special place in her heart for rescue dogs and hopes her work helps more dogs remain in loving homes. Karsyn believes training begins with trust and a strong relationship between dog and owner. She aims to give both a supportive place to learn, grow, and work through challenges together.
Karsyn lives in the Ogden area with her husband, Levi, and their three dogs: Missy, a Border Collie/Lab mix; Blue, a Border Collie/Keeshond mix; and Jax, a Heeler/Aussie mix. Outside of training, she enjoys playing piano, cooking, hiking, camping, and paddleboarding with her dogs.
Ashley jordan - Trainer
Ashley Jordan is a trainer with Off Leash K9 Training in Utah. Her love of animals began at age five, when she started working with her family’s rescued Border Collie. For years, Ashley planned to pursue veterinary medicine. As she learned more about working with dogs, she realized she wanted to take a more active role in helping them and their owners make lasting changes. That led her to animal behavior and dog training.
Ashley enjoys learning how each dog thinks and what motivates them. She finds it especially rewarding to use that understanding to build a bond with each dog she trains, then help owners build a stronger bond with their dogs, too. She believes that taking the time to understand the dog in front of you makes training clearer and more meaningful for everyone involved.
Outside of work, Ashley loves spending time in nature, especially when a dog can join her. She also enjoys biking, longboarding, dancing, and relaxing with a puzzle.
LEVI GARRETT - Trainer
I’ve been a dog lover my whole life. Growing up in a military household, my dad always told us that we couldn’t have any pets. However, when he retired, we finally welcomed a Shih Tzu and Lhasa Apso mix into our home. I took it upon myself to train her, and it was a rewarding experience.
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Evan is the owner of the OLK9 Lehigh Valley, Salt Lake City, and Northern Utah locations. He is also a trainer with Off Leash K9. Evan started as a client in 2010 with his Dogo Argentino, Capone. He has always had a profound love of dogs, and has never lived without them. He loved training and working with his own dogs, and had no problem doing so until Capone.
Capone had some pretty serious reactivity issues with other dogs, which led Evan to find Off Leash K9 Training and Nick White in 2011. Three weeks into private lessons Capone was off leash, healing him in complete control around and past other dogs. From there he completed the basic program and then started advanced training with Capone and then started with his Springer Spaniel, Penny Lane. He was hooked! The rest is history, as they say.
OLK9 literally “changed his life”. From that point on, Evan knew he wanted to work with dogs as a career. Over the next six years Evan worked tirelessly to achieve that goal and in May of 2017 his dream became a reality when he opened the Lehigh Valley OLK9 location in Allentown Pennsylvania. The Lehigh Valley location quickly expanded from one trainer to three by the end of their first year and in September he opened the Scranton location in PA. Since then Evan has grown the Lehigh Valley location as one of the most well-known, highest rated and most reviewed dog training companies in the state. Earlier last year, Evan opened up a new facility for his Scranton location in Peckville/Blakley Borough. His PA locations now employs six full time trainers, is still growing, and is currently hiring.
Evan took over the Salt Lake City and Northern Utah OLK9 locations in August of 2018. Later that year he opened the first OLK9 facility in Northern Utah in North Salt Lake and has plans to grow those locations as he has done in PA. Utah OLK9 currently employs two full time trainers.
During his downtime, Evan enjoys spending time with his family, including his wife and two daughters, and his two dogs, a 2-year-old German Shepherd, Arya, and Lucy, a Bulldog/Rat Terrier/ Staffordshire Terrier mix. He also enjoys being outdoors, hiking, personal defense training, dog training seminars, and working with Arya and Lucy to fine tune their obedience.