Houston · Veteran-owned
Two hours off-leash on a private 100-acre ranch. We pick up at your door in the morning and bring them home by early afternoon — satisfied, worn out, and easier to live with.
Every dog starts the hike on leash and stays on it until I'm satisfied they're ready — my call, not a schedule's. Every dog wears a GPS collar. The land is private: no roads, no public trails, no dogs we didn't bring.
Most aren't on day one. Recall is the thing we work on, live, every single hike. Plenty of dogs come to us with recall I wouldn't trust and leave with recall their owner didn't think was possible.
So are most of our clients. Pickup is in the morning, drop-off runs 12:30 to 2 PM, and a key or a door code is all we need. You don't have to be home for either end of it.
How it works
We come to your home and meet your dog. It covers every dog in your household, not per dog. If your dog isn't a fit for the pack, we tell you straight and point you somewhere better.
Leash on, into the van, out to the ranch. Van interiors are sanitized routinely and every dog is accounted for by name.
Drop-offs run between 12:30 and 2 PM. Your dog is let back in, tired, and you find out how the morning went from our Instagram instead of a note on the counter.
Off-leash, done right
"Off-leash" is the part that makes people nervous, and it should be. I spent a career working dogs where the margin for error was a lot thinner than a muddy trail. Here's how we handle it.
Doesn't matter what your dog already knows or who trained them. They hike on leash until I'm satisfied they're ready to come off it — and that's my judgment call, not a schedule.
Every dog on the hike wears a GPS collar. On 100 acres, I don't want to be counting heads and hoping — I want to know exactly where each dog is, the whole time.
Frequent water and rest breaks the whole way through. This is Texas, and a hike is supposed to satisfy a dog, not wreck one. They come home tired, not cooked.
Straight talk
Who's got your dog
I'm Nic Lemon — US Marine Corps veteran and a military working dog handler and trainer. LemonAid K9 started with me running dogs out of a Hyundai Elantra, back when it was my family's only car. It's now a fleet of vans and hundreds of Houstonians.
Clients tell me flat out they picked us because of the veteran thing. What they mean is: someone who takes accountability for the dog in front of him. That hasn't changed since the Elantra.
“My senior girls LOVE everyone at LemonAid K9. They are so excited when the van pulls up.”Jeannie Grove · Houston
Pricing
One rate, everything included. Most families run one to three hikes a week once they see what it does to their evenings.
Boarding and board-and-train are separate services — ask me on the call if you want those too.
Everything we do
Most families start with hikes and add the rest later. If you want boarding or training too, check the box on the form and we'll cover it on the call.
Two hours off-leash on 100 private acres in Chappell Hill, door to door, with obedience worked the whole time.
Short and long stays at the ranch — yard time, socialization, pools in the summer. Boarding dogs can join the hikes if they've passed a temperament test.
Four to six weeks living and training with us — recall, place, heel, loose-leash walking and greeting manners, with hikes throughout and follow-up sessions after.
Get started
Fill this out and I'll get back to you personally to confirm you're in our pickup zone and get your temperament test scheduled. Takes about 40 seconds.
Where we pick up
Not on the list? Still send it in — we're expanding across Houston, and boarding and training are available across the greater Houston area.
I'll reach out personally to confirm your pickup zone and get your temperament test on the calendar. If it's urgent, call or text 713-853-9445.
Questions
Every dog passes a temperament test first, every dog starts the hike on leash and stays on it until I say otherwise, and every dog wears a GPS collar. The land is private — no roads, no public trails, no strangers' dogs. I've been handling working dogs since 2009 and I don't put a dog in a group it isn't ready for.
That's normal, and it's part of what we work on. Recall gets practiced live on every hike. Plenty of dogs come to us with recall we wouldn't trust and leave with recall the owner didn't think was possible.
No, it's not a requirement. It's better when someone's there to hand your dog off and take them back, and we'd rather have that when it works for you. But drop-offs run between 12:30 and 2 PM, which is the middle of a workday for most of our clients — so as long as we have a key, a door code, or a lockbox, we get your dog out and back inside without you there.
On 100 acres of private ranch land in Chappell Hill, Texas, just northwest of Houston. It's private property — no public trails, no roads, no dogs we didn't bring.
No — and please don't rule yourself out before we've talked. "Bite history" is a label that covers a huge range. A dog that guards its food bowl is a completely different animal from a dog that's reactive to other dogs, and a nip years ago is different from either. Food guarding, as an example, isn't a factor on a hike, because there's no food involved in the program at all. Call me and tell me what actually happened and I'll tell you straight whether it's workable.
That one's different, and I won't pretend otherwise. Dog-on-dog aggression takes a real amount of training to correct before a dog is safe in a group, and a hike is not where that work happens. So it starts with training rather than hiking — and that's work we do.
It is not a dead end, though. We've taken in a good number of dogs that arrived dog-aggressive or carrying a bite history, put the training in, and those same dogs hike with the pack regularly now. It takes time and it takes the owner doing their part. But "my dog can't do this" and "my dog can't do this yet" are two different sentences, and most of the time it's the second one.
Yes, both — and I'd rather tell you now than after you've paid for a temperament test. Strong breeds aren't the problem: shepherds, mals, pits, rotties and big mixes are what I've handled my whole career. Sheer size can be. If a dog is heavy enough that I couldn't physically get them out on my own in an emergency, they're too big for the pack, and I have turned dogs down for exactly that. Very small dogs can be a risk in the other direction, moving in a group of much larger dogs. Most dogs land somewhere in between and are fine — the temperament test is where we find out for sure.
Dogs need to be current on their vaccinations. We'll walk you through exactly what we require before your first hike — just ask. Vans and gear are sanitized routinely and bowls are cleaned after every feeding.
Yes. Boarding and board-and-train are available across the greater Houston area, not just the hiking zone, and boarding dogs can join the hikes once they've passed a temperament test. Tick the box on the form and we'll cover it on the call.