Keeper & Kin
The team
Two People. One Mission. Very Different Skill Sets.
Chelsey Marino
Co-Founder & Behavior Specialist
Chelsey is a Canine Behavior Specialist and the founder of Command Canine, one of the Southeast's leading behavior-focused dog training companies. Her expertise in fear, anxiety, and trauma-related behavioral challenges has made her one of the most respected voices in the field, and her work with former research dogs has earned recognition from veterinarians, rescue organizations, and industry professionals across North America.
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Chelsey has worked hands-on with hundreds of former research beagles, from their earliest days out of laboratory settings through long-term rehabilitation in adoptive homes. Her lectures on rehabilitating fearful and traumatized dogs are shaping the future of behavioral work in the industry.
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At Keeper & Kin, Chelsey leads the behavioral methodology, develops educational content and courses, and provides direct coaching to adopters, fosters, and rescue organizations. She is the reason the work exists.
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When she's not working with dogs, Chelsey can be found taking on DIY projects around the house, most of which turn out... fine.
She also loves cooking competition shows, offering plenty of critique despite having absolutely no ability to cook.
Tony Marino
Co-Founder & President
Tony spent 12 years in the medical industry, specializing in spine surgery operations. During that time, he and his team identified critical inefficiencies in hospital systems and built multiple companies that helped hospitals across the U.S. improve operating room performance. His approach was always the same: find the gap, challenge the way things have always been done, and build something better.
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When Tony met Chelsey, he recognized that the dog training industry had the same structural problems he'd spent his career solving; talented people doing important work without the systems, processes, and infrastructure to scale it effectively. He helped build Command Canine into one of the top behavior-focused companies in the region.
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At Keeper & Kin, Tony leads operations, business development, and organizational partnerships. He builds the systems that allow Chelsey's expertise to reach the people who need it, whether that's a single adopter in rural Canada or a rescue organization placing 200 dogs a year.
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Outside of work, Tony is a licensed pilot who enjoys flying around Charlotte and traveling to visit family and friends whenever possible.
A Problem Nobody Had Solved
How we got here
Before Keeper & Kin, we built Command Canine, one of the Southeast's leading behavior-focused dog training companies. We specialized in the cases other trainers wouldn't take: fear, anxiety, aggression, trauma, and severe behavioral challenges. That was the work we were known for, and it was the work we were good at.
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Then a local rescue organization asked us to help with an adopter who had two former research beagles. The dogs had been through multiple trainers. They’d already tried medication, and their first trainer told them to just keep the dogs separated… forever. That was the “solution.” The adopters were out of options and close to giving up.
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We took the case and it changed everything.
Shortly, things started to shift and the adopters saw remarkable progress.
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Then the calls started coming. More adopters, more research beagles, more rescues asking if we could help their adopters understand what they were dealing with. Before long, we were connected directly with the sanctuaries receiving these dogs from laboratories across the country.
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That’s when I realized there was a missing link. What we found was a community of deeply committed people, adopters, fosters, rescue teams, doing incredibly hard work with almost no specialized support. No one was guiding people through the hard parts: dealing with a PTSD episode or figuring out how to connect with a dog who won’t eat, won’t play, and won’t come anywhere near you.
Without the right support, dogs are at risk for rehoming, isolation, and euthanasia...
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So we built Keeper & Kin.
Ernie & Emma: Released from Envigo
Where we are now
Hands-On. Behavior-Led.
The New Standard.
Today, years later, we serve as the official behavioral rehabilitation partner for the largest former research dog rescues in North America.
We've worked with more former research beagles than anyone else on the continent.
Every piece of what we offer, the coaching, the courses, the community, the organizational support, was built from hands-on experience at every stage of this journey.
Why us
We didn't study this from a distance. We've been in it from the beginning.
Keeper & Kin's experience spans every stage of the former research dog pipeline, from the moment dogs leave laboratory settings through sanctuary care, rescue intake, foster placement, adoption, and long-term rehabilitation.
That full-picture understanding is what makes the work effective. We don't just know what these dogs look like in a home six months in. We know what they looked like the day they walked on grass for the first time. We know what decompression looks like when it's done well and when it's done wrong. We know which early decisions shape outcomes months later.
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That kind of knowledge doesn't come from research or theory. It comes from being there.
More hands-on experience than
anyone in North America
We have worked with more former research beagles than any other training or rehabilitation organization on the continent.
Official partners of the largest rescues
We serve as the behavioral rehabilitation partner for the largest former research dog organizations in the U.S. and Canada.
