About Us
Homefront Canine was started in Cortland, NY by owner Donnalyn Moran in 2016. Homefront Canine expanded through the years to offer pet, police, and other working dog training. Donnalyn Moran purchased a business in 2019, The Wagside Inn - an established boarding facility in Cuyler, NY. Then in March of 2020, she bought and renovated her own Dog Daycare and Boarding facility in Cortland — The Canine Barkyard. After the COVID Pandemic hit, Donnalyn made the decision to merge her 2 boarding facilities to have a single location at The Canine Barkyard. Homefront Canine continues to offer on site training at our Cortland, NY location and in-home private lessons in Cortland, Ithaca, Binghamton and the surrounding areas!
TRAINING STYLE - Homefront Canine uses balanced training methods with a heavy emphasis on positive reinforcement and relationship building. We believe obedience is easy to teach when there is a strong positive relationship and mutual respect between dog + handler. Homefront Canine teaches the importance of structure in the home, relationship building, and boundary setting. We give owners the ability to understand why their dog is exhibiting specific behavior, how to communicate with the dog and how to implement their training in real life scenarios. This allows our clients to continue their training beyond their time with us.
meet our trainers
Donnalyn Moran
Donnalyn started Homefront Canine in 2016, but has shown interest in dogs and dog training since she was a kid. After graduating from SUNY Cortland, she fostered dogs and took interest in training in dog behavior. Donnalyn took it upon herself to grow her knowledge of dog training by researching and implementing multiple styles of training to observe the outcomes in her own dogs. Through this Donnalyn realized not all dogs are the same and their training shouldn’t be either. Donnalyn began Homefront Canine with the intention to adjust her training to each dog she handles and continues to do so in great success.
Donnalyn became involved with the Police K9 community in 2017 after training up a police k9 prospect in 2016. This allowed her to gain more experience in being hands on with dogs of a different caliber — more intensity, confidence and drive. Donnalyn fell in love with training working dogs especially in tracking and trailing. Donnalyn wanted to provide local police departments with the education to build their dogs abilities, as well as provide affordable “green” dogs for training in scent, obedience, and bite work. Donnalyn has attended many police training seminars including ones taught by Gold Coast Canine and Jeff Schettler.
Donnalyn successful trained 4 police K9s in various fields of detection/scent work, tracking, and obedience. She has provided over 10 green dogs to multiple agencies and even has donated young dogs to veterans in need. Donnalyn continues to provide pet training in Tennessee while focusing on her working dogs. Local departments Donnalyn has assisted in training and/or providing dogs for: Cortland PD, SUNY Cortland PD, Cornell University PD, Tomkins County Sheriffs, Broome County Sheriffs, and Binghamton PD.
Cheyenne Eisenhut
Cheyenne got her start with animals at a young age. Working with cattle and her family's pets, her passion for animal behavior began to blossom. At the age of sixteen, Cheyenne received her first service dog which taught her the importance of a consistent, detail-oriented training regimen. She worked at a veterinary clinic for five years as a kennel assistant where she was then promoted to veterinary assistant. She has received her Bachelors of Animal Science from Cornell University, shadowed multiple dog trainers, and interned under a service dog trainer in California.
Through her hands on experience with dogs and learning from many trainers, Cheyenne was looking for a company that lined up with her approach to dog training. In the initial conversation with Donnalyn, she knew she found the right place. The transition to Homefront Canine has been an easy and successful one for Cheyenne. She currently provides training for clients in Ithaca and Cortland, NY. She hopes to be able to offer service dog training for Homfront Canine in the future.
Her experience as both a service dog user and a professional give her a unique perspective on the nuances of dog training. Her focus is in service dog training for those with disabilities, and is proficient in pet training, therapy dog training, and behavior modification.