Cave Creek, 1997: The Partners Dogs Story

Every founding story needs a date and a piece of ground, and this one has both: 1997, a stretch of desert north of Lone Mountain, and one man who thought an old racehorse ranch could become something else. Almost three decades later, that same ground is still where the school starts every new dog.

How It Started in Cave Creek

Every Partners dog training history has the same first chapter, and it happens on one piece of desert ground north of Lone Mountain. In 1997, Leighton Oosthuisen bought an old racehorse training facility in Cave Creek called Lone Tree Ranch, and Partners Dog Training School was born. The iconic Lone Tree still stands on the main training field today, the same ground where the school's methodology was built and proven.

That property, now at 4640 E Forest Pleasant Pl, still sits where it always has, one block north of Lone Mountain off Cave Creek Road. It is the campus Partners calls its founding location, and it is where the man who started the school still lives.

From South Africa to a K9 Handler

Leighton did not arrive in Cave Creek as a first-time dog owner testing an idea. He started training dogs at age 10 in South Africa, a childhood interest that turned into a career. By his early twenties he had risen from apprentice to head trainer at a professional school while working as a K9 handler on bomb, drug, and Search and Rescue dogs. He competed at the highest levels of French Ring, Schutzhund, Agility, and Dock Diving along the way.

In 1992 he emigrated to the United States, bringing that decade of behavior work and competitive sport experience with him. Five years passed between that move and the purchase of the Cave Creek property, years that put a trained eye behind the decision to buy an old racehorse ranch and turn it into a dog school.

Lone Tree Ranch Becomes a Training School

Turning a horse property into a dog school took real construction work. Lone Tree Ranch needed large indoor training areas, zoned air conditioning for the Arizona heat, and a 15,000 square foot outdoor training field before it could function as a school built for dogs. From day one, the stated mission was to train the dog and the owner together, not just the dog alone.

The programs grew from there in stages that are still visible in what the campus offers today. A full-scale DaySchool program opened with 12,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor play and 10-to-1 dog-to-staff ratios, and it quickly became the campus's most popular offering. Boarding was later rebuilt around luxury suites, tiled floors, and a higher cleaning standard than what came before. Every one of those additions still runs at the Cave Creek campus today: board-and-train camps, grooming, group classes, and rattlesnake avoidance, all under one roof.

Growth to Two Campuses

For years Cave Creek was the entire school. That changed when a second campus opened in Scottsdale, a 23,000 square foot resort and training school, and the team grew past 50 trainers and staff to run it. The two locations run the same programs, the same methodology, and the same trainer standards. That is why a family in central Scottsdale and a family north of Lone Mountain get the identical school, just a different drive.

Clients who have brought more than one dog through the school over the years describe that consistency directly:

"I personally have had several dogs trained in the school for behavior & snake proofing. I trust completely the methods of training used by Leighton and his team of trainers to handle my beloved pups with the same loving care and handling as if they were their own."

Cave Creek kept the identity Scottsdale did not need to repeat: the wide-open desert property where dogs learn to hold a recall around quail, horses, and the wildlife that shares this land. The campus sits near the Spur Cross and Seven Springs trails, and that terrain doubles as the training ground, real distraction a dog will meet on a normal Arizona walk. Foundation Camp, the board-and-train program the school still runs today, is available at either campus, and every dog starts with the same PD360 assessment before getting the same result.

A Family-Owned School, Then and Now

Partners has stayed a family business through every stage of that growth. Leighton still lives on the Cave Creek property with his family, which is the stated reason an owner is on site overnight for every boarding guest, a detail that has not changed since the school opened in 1997. His son, Christopher Oosthuisen, now serves as Chief Operating Officer, overseeing operations across both campuses. The same family holds the standard at both locations today that Leighton set on that first racehorse ranch.

Clients notice that personal reach directly. One longtime client still remembers calling Leighton himself for help with a fearful rescue dog:

"Two years ago we picked out this terrified pup from a shelter and brought her home. For the first two months I could only take her outside after dark because she was so timid but then I called my friend Leighton A Oosthuisen at Partners Training and asked about private lessons."

Leighton put the founding idea in his own words: "Give me the dog other people gave up on, and give the family a real plan. That is where the good work starts." Christopher describes the same mission from the operator's side: "My goal is to inspire every family to make training a daily part of life with their dog."

What Nearly Three Decades Built

The numbers only mean something because of where they started. One trainer who took the dogs nobody else would has grown into what the school describes as Arizona's largest and highest-rated dog training operation: two campuses, a team of more than 50 trainers and staff, and more than 70,000 dogs trained across 28-plus years in business. That track record now carries a 4.8-star rating across more than 2,000 reviews from families at both locations.

Some clients have watched that track record build one dog at a time, over more than a decade with the same trainer:

"These guy know there stuff. Been training different dog with Leighton and crew for over 15 years. Would recommend to anyone."

On the school's 25th anniversary in 2022, Partners launched Partners University so owners could learn the same methodology that has shaped tens of thousands of dogs since 1997. The Partners Dogs Foundation followed, supporting rescue rehabilitation and access to training for families who need it. Both are extensions of the same original idea, not a departure from it.

Why the Founding Story Still Shapes Training Today

What started on that Cave Creek ranch was never just a facility, it was an approach. Partners describes itself as balanced and tool-agnostic, meaning trainers choose whatever earns the best result for the dog and the strongest relationship for the owner, rather than committing to one method for every dog that walks in. Every session is built around a four-stage approach: Teaching, Reinforcing, Proofing, and Maintenance, moving a behavior from first introduction to something that holds up for life.

The families walking into Scottsdale or Cave Creek today are working with a school that still frames its identity the way it did in 1997: still taking the dogs nobody else will, still training the owner right alongside the dog. The property has grown. The mission, by the school's own account, has not.