Meet the girl behind the dogs…

Creekside Canine didn’t start as a business plan, it started with a girl, a few dogs, and a clear instinct for understanding them.

Long before Creekside, I was a 16-year-old walking dogs, teaching them the basics, learning through experience, and developing a drive to work with dogs that never really left. During my senior year of high school and freshman year of college, I also spent my time working in animal shelters, gaining hands-on experience with dogs of all backgrounds, temperaments, and histories. That early exposure shaped how I approach training to this day.

My name is Katie Beth Dean, though most people around Pineville know me simply as “the dog girl.” I chose to stay local, attend college close to home, and build something here because the vision I had for my life and my work never left Appalachia. Creekside was built where I was raised, and it continues to grow from the same ground that shaped me.

I attended Lincoln Memorial University, where I earned multiple degrees while focusing heavily on animal behavior. I was accepted into veterinary school before ultimately choosing a different path. During that time, I completed an 18-month research internship working with wolves and wolf-dog hybrids, studying behavior and trainability at a level most people never get to experience. That experience ultimately shifted my focus, and solidifying my decision to pursue behavior over medicine and shaping how I see dogs to this day: instinct-driven, intelligent, and deserving of training that works with them, not against them.

After graduate school, I made the decision to step away from the traditional veterinary path and build something of my own. What started as a “part-time” training business has since grown into Creekside Canine - a full-service facility offering structured training programs, boarding, grooming, and behavior-focused care for dogs. I chose to build a life and a business around something I genuinely love: working dogs, developing young dogs, and helping owners understand them. It wasn’t always the obvious path, and it wasn’t always understood. But I stayed with it. Now that vision has grown into a program serving clients across Southern Appalachia, from Kentucky to Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas. In 2025, I was recognized as one of the 40 Under 40 Alumni from Lincoln Memorial University -an acknowledgment of the work I’ve built and the impact it’s had, doing exactly what I set out to do.

Today, my days are spent everywhere work happens - in the board room, the grooming salon or in the training field, developing puppies of all breeds and backgrounds into capable, confident dogs. Whether it’s foundational obedience, early socialization, or advanced retrieving work, the goal is always the same: to bring out what each dog was made to do and give owners a dog they can truly live with.

Creekside reflects more than just services. It reflects a standard. A belief that dogs thrive with clarity, structure, and purpose. A commitment to doing things the right way, even when it takes more time. And a focus on building long-term relationships with both dogs and their owners, from puppyhood through adulthood.

Outside of the facility, I stay actively involved in dog sports including rally obedience, dock diving, FastCAT, scent work, shed hunting and retrieving work with my spaniels. My dogs aren’t just part of my life - they are a continuation of the work I do every day.