Not a dog trainer. A relationship builder between dogs and their people.

Russ Norcross spent thirteen years at the operational heart of law enforcement K-9 work, reading dogs on the other end of the lead when the stakes were real and the outcome mattered.

He retired in 2021 as a Sergeant with the Cape May County Sheriff's Office, where he commanded a six-officer, twelve-dog K-9 Unit running 24-hour operations. Every K-9 deployment in the county was authorized through him. He was also certified at the highest trainer tier the state recognizes, a Supervising K-9 Trainer to the New Jersey Attorney General's standards, authorized to certify other trainers. And through all of it he stayed a working handler, running as many as three dogs at once.

When he retired, the gap was obvious. The methods that produce reliable, high-stakes working dogs had never been packaged for the people who need them most. Families with a new puppy. Owners of dogs everyone else had given up on. Trainers who want a real, certifiable standard. He founded Lead The Way Dog Training in Ocean View, New Jersey to close that gap, teaching his Positive Balanced Training method to families and trainers alike.

Ask him what he does and he will correct you. He is not there to train your dog. He is there to teach the two of you to lead and follow each other with confidence, so the dog you have becomes the dog you hoped for.

Russ Norcross Founder, Lead The Way Dog Training