Tacoma dog trainer charged after allegedly forcing dogs to fight inside facility

Security footage and felony charges have turned a routine board-and-train decision at PacwestK9 on 6th Avenue into a hard warning for owners of high-drive dogs in Tacoma. Prosecutors say a 60-year-old employee at the facility taught two dogs to fight each other inside the building, and Pierce County prosecutors have summoned him to appear in Pierce County Superior Court on May 5, 2026.

The case centers on an incident dated Nov. 11, 2025, but it did not come to light until a company witness showed police security footage. Local reporting says a manager at PacwestK9 also provided investigators links to the footage and to a post-incident interview, giving Tacoma Police Department detectives the material they used to begin piecing together what happened. By Nov. 21, 2025, officers were dispatched to the facility after a client complaint led staff to notice the suspect had been bleeding and to connect that injury to the alleged dogfight.

Charging documents identify the dogs as Thanos, a tan Doberman, and Nino, a Labrador mix. Both animals suffered puncture wounds and other injuries in the incident, according to local coverage. The allegations describe an employee provoking aggressive dogs to confront each other inside a training setting that was supposed to provide structure and control, not a staged fight.

Gina Lopez, the owner of PacwestK9, said she was shocked when she saw the footage and said the incident did not reflect how the business operates. She said the operation was immediately separated from the employee and that she contacted authorities as soon as she understood what had happened. For owners of reactive, prey-driven, or otherwise high-octane dogs, that distinction matters: a facility’s response after something goes wrong can reveal as much as its sales pitch.

Washington’s first-degree animal cruelty law, RCW 16.52.205, is a class C felony and covers intentionally inflicting substantial pain or causing physical injury to an animal. In a community that depends on trust-heavy board-and-train placements, this case has already sharpened the questions that matter most: who is supervising, whether the facility is transparent when an incident happens, and whether cameras, records, and immediate disclosure exist before a dog ever walks in the door.