Keely Korbel was born and raised in Victoria Park. She grew up in the house directly next door to where she lives now. Her parents, Eddy and Donna Korbel, still reside in the house where she grew up. Most likely, you have seen her mom working outside in the yard or doing a house project or her father coming back from an early morning cycle ride with his crew. When she was young, her father would take Keely on what he called “woo woo patrol” walks -- which were down the alleys in Victoria Park in order to look at dogs in backyards.

“We didn’t own our own dog yet, but I sure did beg my parents everyday, until they finally caved,” Keely says.

In 2013, Keely began her career in dog training and moved to Austin, TX.

“I attended a school known as Starmark Academy. This was a three month on sight program that gave me a hands-on learning experience with dogs and allowed me to learn from other talented trainers,” Keely says.

At the end of the three month period, the academy offered an internship program to one student who would be allowed to stay on for another three months to continue their learning journey. This gave a head start on learning how to be a mentor by helping teach new students who would be arriving for the next semester. Keely received this amazing opportunity.

Following completion of the six month program, Keely was offered a job opportunity training and handling drug detection dogs for a company which had private contracts with local oil rig companies.

“They needed us to show up and make sure everything and everyone was clean and following the rules. I deeply fell in love with this new way of learning how working dogs worked and were trained,” Keely stated.

While in Texas, Keely had a long distance relationship with Andrew Michael, the Director of Golf at Jacaranda Golf Club in Plantation, who is now her husband. Andrew supported Keely while she chased her dream of becoming a dog trainer.

In 2016, even though she loved Austin and what she was doing, Keely moved back to Fort Lauderdale for several reasons. The long distance relationship with Andrew could not go on forever. Also, Keely’s father was considering selling the house next door (which was not her mother’s plan). Her brother, Cheyne, who struggled with addiction was in recovery and needed a place to live. Therefore, time was right to move back home.

“God was leading me exactly where I was meant to be all along, but the road to get there was not easy,” Keely says. “Returning home and moving into our now home allowed my brother to have a place to live and to try to work on his road to recovery. Anyone who has a loved one who struggles with addiction understands that it’s something you’ll deal with as a family forever.”

Keely struggled mightily the first year back. “I wasn’t doing what I knew I was meant to do in life ... being with dogs. I was working two jobs, one was a full time sales job and the other was a part time job bartending so that I could get out of debt while figuring out what my future was going to look like here,” Keely states. Her brother wasn’t doing well, and it was difficult being around that and not being able to help make a difference for him. With all of the stress, Keely found herself drinking to the point of no return.

Things changed for the better in 2017 when a local dog training company reached out and was interested in Keely becoming part of the team. For the first time, she felt purpose coming back into her life, but she knew that if she was going to get back to working with dogs, she would need to stop allowing alcohol to control her life. Keely stopped drinking for five years and learned to heal from things that were out of her control.

In 2019, Keely had been working for the dog training company for almost two years. Her brother, however, was still struggling and now living in Michigan. “I flew out to visit him a couple of times as I had a best friend who lived only an hour away from where he was staying,” Keely says. She remembers being excited to share with him about the training she was doing with the dogs that she and the owners got to work with and how she was creating her own relationships. Cheyne told Keely how proud of her he was, and he encouraged her to break away to start her own business. Keely doubted that she could do it.

One month later, Keely received a phone call that her brother had passed from an overdose. “It was something that my parents always tried to prepare me for, but it’s not something that you can be prepared for. Cheyne was my first loss at 28 years old, and if it wasn't for my faith or the strength and love that my parents had, I honestly don’t know what my story would be today,” Keely stated.

What Keely learned is that we all have facts, and we also have stories. Her facts were that she had lost her brother to a battle that he fought for a long time. Her story could have been going back to drinking and ruining everything she had worked so hard for or her story could be something greater that would have not been about her but instead focused on helping others through her pain. In August 2019, Ruff Rules was created.

August 2024 will make Keely’s five year celebration of being in the business of training dogs and educating owners. “I now have a team of four women who are exceptional dog trainers, and having them make up my team has allowed us to help more owners,” Keely says. “So much of our success in training dogs is training the owners as well. That is what really makes us stand out from the rest. We train the owners just as much as we train their dogs,” Keely says.

Ruff Rules understands the frustration that some owners feel when struggling with the same behavioral issues and feeling like there is no hope. Keely’s personal dog is Cruzz. Cruzz was given to Keely during her time at Starmark Academy. In order to get certified, she needed to train him and pass the test. At the end of the program, she had the option to adopt him. He was fear aggressive and would run away if given the chance. Cruzz could not walk on a leash without pulling Keely’s arm off! He was a jumper and a barker.

As Keely started her training journey with Cruzz, she started to experience all of the emotions that owners do when they train their own dogs. Keely knew she wanted to become a trainer who could encourage owners, educate them and help them get to the point like she did with her dog where they get to experience a more fulfilling life with a well mannered dog by their side.

At Ruff Rules, there are three different types of programs that allow us to do just that. There inlucde our board and train program, one-on-one lessons and our in home daily training program. Each of these programs is custom to what our owners goals are. Our programs will always focus on training for calm, confident dogs that are capable of going anywhere and doing anything in this awesome city of ours. Ruff Rules is known for their constant updates and videos which they share personally and on social media. They share as much free training tips as possible which assist their owners with keeping up with their dog’s progress.

“At Ruff Rules, we are all about community and connection,” Keely says. “We love hosting group classes and seeing past and present clients get together and know each other's dogs from watching our Instagram videos. We have really fallen in love with participating in local events and being able to meet other awesome local businesses and potential new clients. Being able to train dogs in Fort Lauderdale is special since it is such a dog friendly area.”

Andrew and Keely love to explore the town and go on date nights. Their favorite spots include Caffe Europa, Noodles Panini, Doc B’s, Mitch’s Bagels and Emmy Squared. They like to bike ride, go to concerts and enjoy shows at the Parker Playhouse. They also enjoy concerts in the park. They attend First Baptist Church each Sunday.

“We feel our connection strengthens after a hard day’s work, cooking a meal together and reviewing all the ups and downs of our day! We cherish and really grow from moments like these. But most importantly, we are very close to the Lord so prayer and being involved with church is the most important aspect of our lives. Giving back to the community as much as we can gives us a greatest sense of joy,” Keely says.