Caroline Haldeman - Owner & Training Director of Sirius K9 Academy

Caroline is the Owner and Training Director of Sirius K9 Academy located in the city of Yorba Linda, in Orange County, CA. She started this business nearly 25 years ago, wanting to offer the public something more then the general low-quality "pet training" offered elsewhere. Caroline teaches our Field Trip, Intermediate & Advanced Obedience classes, & K9 Search classes, as well as our Nail Trimming, Decoy, and K9 Safety classes. Caroline is also one of our trainers for our In Kennel Training (Boot Camp / Board and Train) Dogs, which stay at her home while with us for training.

Caroline began training dogs over 35 years ago, when she volunteered her time helping train police trailing bloodhounds. Today, her passion is training client dogs for personal protection work, human scent detection, and advanced / competition obedience. She specializes in working line German & Czech Shepherds, as well as Rottweilers, Dobermans, Belgian Malinois, and Dutch Shepherds. But she has a lot of experience with all breeds. Her favorite dogs are senior dogs :) Caroline is very passionate about the work that she does. She is a huge advocate of educating dog owners and the public about dog behavior and dog safety. She has an enormous amount of experience with aggresive dogs as well as fearful dogs and has educated and helped thousands of clients with their dog's unwanted dangerous behavior as well as with the legal ramifications after a dog bite / attack situation. Although she is strict and a perfectionist, her methods are extremely fun and rewarding. She teaches you how to get your dog to listen to you out of respect, not fear, and will help you get your dog to listen to you regardless of the distraction. Caroline really encourages all of her clients to find their dog a JOB!

Unlike most trainers that have very limited experience and knowledge, Caroline has many years of experience in a vast array of disciplines. As a certified Master Dog Trainer, she has trained countless police, personal protection and protection sport dogs, explosives and narcotics detection dogs, man-trailing and tracking dogs, search and rescue dogs, agility dogs, therapy dogs, and competition obedience dogs. Caroline is also a certified decoy and has worked many hundreds of dogs at all levels, in thousands of different scenarios using all kinds of equipment, including tugs, a variety of arm and leg sleeves, the full suit, hidden sleeves, and working dogs in the muzzle. She is a master at building play and prey drive, reading dogs, with foundation work and puppy imprinting (confidence and drive building), and an expert at training and teaching new decoys how to work dogs safely and properly. She has competed in many K9 trials and has always been in the top three at every competition she has entered with dogs she raised from a puppy and completely trained herself. Caroline has even handled one of her own dogs in high-risk real-life situations as a professional K9 handler. Through her many experiences and extensive education, Caroline has acquired an enormous amount of knowledge and has gained a thorough understanding of dogs and dog behavior. She is well-versed in a variety of training techniques and is always searching for better methods and tools to help train dogs more quickly, safely, efficiently, as well as more fairly. Her extensive experience in training and handling working dogs uniquely qualifies her to specialize in highly-driven, strong working breeds, aggression issues, as well as problem behavior. Trainers that lack experience in these areas, cannot possibly fully understand dogs and dog behavior, let alone aggression issues, and tough, dominate dogs. You must first thoroughly understand all their natural drives, instincts, and the various temperaments of dogs, as well as the many health issues and common problems and disorders associated with the individual breeds in order to help them.

Caroline worked as a Veterinary Technician at a large veterinary hospital in Oklahoma for several years. She also managed the 250 boarding dog kennel and the training of all the new staff. Caroline is also a graduate from the Tom Rose School of Dog Training located in St. Louis, MO, the most prestigious school of its kind in the United States. She obtained her Master Dog Trainer certification in 1991 after a one year stay at the school, specializing in training police K9 and narcotics detection dogs. While in St. Louis, Caroline also enjoyed competing in Schutzhund trials, and even certified as a DVG-agitator, being one of only a few women at the time in the entire US to attain this certification. She volunteered her time training dogs for Support Dogs, Inc., an organization devoted to helping the physically handicapped, as well as trained and handled dogs for the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program at local schools while attending the Tom Rose School of Dog Training in MO. Caroline’s favorite past time however while in St. Louis, was training and handling K9s to find narcotics inside homes and businesses for Scentry Consulting, Inc.

Some of Caroline’s current crusades include keeping dogs on-leash when in public that are not on a remote collar and have not been properly trained to respond to a remote collar by a professional (a certified dog trainer), keeping our client's dogs away from dog parks, dog beaches, and dog day care situations to protect them, not over-vaccinating dogs and educating her clients about Titer Testing, keeping dog's nails short by trimming them regularly (she teaches a nail trimming class), restraining dogs safely in vehicles and not allowing them to stick their heads out the window to avoid severe injury, how to properly and safely raise and socialize puppies during the most critical time of their life (from the moment you get them up until 6 months of age), and educating owners on when and when not to breed their dog. She also emphasizes the importance of proper nutrition and healthy weight for dogs, to name just a few. Caroline has written many articles, you can see several of them on our website under "Helpful Information -- Training Tips!"

During the past 35 years, Caroline has instructed thousands of classes, and has done more than a thousand private lessons, as well as has taught hundreds of seminars in K9 obedience, protection, remote collar training, K9 safety classes, decoy training, and detection work. She also has attended numerous seminars on protection, detection, and police K9 training around the country and always strives to learn more. She has also presented numerous K9 demonstrations for local schools, for a local TV show, and at the Pet Expo with very impressive results. Caroline is an Expert Witness and consultant for several insurance agencies, attorneys, as well as for a city in Orange County, CA. She is also an evaluator for local animal shelters and works with many rescue organizations. Our client's dogs are so well trained, that many have been chosen to be in movies and on TV. We also recently had several of our client's dogs appear on a popular band's album cover. (We are extremely proud of them all!)

Caroline’s experience also includes being an instructor at Pro-Train in San Diego, where she assisted in educating students from around the world to be professional dog trainers. She was also the lead trainer and a handler for one of the largest security K9 companies in Southern California. She was among the first to implement strict training guidelines for working security patrol K9s in the United States. Caroline and her dog Kilo were one of only three K9 teams in California requested and used for a violent union strike lock-out in Ohio and proved to be an outstanding team there. Caroline retired as the Training Director for the Orange County Working Dog Association (OCWDA) in 2004. She was the Founder and Training Director for several years and instructed over one hundred handlers in advanced personal protection K9 training, area and building searches, and obedience. Caroline has also been featured in several newspaper and magazine articles, including "Training Secrets for the German Shepherd" Article: "Pack Facts" page 87 - 93 Vol 16, and a magazine in Japan regarding her experience and knowledge in training dogs.

Caroline currently has one dog named Torro. He is an 8 year old 100 lb bi-color German Shepherd male (from 100% East German (DDR) Working Lines) which she trained for search and rescue work as well as dog and human therapy work!

Caroline lost her senior dog named Arlett, a 16 1/2 year old, 75 lb, female, Sch III German Shepherd Import she rescued at ten years of age from a horrible GSD breeder in Corona, CA. (Arlett would have died within a week from a terrible uterus and stomach infection and general neglect had Caroline not asked to buy her from the breeder, who was "done" breeding her.)
Her other dogs now in Heaven, are Radar, who passed away at 14 1/2 years of age, he was a 105 lb male German Shepherd she raised and trained for police patrol work and search work, Siren, a 70 lb female German / Czech Shepherd from her own breeding that she raised and trained for police patrol work and narcotics detection (which was stolen from her at 3 1/2 years of age - incredibly heart breaking for her), Angel, a female Pitt bull, who was her very first NNDDA certified narcotics dog which she trained herself (Angel went to a narcotics detection service out of state at 3 yrs of age where she excelled and thrived), and Kilo, who passed away at 14 1/2 years of age, he was a 95 lb male German Shepherd she also raised and trained for police patrol work and narcotics detection.


Caroline is Czechoslovakian and speaks it fluently. She has completed a Level II Police Reserve Academy with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department and has extensive experience and background in security and law enforcement before she started her business venture creating Sirius K9 Academy. She enjoys hiking with her dog in the mountains, lake fishing, paddle-boarding & kayaking with her dog, nature and wildlife photography, astrophotography, competitive swimming, as well as competing in triathlons and mud runs, and volunteering in her "spare time" :) She is currently pursuing a Doctrate in Veterinary Medicine.