Caroline Haldeman - Owner - Sirius K9 Academy

Caroline Haldeman started training dogs 25 years ago, when she volunteered her time helping train police bloodhounds in Orange County, CA. Today, her passion is breeding and training German Shepherds for protection and detection work. Caroline is the Owner and Training Director of Sirius K9 Academy in Yorba Linda, located in Orange County, CA. She started this business 6 years ago, wanting to offer the public something more then just your standard every-day obedience training.

Caroline is a graduate from the School of Animal Science in Atlanta, GA, where she excelled in the Pro-Animal Care Specialist program. After completing the program, Caroline worked as a Veterinary Technician at a large veterinary hospital in Oklahoma for three years. Caroline is also a graduate from the Tom Rose School of Dog Training in St. Louis, MO, the most prestigious school of its kind in the United States. She obtained her Pro-Expert Dog Trainer certification in 1992 specializing in protection, police, and narcotics detection dogs. While in St. Louis, Caroline also enjoyed competing in Schutzhund trials, and even certified as a DVG-agitator. 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. 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.

Caroline is very passionate about the work that she does. She is a huge advocate of educating the owner and the public. Although she is strict, her methods are fun and rewarding. She teaches you how to get your dog to listen to you out of respect, not fear. Caroline really encourages her clients to find their dog a JOB! She also emphasizes the importance of proper nutrition and healthy weight for our pets. Some of Caroline’s crusades include keeping dogs on-leash when in public, not over-vaccinating your dog, restraining dogs safely in vehicles, raising your puppy correctly, and educating owners on when and when not to breed their dog. She specializes in aggressive dogs and German Shepherds, but has a lot of experience with all breeds, including many rare breeds.

During the past 16 years, Caroline has instructed hundreds of group classes, and private lessons as well as seminars in K9 obedience, protection, the remote collar, K9 safety, decoy and detection work. She has attended numerous seminars on protection, detection, and police K9 training around the country. She has also presented numerous K9 demonstrations with 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 several rescue organizations offering free training to their dogs to help make the dogs more adoptable.

Caroline’s experience also includes being an instructor at Pro-Train in San Diego, where she assisted in certifying students from across the nation 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 K9s in the United States. Caroline and her dog Kilo were one of only three K9 teams in California requested and used for a union strike lock-out in Ohio and proved to be an outstanding team. Caroline retired as the Training Director for the Orange County Working Dog Association (OCWDA) in 2003. She was the Founder and Training Director for four years and instructed over one hundred handlers in advanced protection K9 training and obedience. Caroline has also been featured in several newspaper and magazine articles (including a magazine in Japan) regarding her experience and knowledge training dogs.

In her past time, she enjoys her own dog, named Radar, an 11 year old male German Shepherd she trained for personal protection and search work. She recently lost her other dog, named “Kilo”, a 14-year old, male German Shepherd she trained for police work & narcotic detection. (Click on the link below to see the website she created as a tribute to Kilo.) Caroline enjoys competing in Protection and Detection K9 trials with her dogs. She has been in the top three at every competition she has entered, including three first place awards in the last three trials she entered. Additionally, Caroline and Kilo were the highest scoring team at the IPDL trial held in June 2001 and received the Decoy’s Choice Award at the NAPD trial held in August of 2000.

Caroline is currently attending school in pursuit of her DVM degree. She is also training for her first triathlon.

Click on the following link to visit Caroline's website dedicated to her dogs: http://www.chdogs.com/  (Link will open in a new window)