Meet Sirius K9 Academy's Owner and Training Director:

CAROLINE HALDEMAN - Owner of Sirius K9 Academy, Caroline is a graduate from the the Tom Rose School of Dog Training in St. Louis, MO. In St. Louis, Caroline trained and certified numerous police and narcotic detection dogs. (** Click on Caroline's name above to learn more **)

Dave Snope - Dave has been training dogs since the 1990s and has titled his own dogs to Schutzund III, IPO III, BST, and various obedience and breed club certifications. He was a long term member of the Orange County Schutzhund Club where he participated in the training of dozens of club dogs to working titles over the years. He served as a judge for working dog trials in the WABA, testing dogs for Breed Suitability Tests (BST), obedience certificates, Iron Dog, and protection tournaments. He also traveled to Europe to certify European trial judges and to judge a BST trial and protection tournament. He volunteers for the SoCal Bulldog Rescue to help rehabilitate and train neglected and abused rescue dogs. He loves developing the talents of young dogs and training them in obedience, tracking, and protection. Dave currently teaches our Puppy Classes and works with our clients through Private Lessons for behavior modification, aggression issues, remote collar training, tracking, and advanced / competition obedience. Dave also does private protection training and protection evals for us.

Doug DeCastro - Doug enjoys working and training his own dogs, a 5 year old female Belgian Malinois named Bula, and a male 1 yr old Dutch Shepherd / German Shepherd mix named Roc in advanced obedience, search work, and protection work. Doug has been a decoy for our protection classes for over 12 years. Doug has been training working dogs for more than 25 years.

(Image coming Soon!) David Feliciano - David is one of our decoys which we are very glad to have on our staff. He has experience with working a variety of working dogs, from IPO to French and Mondio Ring, as well as personal protection dogs. He been training and working his own dogs in protection for many years also.

R.I.P. our dear friend and trainer Jan Green. We will always love and miss you! - This photo is of Jan (on the left), with Sirius K9 owner Caroline Haldeman. Jan was a trainer for us for more than 15 years and was our office manager. Jan passed away at the beginning of this year. She will be sorely missed!!

(Image Coming Soon!) Sonja Johnson - Sonja started dog training at the age of 12 when she took her first obedience class and was immediately hooked working with dogs. She began training with Caroline Haldeman with her German Shepherd in the late 1990s. Over the years since that time, she trained under a myriad of trainers and professionals to further her knowledge of animal behavior and has worked with a menagerie of animals which include but are not limited to dogs, horses, exotic birds, marine mammals, and marine life. She enjoys teaching people how to open the line of communication between themselves and their dogs in order to make training a rewarding experience for both dog and handler. She currently has a 1-year old German Pinscher named Zaya and is active in dog sports with her. She also has two parrots; Maverick, a 22-year old Black Headed Caique, and Spike, a 30-something African Grey with one leg. Sonja is a SCUBA diver at the Aquarium of the Pacific and enjoys traveling and martial arts in her free time. Sonja instructs our Basic Group Obedience Classes and does private lessons with our basic class students.

Jessica Valentine - Jessica's breed of choice is the Belgian Malinois. She loves working her Mals in protection sports, and especially enjoys competing and titling her dogs in Mondio Ring and has gone to Nationals. Impressively, she has also certified as a Mondio Ring decoy. Jessica fosters and works with rescue Mals to help them find a new home. In her spare time, Jessica enjoys camping, hiking, and competitive racing on her motorcycle. Jessica trains some of our in kennel training dogs for our clients.