MEET OUR TRAINERS
Kim Willis
Kim started her canine training career at seven years old and knew then that it would be her passion forever. She established Kustom K9 Training in order to offer her many unique programs to dog owners. She has sought out the most seasoned and well-rounded professional trainers in different areas of specialized expertise. Each one brings and enormous amount of experience and knowledge to the team.
Kim herself possesses a wide range of canine training talents. After over 40 years of training Kim has put over 45 titles and certifications on her dogs, and trained a multitude of dog teams for working dog titles. Her titled disciplines include:
Canine Good Citizen—AKC
Therapy Dog International
Obedience—AKC and North American Police Work Dog Association
Agility—AKC
Weight Pulling—International Weight Pullers Association
Lure Coursing—Field Trial event, AKC, ASFA
Tracking—North American Police Work Dog Association
Man Trailing—North American Police Work Dog Association
Area Search—North American Police Work Dog Association
Article/Evidence Search—North American Police Work Dog Association
Kim has worked with Master Trainers including Internationally Renowned European Master Trainers Carla van Duyvenbode, and Fred Samseer. She has shown dogs in the breed ring, and bred her very successful Rhodesian Ridgebacks. She has 17 nationally, internationally, and Internet published K9 training articles, and has been featured in many more. Over the years she has trained many dogs and their owners to their specific needs. She believes that a well-rounded trainer needs to prove they can be successful in many different disciplines, and over her career a large portion of her training has and still is volunteer search and rescue work.
She has started one K9 search and rescue unit, and two K9 Sections in existing units, including a complete training and certification program along with standard operating procedures. Kim is an associate member of the North American Police Work Dog Association, and their SAR liaison for east coast associate members.
At this time Kim works as a volunteer for human searches, and personally has four certified and operational search dogs. She is a State of Virginia certified professional ground searcher, which includes wilderness and survival training, trained as a Man Tracker level I, and has training in all phases of disaster first responder and incident command. She is currently the City of Chesapeake Community Emergency Response Team, K9 Operations Leader-Trainer, Operational K9 Teams, and is the Animals in Disaster Coordinator. She is a co-founder of Technical Large Animal Emergency Resuce, which is not state recogonized, that works with Chesapeake's Emergency Management, and the city's County Extension office on disaster animal issues. They specialize in equines but also assit in small animal rescue.
Kim researches many canine topics daily to assist her clients with just more then training. Some areas mibht include nutrition, dangers of spot ons, or new info on dangersou drugs being used on canines. This continued education alone is a part time job.
EQUINE
Additionally Kim has owned and worked horses since she was 7 years old. As a young girl, like many, horses were all she thought about. She started riding ponies belonging to friends. Then at nine years old she asked her mother if they would buy her a horse. Her mom told her if she could save enough money to buy the horse, then she could get one, and they they would pay to board it. Between nine and 12 years old, Kim did just that. She babysat, walked and trained dogs, cut grass, saved her allowance, and saved enough money to buy her horse. She also found help to find the horse of her dreams, help her purchase that horse, transport the horse and the place to board. So when mom was approached, not only did Kim have the money, but she had the job done. She has owned horses ever since.
Over her life Kim has done all the odd jobs that come with horses, but also has professionally galloped and assisted in the training of race horses to include the starting gates, trained and conditioned several strings of polo ponies, managed horse farms, and keeping horses conditioned. As a teenager she showed in many speed events such as barrel racing, pole bending, and fun events like rider pick up, and ring spearing. She actually started her search and rescue career on a mounted SAR unit in 1984 in Sedgwick County Kansas. When working horses in Kansas she assisted many owners with their horse behavior problems, as well as did some basic riding classes. She prides herself on having excellent animal husbandry skills, and keeping a clean farm. This comes from working on so many different farms and seeing the good with the bad of how things are done, including how to set up a small or large horse farm. She attends lectures and seminars to continue her education in waste and pasture management, two very important aspects of farm knowledge. These two issues along with understanding how to design a horse facility, are the things most first time horse owners make mistakes with. This is why Kim has added a Horse and Property Management course to her line up of services. She hopes it will help those new to horses get started and not make the big mistakes many make.
Her end goal is always to insure that both dogs and horses have a fulfilled life with their owners by their side. And of course visa versa.
Kim-Willis-K9-SAR-profile.doc
Harold Bennett
Ben has been involved in the Professional training of canines and there handler/owners for more than 40 years. He began his labor of love in 1968 when he was selected by the Norfolk Police Canine Unit, as a handler. He served twenty years of his law enforcement career as a handler, supervisor, head trainer, and executive officer before his retirement in 1995. Although Ben retired from law enforcement he has continued to train and work with canine teams through out the country. Just a few of his many qualifications are:
The international title of "Diensthundfurhrer" (instructor), by authority of Landespolizeischule fur Diensthundfurhrer (west German Police School).
Served as an adjunct instructor for Shelton College in Tuscaloosa Alabama.
Master Trainer and President of North American Police Work Dog Association, a national training and certification organization.
Guest instructor for Dogs against drugs/Dogs against crime. A national training organization.
Guest instructor for the International Police Canine Association.
Founder and Master Trainer of the Virginia Police Work Dog Association.
Ben has testified, and been certified, as an expert witness in many states on Police K9 deployment. He lectures professionally on many aspects of canines, but my personal favorite is his lecture on Utilizing your Canine's Natural Drives and Instincts to your advantage. He also emphasizes selecting the right dog for the task, and how we have altered genetics for our purpose to create the extremes dogs that exist today, many of which are not suited to a pet only lifestyle.
Suzie Parsons
Suzie moved to the Tidewater area in 1972 with her husband, daughter, and one Siberian Husky. After meeting a “dog person” at a brother-in-law’s school baseball game, she found herself involved in a local dog club, helping to put on a fun match. In her eyes her pet dog was possibly show quality, and thus began a love affair with 4-legged friends and their owners. This single Siberian was a pack animal and needed a companion, so a rescue dog joined the family, along with a kitten. Two dogs became three soon and that’s all you needed for a sled-dog racing team!
Over the next 26 years the Parsons family, much expanded, enjoyed working as a team with their dogs, and at one point competed on the East Coast with a six, two fours, and one three dog team. These dogs were both purebred Siberian Huskies and “Alaskans”, specifically bred racing crosses of Siberian and hound.
The Siberian is a magnificent athlete, but not necessarily an animal that lives to please its owner. Suzie started training her dogs in basic obedience and conformation which led to participating in American Kennel Club competition. Over the years she has successfully placed Obedience and Rally titles on Siberians as well as finishing Champions in conformation.
Teaching dog training classes has provided an opportunity for her to achieve a thorough understanding of the temperaments of various breeds and effective ways to address their requirements. Suzie is passionate that children are taught respect for animals as well as safety measures to practice when around them.
Ms. Parsons is a certified American Red Cross Pet First Aid Instructor as well as being certified by the American Kennel Club as a Canine Ambassador and an evaluator for Canine Good Citizen testing.
Evelyn Jones
Evelyn was born and grew up in south Florida and always had a dog, usually a "pound puppy." So it was only natural that she should at some point in her life become involved in some sort of dog activity. After getting her first rescued greyhound twenty years ago, she joined a Lure Coursing Club, and over the years has held a number of positions including currently being the president. It is now one of the most active in the US, holding eight trials (four American Sighthound Field Association trails, and four AKC) and five AKC field tests a year. She also started the clubs famous "Wanna Bee Classic", which is held four times a year for non-sighthound breeds. It is the only club in the US to do so. This was done so that all other breeds can enjoy the fun of lure coursing.
Evelyn's love for her greyhounds lead her to Richmond, where in 1995, she was successful in getting legislation passed, prohibiting greyhound racing and simulcasting of greyhound racing and making it a felony to do so. Virginia became the second state to pass such a law. She continues to help other state to pass such laws.
Of her five greyhounds, three of them have won coursing field trial championships. Currently she has one greyhound, Max, who is ten and retired from lure coursing, and two Jack Russell Terriers, Annie (9) & Bugzy (1), all have been "rescued." Evelyn's JRT's have always been great coursers, I can't wait to check our her newest addition, in the Wanne Bee class.
Besides all her involvement with dogs, Evelyn and her husband race-cars; show the bi-plane they built at various air shows; and sail Evelyn's 32' sailboat, Valhalla. She retired from the City of Chesapeake's Department of Public Works as a Civil Engineer in 2001; is an airport commissioner for the City of Suffolk; and a delegate to the Virginia Aviation Council.
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