Kustom K9 Training
"Training the whole dog, educating the whole family"
Meet Our Trainers
"Expert dog trainers serving all of Chesapeake and Hampton Roads!"
Kim Willis - Master Trainer, Owner, and Operator
With 51 years experience Kim has worked in all levels of obedience, specializing in pack management and control, behavioral modification (including aggression issues), working with real high drive working dogs, all types of scent and detection work, performance disciplines like weight pulling, Barn Hunt, and lure coursing, human search and rescue, pet search K9s, and many types of service dogs. Kim also practices and teaches natural “healthy living” for dogs including how to choose the best dry food, and the dangers of over vaccinating your dog. Kim enjoys working with the whole family, including children.
Kim is very well published in the dog world, both in the US and other countries. Her Ridgebacks were featured at the 2008 Rhodesian Ridgeback World Congress in Ireland, attended by breed professionals from all over the world. Her 21 years experience in K9 SAR involves many scent disciplines, having fully trained from start to certification 8 (adding one more here in early 2015), and assisting with many others. Five of those 8 dogs were Kim’s personal dogs. Kim is currently the K9 Operations Leader/Trainer with Chesapeake Community Emergency Response Team, under Chesapeake Office of Emergency Management and managed by the Fire Department where she created the first in the US K9 division under CERT for both search and rescue dogs and disaster therapy dogs. Kim’s other memberships, qualifications, and positions include:
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State Certified Professional Ground Searcher
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Man Tracker Level I
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North American Police Work Dog Association member, Executive Committee Member SAR Liaison (Click here and scroll to Virginia for verification) http://www.napwda.com/executive-committee-members
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Chesapeake Community Animal Response Team "CART" (co-founder) under Virginia State "SART"
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Incident Command Staff capable
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FEMA's National Preparedness Coalition
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Association for Truth in Pet Food member
Read Kim's Full Bio and Find out more about Kim's Rhodesian RIdgebacks.
Harold Bennett (Ben)
Ben has been involved in the Professional training of canines and there handler/owners for more than 45 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.
