Kim Willis of Kustom K9 Training and Lost Pet Search Dogs
Your cat slips out of an open garage door, your dog bolts from the yard out the open gate, your snake escapes from under an unsecured container lid, or your horse lets himself out of the pasture gate. Accidentally losing a pet is traumatic.
The appearance of lost pet signs on roadside posts is a daily occurrence. Owners often feel at a loss after their initial attempts at finding their pet fail. And taking fast action is essential to getting them back. One way to increase your chances is by using specially trained search dogs.
Kim Willis is a retired Master Police Officer and a K9 Master Trainer. She started her canine training career at the tender age of seven 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. Not only do her training programs include obedience and socialization classes, but they also include programs that:
- teach you to be a dog trainer
- show you the ins and outs of the show ring for your budding champion canine
- prepare you to participate in extreme canine sporting events (weight pulling, lure coursing, sledding)
- train you and your dog for scent work, e.g., search and rescue
Kim retired from the police force in 1999, and has been doing volunteer K9 Search and Rescue fulltime ever since. In addition to training programs, Kustom K9 offers the service of search dogs for lost or stolen animals, including pets, livestock, escaped exotics, zoo animals, and more. She states, "I decided to start doing pet search as a business to support my volunteer search and criminal work that I do for law enforcement agencies."
The pet search industry is flourishing, with many people calling themselves "pet detectives," or indicating they have search dogs. Although formal pet search is relatively new to the public, it has been going on for a long time informally using human search dogs. Kim writes, "The human trained and certified search dogs are reliable, as are the handlers. Only until recently, when it became apparent that you could make money at it, have teams just started popping up out of nowhere. This discipline and field is not an easy one to learn."
And it is not only the dogs that require training. In addition to extensive scent theory instruction, handler training includes map and compass usage, search strategy, lost subject psychology (be it human, cat, dog, lizard, snake, horse, etc.), ground search training, man or animal tracking, report writing, court testimony, logs, and industry standards (which are largely set by the Supreme Court). There are also FEMA courses on such topics as the incident command system. The training for both dog and handler can be very daunting, but is necessary for a well-rounded team.
The Kustom K9 dogs are certified by the national organization North American Police Work Dog Association. In order to maintain their abilities, each K9 Team (dog and handler) trains approximately 500 hours a year. Each Kustom K9 handler is a Virginia state certified ground searcher. It takes approximately two years to complete training, to be certified, and for the handler and dog to be working well together.
Kim continues, "The problem comes in when pet search handlers cut the training short so they can get out there just to make money…Do your homework and check the biography of the K9 team -- both the dog and the handler." Always check their credentials and make an informed decision. Kim recommends people hire K9 teams that are certified by organizations like the North American Police Work Dog Association, the Virginia Police Work Dog Association, the National Association for Search and Rescue, the National Search Dog Alliance, and the like.
"There is no ‘best breed’ in this field with so many different disciplines and applications of use." Kim indicates that the best dogs for this kind of work are ones with a strong work drive. They must be able to work with a handler, but also be able to make decisions independently. The dog must have a good nose (not all dogs of a particular breed have good noses, including Bloodhounds), and have sound conformation and temperament. "A dog of any breed – pure or mixed -- that is not sound in body and mind will break down somewhere within the first few years, and all your work will be lost."
A search dog must not only be brave but must also be self-aware, to prevent constant injuries. "I have seen dogs that have no concept of their own welfare, and they will get injured more than a dog that possesses some self preservation."
The fees collected by Kustom K9 for lost pet searches go directly toward the volunteer work that they perform for law enforcement agencies (criminal investigations and lost person searches). "Police departments don't have this type of search dog as they are too expensive to budget; they have to use volunteers like us. Because it is also expensive for us, we have to find a means to support the work. Mine is lost pet search, and other dog training jobs."
Kim possesses a wide range of canine training talents. After over 40 years of training, she has put over 40 titles and certifications on her dogs, and trained a multitude of dog teams for working dog titles. Her titled disciplines include: