Meet the Team


  • Founder

    Dave has been competing in AKC and USDAA agility since 2004. That same year he passed his first AKC tracking test with a partner named Chilko. He since has gone on to earn 9 more tracking titles with several dogs. Dave’s K9 partner, Sharpy, was a certified search-and-rescue trailing dog.

    While working as a wildlife biologist, Dave trained several conservation detection dogs for surveys of rare wildlife and plants such as Kincaid’s lupine, western pond turtle nests, among others.

    Dave also has been training and competing with his own dogs in ring sport for almost 10 years.

    Since his retirement in 2019, Dave has have more time to devote to helping families and their dogs.


    Dave majored in Psychology at the University of Minnesota with a special emphasis in experimental psychology and animal learning.

  • Joan has lived with dogs almost her entire life and was competing as a teenager in AKC obedience trials with her Keeshond named Renny.

    During the last 20 years, Joan has been especially active in AKC and USDAA agility competition and she regularly participates at regional and national level events. Her partners Rocky and Knife have been among the fastest Belgian Sheepdogs to have ever competed in the USA. In 2019, Joan and Knife were members of the US Agility Team that competed in the FMBB Championships in Pisek, Czech Republic.

    Joan continues to compete in AKC obedience and has trained multiple dogs to novice, open, and utility levels. Joan has taught agility classes and coached private clients in dog sports for more than 10 years.

    Joan also holds down a full-time position as an ecologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.

Dave and Joan have earned more than 125 titles, awards, and certifications with their Belgian shepherds in the last 20 years. They breed Belgians under the kennel name Obsidian. They have also shared their home with several foster dogs and regularly help out in rescue cases.