Meet Our Team

Alex Bassett

Las Vegas Territory Manager

Alex’s love for dogs started at a young age when she read the A-Z dog breed books cover to cover. She told her family that she wanted to be a vegetarian at age six and attended veterinary camp at Washington State University when she was in seventh grade. Growing up, she volunteered at her local animal shelter, which allowed her to gain the confidence to handle dogs that outweighed her.

Alexis Johnson

Pittsburgh Territory Manager

 Alexis grew up in a small town that time forgot, and it was her passion for dogs that has brought her to where she is today. She began her training career with her first Golden Retriever, which she trained to be a Therapy dog. Since then, Alexis has helped many families live cohesively with their K9 companions. She has an extensive history of playing softball starting at the young

Amber Haseltine

Austin Territory Manager

Amber grew up surrounded by dogs! Her love for them blossomed while she was in charge of their care growing up. When Amber got her first dog of her own, she wanted to turn an affinity for training and care for dogs into a career. Amber worked in customer service for over ten years and developed excellent communication and managerial skills. She attended Animal Behavioral College and became certified in

Brooke Novotny

Nashville Territory Manager

Brooke grew up in the small town of Saint Michael, Pennsylvania. She has had a strong passion for caring for animals her whole life and always planned to make a career of it. She received her degree in Psychology with a concentration on animal behavior from Westminster College. Throughout High School and College, Brooke worked at a Dog Kennel and loved being around the animals every day. She was also

Devon Oaks

Phoenix Trainer

Devon’s passion for animals and the outdoors started at a young age in his hometown of Mesa, Arizona. After honorably serving his country for eight years in the United States Army in Germany, Afghanistan, Texas, and Korea, Devon decided to pursue training dogs full time. As a loving father of two, it’s his firm belief that there are no “bad dogs”, just learned behaviors. Devon loves the unique challenge that

Erin Hegeman

Milwaukee Trainer

Erin grew up in a small town in west-central Wisconsin. Her love of animals started at a young age. Her first dog was a Cocker Spaniel that her parents let her pick out at the local humane society for her second birthday. Growing up they opened their home to many rescue dogs including a yellow Lab, American Eskimo, and Australian Shepherd. Erin studied Environmental Science at the University of Minnesota

Evan Dallas

As a Chicago area native, Evan grew up spending as much time with dogs as he possibly could (despite not being able to have one at home due to a sibling’s allergies). As an adolescent, he spent his free time training the dogs of family members and soon realized he had a passion for working with animals. During his college years, Evan worked as a dog walker while living in

Gracie Reed

Houston Trainer

Gracie was born in Amarillo, TX, and raised in the suburbs of the Houston Area. She has loved animals, especially dogs, her entire life. Ever since she was a kid, she dreamed of having a career where she was able to work with animals. After high school, she began working at a local pet store.  There she learned tons of information about pet nutrition, training, and worked with pets and

Holly Wengerski

Assistant Director of Training and Chicago North Territory Manager

Holly has been an animal lover throughout her entire life. Growing up she had pet dogs, cats, snakes, lizards, turtles, and even a praying mantis! Being an only child the connection with her animals was always strong. As she grew she saw the opportunity to turn her passion into a career and pursued a degree in Animal Science. Holly graduated from Illinois State University and had the opportunity to work

Jason Shaw

Trainer

 Jason was raised in Austin and is excited to give back to his home city through Suburban K9. He has been growing his passion for dogs and strengthening his skills for over 15 years, including extensive volunteer experience at Austin Pets Alive, completing their Canine Good Citizen certification program and eventually focusing on working with the more aggressive dogs. Additionally, he has a background in customer service and training

Jay Buchanan

Territory Manager

 Janessica J. Buchanan, also known as Jay, is originally from Amarillo, Texas. She found her love for pets at an early age, spending most of her childhood and high school years training German Shepherds with her dad. With over 6 years of experience in veterinary medicine as a veterinary technician, she has treated not only domestic animals, but also farm animals including cattle and horses. Jay’s passion for animals

Kaitlyn Hohimer

Trainer

Kaitlyn joins Suburban K9 with a lot of experience and passion for training animals. Growing up, Kaitlyn rode horses as often as possible, and, if she wasn’t riding horses, she was training her family dogs for fun. Kaitlyn knew that she was meant to work with animals from the very beginning. Before graduating from high school, Kaitlyn was offered an internship at her local animal hospital, and she was quickly

Kati Del Pozo

Kati Del Pozo is originally from Toledo, Ohio but has been living in the Chicago area for about 17 years and now resides in Gurnee, IL. Her love and passion for dogs began at a young age when her grandparents brought home a Cocker Spaniel puppy for her family on Christmas morning. She’s always had family dogs in the household, including three Samoyeds, three Chihuahuas, and of course their very

Kyle Lohman

Chicago South Trainer

For as long as Kyle can remember, he has always wanted to work with animals. He grew up with dogs, cats, and even ferrets, just to mention a few. His mother has worked as a dog groomer for over 20 years, and growing up, he spent every summer at her shop. Kyle graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Accounting from Northern Illinois University, but began his career working with animals

Liliana Carpano

Philadelphia Territory Manager

 Liliana began attending university, it didn't take long for her to realize she was far more passionate about her part-time job of walking dogs than she was about the degree she was studying. That passion only grew as she remained in the pet industry and eventually began fostering rescues. Her love for animals and desire to help people led her to Suburban K9, where she hopes to help keep

Molly Juneau

Tampa Territory Manager

Molly’s passion for animals started at a very young age. She loved helping animals and people. Throughout her life, she has focused a lot of her free time on pet sitting, fostering animals, and volunteering at rescue and wildlife centers. Molly has a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Grand Valley State University, which led her to opportunities in marine mammal training. She participated in internships in Florida to train and

Nick Smoots

Chicago North Trainer

Nick Smoots is a Chicago native and an avid dog lover! He was surrounded by pets all his life and has always had a soft spot for animals! Last year, he adopted a  two-year-old Pitbull mix named Juno. Nick discovered his passion for working with animals when Juno went through training with Suburban K9. He saw a complete 180 in her behavior in a short amount of time as the

Rose Pierce

Houston Trainer

Rose was born and raised in Houston, TX, and for as long as she can remember there have always been dogs in her life. With several years of retail experience she eventually landed herself inside of a holistic pet store which flared up her passion for pets to an entirely new level. Rose found herself enamored with every furry friend she got to meet and with every pet parent she

Samantha Doig

Houston Territory Manager

Born and raised in Plainfield, IL, Samantha had a lot of different pets, which fueled her love of animals. Her passion turned into a profession when she majored in Zoology and Psychology at Western Illinois University. She loved learning about the different ways animals think, behave, and interact with their environment. Her studies led her to work with animals in a multitude of environments. Samantha has worked at several wildlife

Shelby Naab

Milwaukee Trainer

Shelby grew up in a suburb of Milwaukee with two animal-loving parents. Her mother started her love for dogs and her father, her passion for horses. Shelby spent most of her summers working on farms or at horse camps. Quickly realizing that animals were her lifelong passion, she went to college for Animal Science at UMN. After graduating, she managed two therapeutic riding barns for a few years, then moved

Tiffany Hollenbeck

Trainer

 Tiffany was born and raised in California, where her passion for animals developed at a very young age. She grew up surrounded by dogs, horses, cats and many other animals. Her life-long dream has been to work with animals. When Tiffany was young she spent her free time playing with and training her family’s dogs and is so happy to see her passions come full circle.  Tiffany moved to

Zachary Westfall

Jacksonville Territory Manager

 A Florida native, Zachary discovered his love for animals at a young age. He took any opportunity to be around animals, which led him to begin horseback riding and volunteer work. Through volunteering, he was hired as a barn manager at a therapeutic riding facility and learned many skills necessary to manage the horses, volunteers, and facility effectively. Not only did he gain managerial experience from this job, but