Kim grew up in Michigan with many family dogs and cats and moved to California in 1988 with her Abyssinian cat, Josephine. After teaching Josie to sit and down it became apparent that Kim enjoyed training and probably needed a dog! Instead, Kim became an active member of the Friends of the Long Beach Animal Shelter, coordinating and helping with programs designed to increase adoptions for the animals. She added another cat, Napoleon, her first dog, Maude, and then Harold. As shelter dogs, Harold and Maude had many behavior issues to overcome that required creative training solutions.

In 1998, Kim decided to adopt an adult Belgian Tervuren who had been returned to her breeder. Jazz opened the door to the world of competitive dog sports, especially agility and sheep herding. In 2001 Kim jumped into agility with both feet with a new Tervuren puppy from Belgium. Oscar proved to be an excellent agility partner, making the finals of the AKC Agility Nationals when he was just 2 years old! They continued their agility adventures with the AKC Agility Invitational and the Cynosport World Games competitions. Oscar acquired his 3rd AKC Championship in 2008. They provided agility background scenes for the movie, A Dog Lovers Symphony and participated as a demo team for Animal Planet. Kim and Oscar also trained and competed in AKC obedience to a CDX, K9 Nose Work (NW2) and Schutzhund (SchH2), which involves tracking, obedience and protection. Sadly, Oscar was taken by Gastric Carcinoma on October 12, 2009. He leaves very big paws to fill.

In 2004, Kim brought home Emmy, a Belgian Tervuren who is a little firecracker! She brings her athleticism to the sport of Agility, Schutzhund (SchH3) and Dock Diving and proves that she can also slow down enough to be successful with K9 Nose Work (NW2). Emmy has given Kim the opportunity to travel and participate with the Incredible Dog Challenge and National Diving Dog Tour.

After 12 years in the contract furniture industry, Kim started her own Interior Design business in 1998 and in 2006 began collaboration for a web-based informational site for pet travel, CarGoDogs.com. In 2008 she decided to package her versatile dog training experience into Joyride K9 and to bring her skills to the spcaLA Agility program. Kim is a founding member and a certified Instructor for the sport of K9 Nose Work. She teaches K9NW classes at spcaLA and is strong supporter of the K9NW program and the benefits it can provide to the shy rescue dog, the average pet dog as well as the active competition canine.

In early 2010, a young Tervuren pup from France joined the ranks at Joyride. Zen is a second generation Tervuren out of Malinois and is in training for many things to come, including Mondio Ring, Agility, K9 Nose Work and whatever else comes along!

For more information about Joyride Belgian Tervuren, please visit Joyride Belgians.