Founder and Expert Canine Trainer - David Bessason

Dave served 28 years as a Sergeant on the K9 unit with the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS). During his career, he worked with over 400 dogs and was designated with the honour of training 42 different K9 teams across North America- the most in WPS history.

Dave is one of the most respected dog trainers in Canada and through ProK9 Winnipeg, he is now able to help the general public get the training they need for their dogs too.

Expert Canine Trainer and Professional Handler - Duane Hutt

Duane began his K9 training and dog handling career in 2012 at the Milner Ridge Correctional Centre. Since then he has worked with the Winnipeg Police K9 Unit as a Quarry with a focus on the detection of narcotics and explosives. He has assisted in the training of our ProK9 rock stars Grace, Ryp, and Sparta, and in coordination with Dave, he performs routine explosives detection searches at Bell MTS Place on Winnipeg Jets game days.

Professional Canine Handler and Bed Bug Expert - Valerie Arpin

Valerie has teamed up with the ProK9 team to help bring bed bug detection expertise into their repertoire of detection offerings. Valerie has over 10 years of experience detecting and conducting bed bug searches in all different types of facilities and buildings. She now offers her skills and knowledge to the ProK9 team and can help you with all of your bed bug detection needs!

Expert Canine Trainer - Wally Antoniuk

Wally was Dave’s P/Sgt./Trainer with the Winnipeg Police Service. He is currently the head canine trainer for the Winnipeg Police K9 Unit. Wally has a wealth of knowledge, and brings with him over 25 years of dog handling and training experience. He resides in the Grand Beach area, and trains all of the dogs in the East Beaches Cottage Area in Manitoba. For cottage owners, there is now an option to have your dog privately trained while you are on vacation by our incredibly talented Wally!

Canine Trainer - Fiona

Meet Fiona! We are proud to have her as part of our ProK9 team. She is currently a pre-trainer assisting in our Service Dog/Puppy Foundations training as well as our Board and Train Program. Fiona graduated from Red River College in 1980 with a degree in Animal Health Technology and has worked at various vet clinics in Winnipeg. She began her dog training career in 1996 specializing in Competitive Obedience, Scent Hurdle Racing, Flyball and Agility; competing across Canada and the U.S. In 1998, Fiona and her Australian Shepherd were ranked #3 in Canada in CKC Competitive Obedience. Currently, Fiona is training and competing in Competitive Scent Detection work with her mix-breed dog, Zoey. She has owned and trained Australian Shepherds, Border Collies as well as mixed breeds, and for the past 2 years she has been training working dogs such as Labs and Malinois’ under Dave’s guidance. At this time, she is well on her way to completing her ProK9Inc. Trainer’s Certification and we couldn’t be more excited to have her as part of our team.

Canine Trainer - Andrea

We welcome Andrea to the team as a pre-trainer in our Service Dog/Puppy Foundations training as well as our Board and Train Program. Andrea is an Animal Health Technician with 15 years of experience working with all different species of animals from all ages and temperaments. She also has experience in raising, training, socialization and training of professional working dogs. Her repertoire includes owning and training Dobermans, Belgian Malinois’, Catahoula Leopards, Shetland Sheepdogs, Cocker Spaniels and Argentinian Dogos to name a few. For the past year, she has been an invaluable asset to our team and she is currently working towards completing her ProK9Inc. Trainer’s Certification. We can’t wait to see what more she will be accomplishing with us!

Meet the K9’s