About Us

Ronnie Bizer is president and head trainer for Kanosak. She teaches the attention and handling classes, puppy utility class, utility class and the individualized private lessons. Ronnie comes to Kanosak after a career teaching science and health in junior high and managing West Suburban Humane Society for several years. She has been a professional trainer for the last 20 years.

Ronnie's personal dogs have achieved national rankings in obedience, agility, conformation, as well as enjoying tracking, field, and herding. She has well over 200 titles to her name.

Ronnie has the unique ability to make training enjoyable for both the dog and the trainer.

Rick Cox teaches the rally class at Kanosak. He has been actively training dogs for 24 years and teaching dog obedience for over 20 years. His experience includes teaching puppy class, beginner, and ring ready, open and rally-all levels. Rick has taught for Kanosak, Fox Valley Dog Training club and the Parks department of the city of Elgin. He adds being a Heart Association CPR instructor of many years to his resume.

Rick has put titles on his Labradors and Shetland sheepdog. He is currently working a golden retriever.

Rick also brings the experience of being an American Kennel Club obedience and rally judge to Kanosak.

Cathy Fleury is the agility instructor at Kanosak. She has been training and showing dogs since the early nineties. Cathy has to her credit over 100 agility titles, including Master Agility Champion with Rottweilers, Papillion, Giant Schnauzer, Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, Cocker Spaniel, and others. Many of Cathy's students have also gone on to be nationally ranked in agility.

But Cathy does more than agility with her own beloved Rottweilers. Her dogs have earned Utility Dog Excellent titles with multiple Dog World Awards and FFX awards. Her Rottweiler, Spirit, is the 1st Rottweiler in history to earn the coveted VCD4 (Versatility Companion dog Level 4) award. This requires all upper levels of obedience, agility, and tracking. To top it off, Spirit is also a breed Champion.

Connie Hillquist is the Puppy Kindergarten teacher at Kanosak. She has personally trained many breeds and mixes. Her dogs have been nationally ranked many times and she has 93 titles as of this moment. Connie has trained for Kanosak for over 13 years. She also has trained with the 4-H and Park District.

Connie trains and shows her own dogs in conformation, obedience, agility, rally and tracking. She has been a Canine Good Citizenship evaluator for 5 years and has been on the 4-H Dog Committee for over 7 years.

Kent Hildebrand teaches the Advanced Puppy Class for Kanosak. He comes to us with 34 years of dog training experience as well as 32 years teaching Middle School and coaching. Kent has put titles on 11 different dogs. He is active in many dog sports including obedience, rally, agility and tracking. His 6-year-old Labrador has 15 titles and is still working for more.

Diane Ott teaches the Novice and Open classes for Kanosak. These classes are sometimes referred to as Companion Dog (CD) and Companion Dog Excellent (CDX). Diane put her first title on a dog in 1968 and has been working and training dogs all along the way to Kanosak. Before joining Kanosak, she was a professional trainer for many years.

Diane has owned, trained and shown Bloodhounds, Golden Retrievers, English Springer Spaniels, German Shorthair Pointer, Pomeranians, and Labrador Retrievers. Many of her dogs have been nationally ranked.

Ellen Ritt is the lead instructor for adult beginner obedience and Canine Good Citizen classes at Kanosak. She has been participating in canine obedience for more than 20 years. In 1998 Ellen started working towards AKC obedience and agility titles with her family's Giant Schnauzer; ranking them regularly in the top 10 in the United States by the Giant Schnauzer Club of America.

Before joining Kanosak, Ellen was a public school teacher for more than thirty years. This experience helps her be the intuitive teacher that she is.

Dot Wagner is a co-instructor for the Beginner Obedience and Canine Good Citizen classes at Kanosak. She has owned dogs for 34 years of many breeds and mixes. For the last 20 years she has owned Rottweilers. Three are breed champions and have Companion Dog Excellent titles. She has trained multiple dogs to the utility level.

Dot has also owned and trained horses for many years.