Dr. Rigterink always has had a special interest in animal behavior, even before she attended veterinary school. She has been in clinical practice since graduating from the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in 2005. She has consulted on more than 500 canine and feline behavior patients in recent years. Dr. Rigterink completed a residency in Animal Behavior at Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine in 2017. Her research during her residency focused on evaluating surface temperature in dogs in the clinic setting and is published in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research. In 2018, she passed the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists (ACVB) certifying examination and is now a Board Certified Veterinary Behaviorist.

Dr. Rigterink is a Fear Free Certified Professional and an active member of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the Indiana Veterinary Behavior Medical Association (IVMA), and the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB).

In her free time, Dr. Rigterink enjoys spending time with her husband, two children, two dogs (Gus and Kona), and cat (Lola).

Kristen’s career with animals began with volunteer work at her local animal shelter with her mom at the young age of 13, helping to socialize shelter dogs and cats. That was only the beginning!

Kristen graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Canine Science in 2016, and then continued on to earn a Certificate in Training in Counseling (CTC) from Jean Donaldson’s Academy for Dog Trainers in 2019. She recently became a Certified Behavior Consultant Canine- Knowledge Assessed (CBCC-KA) in 2021. She never stops her continued education in companion animal behavior!

Kristen has been training dogs professionally since 2015. She trained service dogs for several years at a nonprofit organization, and then later worked at San Diego Humane Society as the Behavior Coordinator before relocating to Indiana.

When not training animals, Kristen enjoys spending time with her husband and several dogs and a cat. She often spends her free time hiking, camping, and being outside in general!

Animal behavior has always played a large role in Katie’s life. Katie graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a minor in Biological Sciences in 2015 from UW-Milwaukee. For nearly a decade, Katie worked as a Zookeeper in various non-profit zoological institutions, caring for and training species including Great Apes, Small primates, Big Cats, Small cats, Domestic hoofstock, Small mammals, birds and Marine Mammals.

Katie recently transitioned from the Zookeeper life to working as a Behavioral Therapy Trainer at VBI. Katie joined the VBI team in May 2022 and is Fear-Free Certified and is working towards her Dog Trainer Professional Certification through the Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training and Behavior.

When not training animals, Katie is an avid music lover, playing the piano and guitar, as well being a video and board game fanatic. Originally a Wisconsin-native, Katie now lives with her husband, her dog (Raven), her cat (Damian) and two bearded dragons (Drogon and Smaug) near Fishers, Indiana.

Connie Swaim works closely with the team at the Veterinary Behavior of Indiana. She is the owner of Connie Swaim Canine Behavior Services. She has been professionally working with dogs since 2009. However, her parents knew she was going to do something with animals when she escaped from home at the age of 5 and was found walking down a country road an hour later with a group of four dogs.

She started working with the behavior department of the Humane Society of Indianapolis and implemented the shelter’s first behavior modification protocols to save dogs that were not immediately adoptable. Later she took over the training school at the shelter and held 12 group classes a week.

When starting her own business, she decided to focus on helping dog owners understand more about their dogs and help dogs and humans have a better life together. Connie is a behavior seminar and podcast junkie and loves learning new techniques to help dogs and their people. She also enjoys blogging about her experiences with dogs.

For the last nine years, Connie has also been a member of a search and rescue team and has certified two human remains detection dogs. She also moderates a Facebook group for force-free trainers and others interested in animal welfare. Connie works with many Indiana animal rescues in both a consulting capacity for helping shelter dogs have more enriched lives as well as teaching volunteers and staff best practices for working with dogs in a shelter setting.

Teri Su is a local Carmel resident for over 20 years. During the past 18 years, she has worked in a human medical office doing billing and business administration. Her knowledge and experience will help our busy practice achieve the goal of creating a seamless and streamlined experience for our clients and their pets.

Teri Su is also very involved with the Paws On My Heart Inc cat rescue, where she volunteers, fosters, and rescues cats and helps with adoption and administrative activities. Working with and being around animals has always been her dream.