Christina Rustenhaven, Assistance Dog Trainer

Christina Rustenhaven has been an animal lover all her life. She was born and raised in Kansas City, MO, where she grew up on 20 acres of land with many animals. She moved to St. Louis in 2012 with a job offer to train service dogs and has since made St. Louis her home.

She started professionally training service dogs in 2009. She has college hours in dog psychology, VT animal training, and VT hearing dog training. She also went through Assistance Dogs International certification and is an ADI certified service dog trainer including certification through the Department Of Labor.

Christina has trained over a hundred service dogs and has worked with hundreds of clients and volunteers. She has been an instructor for volunteer puppy raisers and prison programs in service dog training classes since 2012.

Christina joined CHAMP in October 2021. She is an instructor for puppy raising classes and CHAMP’s prison program, and also works with CHAMP clients, and our education program.