Craig Schultz has 33 years of professional animal training experience in various arenas of the animal industry ranging from exotic animals to detection canines. His experience includes work within organizations such as SeaWorld, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the Jacksonville Zoo, and Palm Beach Zoo where he trained different species of exotic animals for show production, husbandry, and cooperative health care procedures. In 2003 he joined the working dog industry to train substance detection canines for federal agencies to include the United States Department of Agriculture and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In addition to training canines for the federal government, he has also trained human remains detection and live-find canines for search and rescue applications as an unpaid civilian. From 2009 through 2011 he was employed as a Senior Scientist in Animal Behavior and Sensory Innovation at Hills Pet Nutrition where he successfully oversaw the integration of nearly 1,000 animals from single-caged housing to functional group housing facilities. He also incorporated cooperative care training methods to enhance research initiatives and improve animal welfare during veterinary procedures. Additionally, Craig has lectured and presented workshops in animal behavior for numerous working canine organizations, veterinary colleges, and various universities.
He recently graduated from George Mason University with a Master of Science in Forensic Science where his research focused on the effects of chemiluminescence on forensic canine performance in human blood detection applications. Craig joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2011 as a Forensic Canine Operations Specialist for the Evidence Response Team Unit.