Our Team

Suede Michael Hussain

Founder, Dog Trainer

Suede Michael has a broad and distinguished background that he carries into his obsession with Dog Training.

Suede is a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He has spent a career in management consulting and early-stage corporate development. Suede has traveled professionally and performed work all over the world in a myriad of places, including Hong Kong, Sydney, India, Mexico, Prague, France, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Throughout this time Suede has also undertaken a life of extreme adventures: from world-class swims to ice & rock climbing and alpinism, as well as remote geographic exploration. He has raced in open-water swim classics such as the Escape from Alcatraz and Across the Golden Gate in San Francisco, climbed the iconic El Capitan in Yosemite Valley and Breidelveil Falls in Colorado, as well as tackled various other projects around the globe. From Scotland down to continental Europe and into Asia, to the zone of K2 to explore uncharted regions of the Karakoram on the border of China and Pakistan, Suede Michael has cultivated an understanding of what a high-performance dedication to mastery of craft and it’s standards truly consist of.

It is this understanding, and a commitment to these standards, that he recognized in Richard Heinz when the two of them started to work together in 2020. He quickly saw that Richard’s energy, immense scope of knowledge and consistent creativity were all unique and thus the fascination for elite dog training took hold. This today is what serves as the foundation for AlpinHaus Shepherds.

Stacy Fernandez

Client Success Leader

Working exclusively with Richard Heinz over the past decade, Stacy has cultivated an enormous depth of experience that she brings to benefit the clients of AlpinHaus Shepherds.

Stacy has trained, delivered and integrated dogs and puppies into the arms and homes of their new owners all over the United States as well as Continental Europe. From Service Dogs to Personal Protection Dogs to Companion Dogs, from private homes to private boats to private aircraft, Stacy has successfully worked with all sorts of Dogs in most environments imaginable.

From the start of the process, in speaking with clients about their needs and desires in a dog, Stacy is dedicated to ensuring that each client’s particular situation and preferences are well understood and that the solution that is tailored for them is pinpoint accurate. Helping to smooth and fine tune the bond that forms at the point of introduction, Stacy is dedicated to ensuring that this foundation grows solid upon its establishment. Once this groundwork is laid, she remains available thereafter to ensure that it stays stable and that any questions or issues that might arise can be handled quickly and reliably.

Stacy will be the first person you speak to about how we at AlpinHaus Shepherds can match you with the dream Dog that will forever impact your life. The Dogs that we raise at AlpinHaus will become your Family Members.

At AlpinHaus we know that the decision to embark on this journey will be one of the highest importance and we are here for you every step of the way.

Richard Heinz

Executive Director of Dog Training

Creator of the Award -Winning Heinz Method of Dog Training and a Master Dog trainer to top training professionals all over the world. Richard Heinz resides in Miami, Florida and is known as The Miami Dog Whisperer with over 25 years of experience and proven excellence in the Dog Training field.

Richard Heinz is the winner of the Business Excellence Award in Miami, Florida for 10 consecutive years and is sought after by Dog Owners and Dog Trainers alike to help them achieve their full potential and superb results with their Dogs.

Rober-Rober D’Avena

Intern, Dog Training

Our Intrepid Intern is Rober-Rober D’Avena, an extraordinary young man hailing from outside the capital of the United States of America, Washington DC.

Rober has been working with AlpinHaus for 2 years now, since he was 15, seasonally and during breaks as the school schedule permits.

After a successful 2022 season where he visited AlpinHaus here in the Alps for 10 days, he returned in 2023 for a second year, this time spending a month with us, during which time he worked all day, every day, except for one.

Over the duration we got a lot of work in, from doing massive amounts of bitework and decoying, to dog handling, to ‘bringing dogs out’ by virtue of the black-belt dog training technique of peek-a-booing, to driving across France to collect Under the Flame of the Crimson Sun and his brother Ultrexx, to watching police-dog training sessions. He ended up taking bites from every Dog we have, with the exception of a double-attack from Rebelle & Riptide. He has learned a lot and demonstrated a phenomenal amount of grit, determination and endurance.

Rober is finishing up High School currently, where he studies AP Physics amongst other topics. Aside from Protection Dog Training, his obsession is Formula 1 and cars in general. Rober-Rober knows more about Formula 1 than almost anyone else on earth, including most of the drivers. Prior to joining AlpinHaus Rober spent a year performing school work remotely as he sailed with his family across the Atlantic Ocean and up the coast from the deep Caribbean to Maine.

Rober-Rober plans to study Engineering starting in Autumn 2024.