Leerburg / Dog Training Articles / The History of Ed Frawley and Leerburg

The History of Ed Frawley and Leerburg

By Ed Frawley

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Ed Frawley with three of his house dogs: Rainy, Morgi, and CJ. July 2005.

Am I the only one who has noticed how many dog training websites that don't identify the people who own them? They don't tell you one thing about the owners or their experience in the field.

I have a saying that I like to quote when customers send me emails asking my thoughts on recommendations they have been given or read on dog training. My saying goes like this:

"You are always going to be exposed to people who offer advice on how to train your dog or fix your dog's behavioral issues. The problem is that most of these people don't have the experience to offer sound advice. This results in a lot of bad dog training information being passed out."

This page gives a brief outline of my experience in dog training. If you'd like to learn more about me, I did an extensive 2-hour interview about my history in dog training.

Ed at Leerburg's 2010 Michael Ellis Seminar

About Ed Frawley

Ed Frawley has owned dogs since the 1950s. He grew up with dogs in the family and started to take training seriously in high school.

Ed Frawley started Leerburg in the mid-1970s. Leerburg was originally a professional video studio that specialized in producing dog training videos and DVDs. It expanded into Leerburg Kennels where it became one of the top German Shepherd breeding facilities in America. Ed Frawley has since retired from breeding working German Shepherds to focus on building content for Leerburg.

Leerburg specializes in providing dog training information for dog trainers ranging from the average dog lover to serious trainers in K-9 services or competitive dog sports. Leerburg provides hundreds of articles, thousands of videos, and premier online dog training courses alongside the best quality dog training equipment recommended by expert dog trainers.

Ed Frawley's dogs work in law enforcement, S&R, Personal Protection, and the sport of Schutzhund. Breeders from all over America have bought Leerburg bloodline dogs to strengthen the working ability of the dogs in their own breeding facility.

Ed Frawley (the owner of Leerburg) has trained dogs since his boyhood. Ed got involved in the sport of Schutzhund in 1974 and became a member of Schutzhund USA in 1976. He is currently a member of Schutzhund USA and the German SV (the German Shepherd Dog Club of West Germany).

Ed went to his first police K9 training seminar in 1978 and started to produce training videos in the early 1980s. Since he began breeding German Shepherds in 1977, he has produced over 350 litters of German bloodline German Shepherds. No one in America has done this.

Since 1977, all of the bloodlines of dogs in Ed Frawley's Leerburg breeding program have been imported from Germany. Germany has two distinct categories of bloodlines in their German Shepherds. There are working bloodlines and show bloodlines. For almost 30 years, Ed has only bred working bloodline German dogs. This fact has shaped the quality of the dogs he produces today.

Since starting the video business in 1980, Ed Frawley has produced over 120 dog training videos, more than anyone else in the world. The quality of his work is recognized around the world as the best dog training videos available anywhere.

A photo of Ed Frawley from the Florida training seminar that Ed sponsored in January 2003

In 1979, Ed purchased a home video camera with the sole intent of videotaping some of the many dog training seminars he attended every year. In 1980 he started to advertise these seminar videos in several dog training magazines. By 1984, he had a professional editing studio. Since then, the business has grown to the point where today, Leerburg has over 80,000 people on a mailing list and a state-of-the-art video editing studio that is better equipped than many small television stations.

Ed Frawley has been training German Shepherds for 45 years. He started out training for personal pleasure. He went to his first Schutzhund seminar in 1974 and started training police service dogs in 1978. In the early 1980s, he competed in AKC obedience and tracking events, putting numerous titles on a number of different dogs.

In the mid-1980s, Ed competed in Schutzhund events both in the United States and Germany. His interests soon turned to the training of police service dogs.

Ed Frawley with 1 pound of methamphetamine that his K-9 found

In 1990, Ed Frawley was asked to become a Reserve K-9 Officer with the local Sheriff's Department. After going through the state police program, he became a Wisconsin State Certified Police Officer. Over the past 20 years, Ed has attended and co-sponsored more police K9 training seminars than he can remember.

Until February of 1995, he handled the only narcotics dog in Dunn County, WI. As a canine officer, he assisted the Wisconsin State Patrol, the Dunn County Sheriff's Department, the WI Department of Narcotic Enforcement, and for 10 years, he worked very closely with West Central Drug Taskforce.

Ed and his narcotics dogs were involved in over 1,000 narcotics searches with several hundred arrests. Ed has testified in both Federal and State courts. His narcotic dogs assisted in seizing over $240,000.00 in cash and uncounted amounts of narcotics. On January 13, 1997, Ed Frawley and his K-9, Gabby, received an award from the Dunn County Sheriff's Department honoring his years of K-9 service.

Ed Frawley on a fishing in Canada in 2002

The video business started in 1979 when Ed decided to film dog training seminars out of an interest in documenting sound training techniques for his own use.

Many of the videos Ed has produced were filmed in Europe. Ed has gone to West Germany, East Germany (before the wall came down), Belgium, Holland, England, and Canada to produce dog training videos and DVDs. He goes where he feels he can work with the best trainers in the world to offer the best training information available.

If you buy DVDs from Leerburg, you are buying from a dog trainer with practical experience.

Ed thinks of himself as a dog trainer first and a video producer second. He brings his 45 years of dog experience and many years of law enforcement to the training videos.

New dog trainers have such an advantage over when I started. They have videos and the internet to learn from. My website alone has hundreds of articles and thousands of training videos. The 120 DVDs I have produced since 1982 offer a wealth of information that I would have died to access 45 years ago.

When I decided to produce training DVDs and sell related dog training products, I made the decision to approach the business in the same way I approached dog training. By that, I mean I would hold nothing back and I would only sell the best quality products I could find. I would never try and compete with Walmart, or the pet food warehouses where quality takes a back seat to price points. The success of Leerburg has proven that there are people out there who value quality information and products and they are willing to pay for it.

Ed lives with Cindy Rhodes. Cindy has been involved in the dog sport since 1985. She competed in the Schutzhund USA nationals with a female Doberman in 1990. Cindy is Leerburg's dog training advice columnist and can be reached through our Ask Cindy section.

Ed has two adult sons from previous marriages, Jeff and Eric. Jeff was a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne and Eric is a commercial diver on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ed Frawley with a deer that his son, Jeff, shot when he was 13 years old in South Dakota

Ed has since retired from breeding working bloodline German Shepherds in order to devote more time to Leerburg. He continues to produce video and content for online dog training courses while working alongside several expert dog trainers like Michael Ellis and Kevin Sheldahl.

Read Ed's Philosophy on Dog Training.

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About Author

Ed Frawley

Ed Frawley is the founder of Leerburg. He has been training dogs since the 1950s. For 30 years, Ed bred working bloodline German Shepherds and has produced over 350 litters. During this time, Ed began recording dog training videos and soon grew an interest in police service dogs. His narcotic dogs have been involved in over 1,000 narcotics searches resulting in hundreds of arrests in the state of Wisconsin. Ed now solely focuses on producing dog training courses with renowned dog trainers nationwide. If you want to learn more about Ed, read about his history here.