In the past 3.5 yrs-since we got our first GSD-my husband and I have been talking about breeding and training dogs, specifically Labs and working line GSD's.

My goal is to become a great dog trainer-and I feel I'm well on my way, still have some books to read and things to learn yet.
I would also like to have my own dog boarding facility-this will be a few years down the road once we can buy some land and get everything set up. We would also like to breed English style Labradors for hunting (among other things) and breed working line GSD's for sport (SchH, PPD, and police K9's).

We know there's a lot to breeding any breed. background, temperments, titles, health checks/hip and elbow OFA's, whelping, finding suitable homes for puppies and having them set up before the litter is whelped. I know there's alot more to breeding than picking any stud dog and any bitch and letting them breed and see what happens-like some irresponsible breeders do.

One of the issues we ran into was that we are far from the nearest SchH club (about 500 mi at least), there's one in Bozeman, MT and the other is in Minneapolis, MN. This is one of the unfortunate problems with living in ND. Is there anyone here that doesn't have a SchH club or any other club close to them who knows where I'm coming from?

We have talked about doing SchH since we got Shaed back in 2006. Shaed isn't a very good prospect for SchH or for breeding anyway-I was told she was a mediocre dog by a GSD breeder in MT, we had her spayed this past may.

We have been talking about getting another GSD. One from working lines that has tons of drive and that we could train and compete with. Right now it'd be a little bit hard because we have a 13.5 mo old daughter and have plans for having another one after she's 2yo.

I know the time, energy and effort it takes to have a dog of the caliber for sport. Which is why we got Lily last year instead of another GSD while our daughter was only 2mo old.

I need any advice on where I should start with becoming a dog trainer (good books that I should get-lists of them), and what we could do about SchH clubs or the lack there of in ND. We've already talked about making our future vacations/trips into ones where we go to dog training seminars and go visit clubs, but I'd really like to not have to drive for a day to get to a club-might be inevitable, I know.

Right now I'm at a loss, and it's kind of discouraging. I've always wanted to work with animals (dogs specifically) and I have the chance to start soon, I just don't have the necessary tools (a club, helpers, etc.) to get and start a high drive GSD pup.

I know that this forum has many experienced dog owners/handlers/trainers, many of whom have competed in SchH and other dog sports and have raised working dogs. Any advice and guidance with any or all of the things I have talked about would help me (and my hubby) out tremendously.

Thank you in advance!

So, since you and your husband are planning on making a career or at least a serious hobby out of Schutzhund dogs, if it's at all possible, can you move to a location closer to a club? Or maybe even get a team together and start one?

You've noticed you're starting out at a disadvantage, not having a club with trainers, mentors and potential puppy customers / breeding stock potential nearby. Maybe a big move could be a goal to work toward?

It is something we would seriously consider. We would have to find some kind of power plant close to where there is a club and depending on whether they're hiring or not would be the biggest thing. My husband works for a power plant in ND, and we'd have to make sure that we could find something for him in his line of work so we still had an income coming in. I have a cosmetology license, but I'm looking into doing school online also for something else (what? I don't know for sure yet :P )

There is no reason you can't train Shaed for Schutzhund. You may never trial or title her, but motivational training never hurt any dog! Especially the obedience and tracking parts, maybe a bit of prey work. It will be good practise for you and good fun for the dog.

Build thee some blinds and train her to run around them. Your husband can be hiding in there with her favourite toy and they have a fun game of tug when she finds him!

She may not be cut out for any real protection work or trials, but there's no reason (barring physical problems) she can't be your guinea pig for you learning to train the behaviours.

What is the population where you live?
Could you start an Obedience/ Rally/ Agility Club?
You could pool your knowledge resources and help each other train dogs. Then put an ad in the paper looking for new members to join and start putting on a few demos. Canada Day, Halloween, Christmas....Go to schools, elderly care facilities etc. and get your name out there as a club.
You can start fundraising for equipment and such, but also, you could use some fundraising to pay people to come you. Just contact trainers that maybe you have experience with or that come highly recommended by knowledgeable dog people.Let them know that you are starting a club/ or a new club looking for a seminar, if you paid their fare and a set wage, would they be interested in putting something on for you.

Where I live, we are pretty isolated from seminars and such. Luckily, we have a few REALLY good clubs to join for Obedience and such. We have an established SCH club that, every year, pays for a judge to come up for a trial and they pay a few really good trainers from the States to come up and give a weekend seminar. They use membership fees and seminar fees to pay for this. The more people participate, the cheaper the seminar is.

Also, when people travel to other seminars they bring back the information to share with the rest of the club.

Sorry I forgot to say.....

If you start as an everything club, then isolate those that are interested in SCH, then start your club from there. You can have different set times to practice each thing. Sometimes people tend to have a bad perception of SCH, so people being able to see that it is in fact a control sport might make them want to join!

I think your best bet it to make an official club so you can fund raise to have people come to you!

Then you don't have to relocate!

I had considered joining the BKC (Bismarck Kennel Club), they deal more with the AKC events and dog shows (AKC tracking, agility, showing, CGC, etc.) and that's not something that I'm interested in.

Niomi, I do like the idea of starting our own club and seeing what would heppen-the town we live in has roughly 3,000 people (nearest town has about 5,000) so it might be a rough start. Willing to give it a try.

Angela, you make an excellent point! I hadn't really thought about using Shaed as the "guinea pig" for any future dogs we'd be training... although she was the first dog of our three and she was the guinea pig then lol

We have a long way to go, but I am determined to succeed.

Hey Keleah, AKC obedience, tracking,agility, etc.. isn't nothing. Check around, I bet you find a lot of Sch. folks started there. Remember, hands on experience in different venues is something thats always posted when someone asks about finding a trainer.

AKC OB was my first training venue for better than a decade.

I had you in mind when I was posting Will.