Hi, my name is Storm and I have 3 German Shepherd
Dogs: Sere, Saxon and Blitz. We used to live in Dallas quite a few years ago,
and adopted a dog from the ASPCA. It didn't take me long to find the local
Animal Shelter that was just getting off the ground, and becoming very active
in the everyday rescuing of stray dogs. We didn't have a building, so many of
us did the fostering. That was when I first fell in love with Shepherds, and
we've had them ever since. When we moved to Pittsburgh, I started volunteering at Animal
Friends, where I became their Volunteer Coordinator for 6 years, training the
volunteers, as well as helping walk the shelter dogs, working on fund raisers,
and fostering.
After leaving Animal Friends, I became more interested in obedience training; I
started helping a friend teach her classes, and then started teaching classes
myself. That, of course, led me to competing in the Obedience ring with my own
dogs; Sere earned her CDX title, Saxon earned his Utility title, and Blitz is
still a work in progress. I still get nervous in the ring, but I really enjoy
the process of teaching the exercises to my dogs. I also enjoy teaching other
people to train their dogs - I think the part I really look forward to is when
an owner sees the progress his or her dog is making, as well as the bond that is
taking place between dog and owner. It makes me feel good to know I've helped
with that. If more people were interested in working with their dogs, not
necessarily to compete, but just to make them better family pets, then perhaps
we'd have fewer dogs sitting in shelter cages. That's something we can all work
to accomplish.
