Meet Our Founders

Stephanie started training dogs over twenty years ago. When she and her husband, Tom adopted their first German Shepherd, Sampson. They wanted to be responsible dog parents, but they had different dog training techniques, and although Stephanie had dogs her entire life, she had dog fear channeling through her young GSD Sampson.  They wanted to learn a new training technique, so they contacted Mark Stover, a renowned dog trainer living in the San Juans. Mark helped Stephanie work through 30 years of dog fear and taught her how to understand dog body language allowing her to walk with loving confidence with her Sampson. After completing basic training with Sampson, they decided to move forward with protective training.

 

Stephanie's love for Sampson and German Shepherds led her to adopt her second GSD, Sonya, which soon became the beginning of her new breeding business, Von Hospiz Schaferhunde. Stephanie’s eleven years of breeding made her known as San Juan's premier East German Shepherd Breeder. Several years later, Stephanie went to work for Mark as a lead obedience trainer and eventually inherited his business after his passing. Today, Stephanie is passionate about facilitating loving and healthy connections between dogs and their owners.