Celeste Schmidt

From the time she was young Celeste always had a deep passion for animals. Learning as much as she could and spending her free time with the family dogs. In her early teens she got her first dog Dakota, who had severe fear aggression towards people, and fear-based reactivity towards other dogs. She reached out to local trainers to work with him. That turned into Celeste mentoring with those trainers and eventually becoming their assistant trainer. These trainers worked for an animal shelter, and Celeste assisted them in training and rehabilitating the shelter dogs that had behavior issues. She learned the importance of timing, consistency, and balance, and worked Dakota through his behavior issues. Dakota was such a success story that he became their go-to demo and training dog! Little did Celeste know at that time that she would eventually end up fulfilling her mentors’ role, and become the lead trainer for the shelter. Celeste was also responsible for evaluating the temperament of all the dogs at the shelter, giving her a tremendous depth of experience in dealing with a wide variety of breeds, temperaments, and behavior issues. In her spare time, she began training Dakota in sport work — successful competing with and titling Dakota. It was through this process she discovered her passion for German Shepherds, and went on to compete with and title her first GSD, as well as train him up to be her Medical Service Alert Dog. Since that time, she has also gone on to start her own, successful breeding program for German Shepherds as well.