Wolfpack Working Dogs Club Members

Sharon started training dogs in schutzhund/IPO/IPG in Houston, TX in 1983.  She was a member of the Spring Valley Working Dog Club and the United Schutzhund Clubs of America. She titled two dogs to SchHII, and two more dogs to SchHIII while living in Texas.  She taught a class on Applied Animal Training at the University of Houston, Clear Lake Campus.  

After moving home to the Black Hills, Sharon was a member of Lawrence County Search and Rescue for eight years, and trained and certified her search and rescue dog with the International Police Working Dog Association (IPWDA) and the North American Police Working Dog Association (NAPWDA).  She taught an applied animal training class for Black Hills State University at the Humane Society in Rapid City, SD for four years.  She has been an American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Evaluator for over 10 years.  

She currently is training a 5 year old German Shepherd in schutzhund/IPO/IPG (they keep changing the name!), and a 3.5 year old Australian Shepherd in wilderness area search.

 Dan started in his world of dog training over 25 years ago with his first German Shepherd. Completing their AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) was Dan’s introduction into the world of dog training. For the past 15 years Dan has been involved in the Dog Sport of IGP (previous known as Schutzhund & IPO) which consists of 3 phases - Tracking, Competition Obedience, and Protection Work. 

Dan is a Certified Training Director and Regional Championship Level Helper under the organization of DVG. Dan is also a member of United Schutzhund Club of American (USCA) which is an organization dedicated to protecting and preserving the German Shepherd Dog’s working heritage by hosting conformation shows, breed surveys, and Schutzhund trials. Dan is certified as a USCA Club Level Helper. 

Over the years of private and sport training, Dan has helped to decoy, train, and title numerous dogs from a variety of breeds including, German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, Dutch Shepherds, Boxers, Dobermans, and Rottweilers to name a few. Dan has assisted in training and done decoy work with Police K9 units, and personal protection dogs for clients.

Dan actively competes in IGP/Schutzhund Sport.

Kelli Poole was introduced to the Wolf Pack Working Dogs Club in early 2023. Eager to learn all

proficient dog handling skills, she joined with enthusiasm with her Belgian Malinois Ovis. Kelli

had been exposed to working Malinois and Dutch Sheppard’s where she trained in Utah. Kelli is

an avid hunter, with previous experience running hounds for lion and coon. Kelli hopes to

develop further obedience and protection work with her dog focusing on American Shutzhund

and IGP. Kelli is new to sport training but eager to learn all to keep her dog engaged and

prepared for time in the field.

Andi developed a love and passion for dogs growing up in Kansas. I showed my first dog, a miniature pinscher, in obedience, rally, showmanship, and agility while in 4-H along with teaching him many different tricks. After high school and a year of attending Panhandle State University in Oklahoma, I decided to expand my knowledge and begin a career in dog training. In 2018, I graduated from the 12 week program at Starmark Academy down in Texas as a Canine Training and Behavior Specialist. I gained knowledge in nosework, tracking and hunting, behavior modification, narcotics, bitework, on and off-leash obedience, tricks, service tasks, dock diving, competitive obedience, and agility. Later that year, I got married and we moved to California and then to Wyoming with Weatherby. After building Weatherby rifles for about a year, I hired on at the Country Pet Inn as a kennel tech/dog trainer. While working under head trainer, Shan Foster, I got more hands on experience with on and off-leash obedience, bitework, bomb detection,  and hunt training.  I trained client dogs for the 3 week obedience program, and taught go-homes and private lessons. We also trained service dogs for our veterans in the Stray to Service program with the shelter. I hired on with the Dog and Cat Shelter as a trainer working with the strays as well. I’ve competed in nosework, dock diving, and achieved the expert trick dog title and CGC with my English shepherd, Dannsair. I’ve also titled two other personal dogs with their CGC. Since moving to South Dakota recently, I wanted to find like-minded dog people and always enjoy a day out training with Wolfpack Working Dogs. I also own a mini American named Coda, and Dannsair’s sire, Mowgli.

Morgan Sires is one of our youngest new members, with her dog Charlie.  She and Charlie have recently done the shift from precision tracking to trailing live victims.  Charlie LOVES finding food on the ground.  Morgan says:

"I am still pretty new with the Wolfpack Working Dogs group as I have only been with them for a year. Since joining I have started trail work with my dog. As of now we still have room for improvement and a lot to learn, but the goal is to hopefully get certified in the next couple years. In the future I am hoping to continue working on trailing and eventually find a dog to train in Schutzund (or whatever name they want to call in now ol)."

Hey everyone! My name is Jessica Grodzins (Jess, Jessie, whatever lol) I am 24yrs old, I have had dogs

since I was in the womb! I grew up with a GSD and yellow lab mix, then came the little dogs… we won’t

go into detail about all of those.. but we always had a lab and a heeler around the farm. I also grew up

riding horses since I was able to walk. Riding horses competitively is how I was able to make it to college.

Before I knew exactly what I wanted to do I was going to be a horse trainer and take over my trainers

business back home. But then my senior year of college my anxiety and depression got really bad and I

needed my border collie mix (Cardi) to help me out a little bit more than just ESA. That is when I went to

Katherine Andrews to start taking Cardi through the training process to become my service dog. I had

two options; leave Cardi at Katherine’s to be trained, or go there twice a month and work my butt off to

do the training myself with Cardi. With how bad my panic attacks were I chose option 2 of keeping her

with me. In 3 months we passed our AKC CGC (Canine Good Citizen), CGCA (Canine Good Citizen

Advanced), CGCU (Canine Good Citizen Urban) and Public Access Test. Katherine was very impressed

with the amount of hours I put into Cardi and asked if I have ever thought about training dogs (honestly

very similar to horses). I agreed to come out and learn about aggression cases and basic pet training.

After doing that for two years I was introduced to Dan and the world of working dogs and personal

protection dogs. I love the sport work for the control it teaches. But I’m really passionate about the

process of creating a “man stopper” that can protect someone who is fearful of their life. With all of this

time put together I have been training for 3 years in June. I absolutely love working with all different

dogs and learning all of their different little habits. I personally have quite the abundance of different

dogs ranging from my 4yr old service dog Cardi, to my pet French bulldogs (London- 3yrs old, olive- 2yrs

old), to my working GSD (Ringo- 1 1/2 yrs old), my Mal pups (Oso and Cyra- 6mo old) and the new

addition of the Dutchie (Sully- 22mo old). Basically to shorten things up… I came out of the womb animal

crazy, and I will die animal crazy lol!

Kendra Kimball is one of our newer members.  She hunts with her family's dog, and intends to have one of her own as her new profession allows.  She joined to practice new skills she will need BEFORE she got her own dog.  That's dedication!  This is what we have learned about her:

Kendra joined the group in 2021. She has had an interest in Search and Rescue work ever since being on the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT) Mine Rescue team (2017-2019). She knew that in the future she wanted to work with a search and rescue team. After graduating from SDSMT in 2019 with a Bachelors of Science in Applied Biology with emphasis in environmental science and chemistry she started working as a 911 dispatcher. While she greatly enjoyed this job it was often hard to be on the other end of the line, often not knowing what the outcome of the calls were. Through this job her love of the first responder community grew. In spring of 2020 she worked as a front-line healthcare worker as a COVID tester. This job was also difficult as she stayed away from her family. The one thing about these two jobs is that she didn’t get to enjoy the outdoors. After contacting her advisors and looking at different job positions a decision was made to go back to school in the fall of 2020. Kendra is now pursuing a double major of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences; and Environmental, Economics and Policy. Her current career goals are to become a Game Warden or Conservation Officer and in the future to work as a K9 handler in this line of work.