About Us
Sarah Smith, CMDT
Sarah has had a passion for dogs all of her life. Sarah would spend her summer vacations with her grandparents, founders of CR Shepherds, at a young age. This was her first experience with working dogs. After many years of experience in training and then running a business, Sarah went off to school at the Conifer Canine Dog Trainer College in Spencer, IN where she received her master trainer certification in November of 2020. This certification gave Sarah the knowledge she needed to go above and beyond her clients expectations.
Shana Rideout, Owner of CR Shepherds
Shana has over 20 years of experience in training dogs. She purchased CR Shepherds from her father Neal in 2018 after he decided to retire. She has had experience with a variety of animals her whole life and training working dogs has been a passion throughout our family for decades.
The beginning
Neal and Karen
1958 was the year Neal was first introduced to dog training when he volunteered to decoy in the air force. At that time his dog of choice was the German Shepherd, but since then he expanded his preferences to include the Belgian Malinois, and recently the German Malinois cross. All three of these breeds, with proper training, will make exceptional working dogs and/or dedicated pets who will protect the family with their lives. Training dogs had taken him around the world where many of the dogs he had trained are working today in police departments, protecting homes, and making outstanding family pets.
Neal and Karen moved to Costa Rica where the highest demand was for personal and home protection dogs. There they began to train dogs that had the courage to defend, becoming an immediate protection and alarm system for their owners
In 2000 he began working with Gary LaFollette at LaFollette Training Center and Drugbeat in Missouri. There he became a certified agent for Drugbeat and training went to a new and very exciting level - building detection dogs for the police. Today he is still a certifying agent with Drugbeat based in northern Florida.
Our kennel, CR Shepherds has moved several times since they have moved both in and out of the country. They have now settled in Homosassa, FL where they decided to retire. After spending several years learning from and working with Neal, Shana their daughter and Sarah their granddaughter are now continuing to breed and train excellent high pedigree German Shepherds, Belgian malinois and the hybrid breed German Malinois.
