The trainers of Southern Star Ranch have many successful years of experience in training dogs for both obedience and scent detection. Each of the trainers at Southern Star Ranch have the common goal; to offer only the finest trained and most methodical, discriminative detection dogs in the nation. They pride themselves not only on the dog’s accuracy but also in the dog’s joy and enthusiasm in doing the job.

Southern Star Ranch is licensed by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Our detector dog training includes Narcotic, Accelerant, Termite, Tree Nut and Peanut detection. Southern Star Ranch K9 Training Center’s trained detector dogs are working across the United States and around the world.
 
 

Sharon Perry, Director of Training, has had a life filled with dogs. She started training her Collie, Chris, when she was only six years old.

Sharon, after a long term career in Chemical Engineering, was forced into early retirement. What some people would have considered a devastating blow, she used as an opportunity to begin her second career, utilizing her passion for dogs. And so began Southern Star Ranch Boarding Kennel and K9 Training Center.

The business now includes training in obedience, tracking, narcotic and arson detection dogs for police work, termite detection dogs for home inspectors and pest control companies, and most recently, peanut detection dogs for people with food allergies. Southern Star Ranch also offers courses to train dog trainers. Over the years, Sharon's dogs have been placed in jobs from Alaska to New Hampshire, from Florida to Arizona, as well as internationally.

Sharon’s philosophy of training trickles down to her associates and colleagues; the entire training staff focuses on using utmost patience and consistency when training any of the dogs in their care.

Her greatest reward as the Director of Training at Southern Star Ranch is seeing well trained dogs happily working for their satisfied owners, not to mention hearing how one of her dogs put a bad guy off the streets. One of her proudest moments was learning that one of the dogs she trained was named the “top dog” in New Mexico.

Sharon has found increased satisfaction through the Peanut Dog Program. She can provide individuals, often children, who have life-threatening food allergies with a new found independence through peanut detecting dogs. It has been a joy hearing the updates of her most recent placement.

Sharon currently lives with a pack of five rescued dogs, two rescued cats, two goats, two horses and nine cows, all of whom worship her.