Hi from Louisiana

I got the link to this board from somewhere, don't remember where though. I recognize a few names here as well, some that I've met in person and others that I know from other forums or E-lists. I figured what the hell, a new place to cruise around and see what's going on.

A little about me:
My name is Mike Russell. My wife and I breed German Shepherd Dogs under the kennel name \"von den Dämonhunden\" (usually only averaging one well planned litter per year or two). I've been a helper/decoy for both sport (mostly Schutzhund) and police dogs for the past 6 years. I've been working with dogs in one fashion or another for most of my life (with the exception of 6yrs that I spent in the military, with half that time being in the Persian Gulf). I was one of the founding members of the only DVG club in Louisiana and served as VicePresident and main decoy for 2 years. Due to personal issues, we (my wife and I) left the club recently. We're now looking at starting up a combined Schutzhund and Mondio/PSA club in the Lafayette area. I do a lot of pedigree research for myself and others, including helping to plan breedings for other breeders. Thanks to contacts that I made when I became one of the founding members of GSD-Euro (Yahoo! E-list), I was provided with a lot of information on the breed that most people don't have access to (old SV Director notes and publications) and a very extensive WinSIS database that helped further my research of the GSD breed.

One of our most recent brags is that a dog from our A litter competed at the AWDF National Trial over the March 30-April 2 weekend. He is only 30 months old and was not a SchH3/IPO3 dog at the time, that trial was only his 5th trial, and he titled at the trial and took home the \"Youngest IPO3 Dog\" trophy. That dog, Aiden, is also a certified and working Narcotics Detection Dog with quite a few finds to his name.

[admin note: although I appreciate and find amusing the comment that was once in place of this admin note :lol: please refrain from making negative comments about other boards or people in future, even when it's really tempting ]

I look forward to talking with all of you on the various topics on this board.