Ed Hobby and his wife Karen moved to Tacoma, WA in late 1988.   Shortly thereafter, they became involved with a Volksmarching (German Walking) Club in that area.  During this time, Ed took a job where he traveled a lot and Karen ended up walking by herself.  Ed had some involvement with sentry dogs when he was in the Marine Corps.  He suggested to Karen that she get a large dog to walk with.  Ed wanted to get a German Shepherd, but Karen wanted another breed which Ed did not think would be good protection dog for her.  This started a long discussion and search for just the right dog.   Eventually, this led them to the Bouvier des Flandres, a breed that neither of them knew anything about at the time.  They ended up deciding that this was their breed and they have since owned seven of them.

Ed had only minimal training experience and Karen none.  They did agree that dogs like this needed training.  Later they were to move to Renton, WA and Ed ended up training under Kathy Lang, owner of the Family Dog Training Center and one of the better known trainers in the Northwest.  While training with Kathy, Ed put CDs on several Bouviers and well as CDXs on two of them.  Ed then took an interest in agility and did quite well with two of the Bouviers.  The last Bouvier he trained, Harley, became too much for Ed when he started competing at the Elite level.  As Ed says, “I was just getting too old and feeble to keep up with Harley”.  On retiring from agility they decided not to get any more Bouviers.

In 2001,while trialing in agility, Karen and Ed retired and moved to Coeur d’Alene.  This was coming home for Ed because he had lived in St. Maries and Wallace during his youth.  Ed graduated from Wallace High School with the class of 1954.  Karen and Ed still live with two Bouviers, Chloe and Harley, but both Chloe and Harley are getting along in dog years.

In May, 2011, something unexpected happened.  An old competitor contacted Ed and told him she had a young Bouvier that she needed to place in a good home.  She said this puppy had a lot of potential and she knew Karen and Ed would give him a good place to live.  Reluctantly, Karen and Ed took the puppy, Miles, into their home.  Now, it’s back to obedience school for Ed and, of course, to the Coeur d’Alene Dog Fanciers, where Ed and Miles are taking classes and Ed can be found helping teach classes.