SPRING VALLEY – As Hilary Boyer and her mother Valerie Anderson hosted their first dog training class Wednesday, Jan. 17 in the new facility they built in the Spring Valley Business Park, they could scarcely believe it. After all, it’s not often a dream 20 years in the making comes to fruition.

Overdale Kennel & Canine Sports officially opened a 10,500 square-foot state-of-the-art training and event facility on Westland Drive next to the Spring Valley Health Care Center last week. That first night open saw canines and their handlers joyfully tackling courses on first-class matting special ordered and engineered for dog agility.

“I feel relieved that it’s finally open,” Boyer said. “I’m thrilled!”

Anderson described the feeling as euphoric.

“When we had dogs running in here, I was taking pictures,” Anderson said. “It was just awesome. It was so nice to have my dog working on nice flooring that I could manage.”

Overdale, which has operated from N8694 County Road B in rural Spring Valley since its founding 20 years ago in Anderson’s basement, will still use that location for boarding, grooming and pet training classes. Obedience, agility, rally, trick and nose work classes and events will be held at the new facility. 

Anderson said western Wisconsin doesn’t have a dedicated trial size facility. The closest in Wisconsin is Madison.

“Years ago, people would rent out sports facilities to host trials,” Anderson said. “But all the equipment had to be trailered in and out. In the Twin Cities there are a lot of dedicated facilities and people don’t have equipment that moves around anymore. That era is gone. We went to Soccer Blast up until eight years ago and then they stopped using that one too.”

When the duo started doing agility, competitions took place outdoors on soccer fields. However, unpredictable weather conditions, heat, lack of proper fencing and the potential for dogs to run away make outdoor facilities less than ideal.

“The whole industry has really changed over the years,” Boyer said. “There is no dedicated facility in this area.”

“Smarty Paws (in Lake Hallie) was not big enough to host trials but could have agility,” Anderson said. “But they closed and it left a void for classes in a large indoor area.”  

Overdale clients come from all over for classes, up to two hours away in some cases.

“People will drive for a facility like this because they are not readily available,” Anderson said. “I’ve driven across the state for a half-day seminar. People could be coming from everywhere for competitions.”

The journey

Boyer bought the land in Fall 2022 but faced many delays in the process. The first lot she bought had drainage issues, so they switched to a different one. She also went through loan restructuring and builder delays. The building, which they had hoped to start in June, began going up in September.

Boyer likes its proximity to the nearby nursing home. Overdale will be hosting therapy dog classes and residents there will benefit.

“The instructor for that class and the people at the nursing home are really excited about the opportunity to work together,” Boyer said. “Therapy dogs have practice working in that environment and the residents over there will get an opportunity to interact with the dogs.”

The facility will also be home to many events and people traveling will be able to use five RV hookups at the new facility. Just down the road at Team Oil are eight more. The proximity to I-94 is also handy, as people will come from all over the country to events in the new building.

Overdale boasts one full-time groomer, four full-time instructors and one assistant instructor, plus the two owners. They are looking to hire more instructors as business is booming.

“We do tons of pet dog training and that’s outpacing everything else,” Boyer said. “We have always had competition and canine sports but we didn’t have the whole facility to host it. Now it’s growing by leaps and bounds and we’ve already doubled our agility class offerings.”

Overdale has about three to four entry level classes start each month, plus at least one puppy class. Class sizes are capped at 10.

“We have two instructors that are just dedicated to pet dog classes and an assistant instructor helping with that,” Boye said.

A trial size agility space must be 8,000 square feet. Those who compete in obedience work on advanced skills such as heeling off leash, long stays, retrieving, jumping, signal exercises, scent discrimination and more.

Rally is a more accessible form of obedience competition, Anderson explained. She described it as a combination of agility and obedience where dogs are running a course, but instead of doing obstacles at each station, they perform an obedience task.

“Trick dog is a really great entry level competition for people who have never done anything before,” Boyer said. “All of the instructors are certified to title dogs for trick dogs. It’s a really great intro level for titling event. It’s teaching your dog to do tricks.”

Lastly, Overdale has started classes in nose work for the first time. Dogs are taught to identify different scents, such as drugs, bombs or cadavers. They learn to find things that are buried, hidden, hidden and out of their reach, underwater, indoors and outdoors.

“Most people do it for fun for competition because it’s really fun and the dogs love it,” Boyer said. “Sydney (her daughter) taught her dog to follow a blood trail and uses her dog to track down deer for hunters. It’s really cool to watch the dogs track a deer. They were looking for it for two hours and the dog found it in two minutes. The dogs get so excited about deer tracking that they get disappointed if it’s not a deer.”

“We haven’t really run into a dog yet that hasn’t loved it,” Anderson said of nose work.

Pierce County 4-H

Boyer started working with dogs when she was a 7-year-old 4-Her; Anderson started when she was 9. They both went on to make dog training their careers and became Pierce County 4-H Dog Project instructors. Boyer currently leads the Dog Project and the County Line Lions 4-H Club.

Last year, 105 Pierce County 4-H members were part of the Dog Project, Boyer said, which is about 1 in 6.

“We also have one of the largest 4-H programs in the state and our Dog Project is an enormous chunk of that,” Boyer said. “Part of it is the people that we have involved. Not many Dog Projects have access to professional trainers and facilities. We do the agility right here and it’s an incredibly popular program. We also really work to get the youth involved. We have youth trainers who have come through the program and have learned to teach. It’s great for the youth that are teaching and the youth that are learning.”

Pierce’s Dog Project also offers more programs than other counties. It was the first county to introduce a trick dog program. Many counties only offer obedience options.

“The entry level obedience stuff can still be pretty hard and inaccessible,” Boyer said. “More kids can be more successful and want to participate here.”

Having a vibrant Dog Project requires a lot of manpower, Boyer admitted. The committee consists of 10 main member with many more volunteers.  

“If you don’t have a lot of people to help you, you can’t manage it,” she said.

All Overdale instructors are national competitors in various events. This high-powered group loves sharing their knowledge with others.

“We all learn from each other,” Anderson said. “I would say my strength is dog behavior more than competitional obedience, but for Hilary and I, when we walk into a beginner class, just because of all of the thousands of dogs that have gone through our hands, we are just very intuitive in dog behavior and everyone is learning from us. And we learn from them. Every dog we’ve handled teaches us something.”

The business will host a grand opening event in the spring. People can look forward to canine sport demonstrations and meeting various dog breeds, everything from a giant Mexican hairless dog (a Xoloitzcuintle) or a Basset Bleu de Gascogne.

“We have collected a number of unusual breeds people haven’t seen before,” Anderson said.

For more information on classes and services, visit overdalekennel.com