Cedar Valley Canine History
Cedar Valley Canine is a Family-Owned Kennel that began operating in 1993.
Dave Taylor started Cedar Valley Canine in 1993. The business was originally known as Cedar Valley Kennel, aptly named because he lived in a cedar valley just outside of Nashville.
In 2010, Dave moved to Alabama to become a Level IV instructor at The Auburn University Canine Detection Training Center, putting his own business on hold for a little bit. However, after a successful time with Auburn, he moved back to Nashville to continue with Cedar Valley Canine.
Today, we are located just outside of Nashville with access to major interstates and only 30 minutes from Nashville International Airport. With 90 beautiful acres bordering the Cumberland River in Cheatham County, we have a training environment that allows us to prepare dogs for a variety of possible scenarios.
Our Philosophy
Beyond Sit + Stay
Whether it’s breeding German Shepherds and Labrador Retrievers, or training dogs, we are passionate about going the extra mile to guarantee success.
When it comes to training, we believe that establishing communication for both the dog and owner is the key to success. We’ve developed a learning method based initially on positive reinforcement (food, toys and praise). At the appropriate stage of training, we use negative reinforcers to teach the dog consequences of unwanted behavior. In the end, it’s about creating a mutual understanding between dog and owner that will last a lifetime. We have multiple programs that fit a variety of training needs- anything from civilian, sport, military, protection and law enforcement. We welcome any and all breeds to our training program.
We’ve been successfully breeding German Shepherds for over 25 years, and we’ve taken that experience and expertise and used it to develop and raise our standards to the highest level of excellence.
Our breeding program is small and carefully monitored. As a family owned kennel, our German Shepherds are hand-raised with a keen focus on health and temperament. We provide the utmost care for our puppies and dogs.
Leadership
Meet Dave Taylor | the man behind Cedar Valley Canine
Dave Taylor
With what started as being a hobby trainer while in high school, Dave’s passion for training dogs quickly turned into an over 40 year career. After founding Cedar Valley Canine in 1993, Dave has been at the forefront of the working dog world- dealing with everything from importing, selection, and sales and training for Police and Military Working Canines, Companion/ Protector Dogs and Commercial/ Private Security.
Dave has numerous accomplishments and memberships: he has been a member of the United Schutzhund Clubs of America and has been a member of the German Shepherd Dog Club of America.
He is also an eight time competitor in Schutzhund/IPO III and ADPDA National Championships with five different dogs, twenty-plus time Protection Decoy for Schutzhund/IPO Trials and has eighteen first-time titles with six different dogs.
Dave has placed multiple dogs in Police/Military/Government service in the United States and abroad, has trained/certified hundreds of dog/handler teams in Narcotics, and trained more than 5000 dogs in the private and service dog sector.
Today, Dave is the head trainer and owner at Cedar Valley Canine. He lives on the property and runs the business with his wife, Betsy, and enjoys spending time with their children, grand-children, two beloved German Shepherds, four cats, two miniature horses and an adorable Shih Tzu.
Trainers + Staff
Megan Sanders
Office Manager | Trainer
Megan has been with Cedar Valley Canine since December of 2017. She started working with German Shepherd Dogs at Brandiwyne Kennels in Pennsylvania when she was just 13 years old. There, she learned how to train and handle the dogs for AKC Conformation shows and spent her weekends traveling and earning titles in many of the events.
In 2016, she graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science. After receiving her degree, she went on to complete Tarheel Canine’s Master Trainer Program, certifying in the areas of obedience, protection, detection and tracking.
In September of 2019, she received her AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator certificate and has certified several dogs that have come through our training programs.
When she is not at Cedar Valley, Megan enjoys photography, crafting, target shooting and hiking with her Australian Shepherd and Belgian Malinois.
Aliyah Hester
Trainer
Aliyah has been with Cedar Valley Canine since the summer of 2022. She graduated from high school in 2020 and then went on to start training hunting retrievers.
She has traveled to fifteen different states to train or compete with these retrievers and has titled three dogs in Hunting Retriever Club events!
When she is not training, she enjoys waterfowl hunting, boating and spending time with her family.
Camren Windom
Trainer
Camren has been with Cedar Valley since December 2023. He has always had a passion for animals.
After graduating from high school, he got a job working at a Petsmart Hotel as a kennel technician. During his time there, he took some courses in animal health and behavior, which eventually led to an internship at an animal sanctuary in Texas.
After completing the internship, he worked as a dog trainer in Virginia for two and a half years before returning to the Nashville area to start working at Cedar Valley.
In his free time, Camren is a movie enthusiast and enjoys hiking with his dog, a Rottweiler mix he adopted while in Texas.
Amie McGrady
Trainer
Amie retired from her career in New York State in 2021 and moved to Tennessee.
She has always had a strong passion for dogs and had a desire to work with them.
Amie initially worked with a gun dog trainer for about a year and subsequently sought to broaden her knowledge and experience in dog training.
In 2022, she began working at Cedar Valley Canine.
In her free time outside of Cedar Valley, Amie enjoys spending time with her two dogs; a Labrador Retriever and a German Shepherd.
Additionally, she enjoys visiting her family and relaxing by her pool with friends.
Brittany Luckingham
Trainer
Brittany started attending training lessons at Cedar Valley Canine with her dog "Matzi" in 2019. In 2021, she began working with us as a part-time trainer.
In 2017, she started training at the 4-H dog club, where she worked with her 6-year-old Australian Shepherd mix in trick shows and conformation. Later, she followed her mother's footsteps in volunteering for search and rescue.
At the age of 14, she started training her first German Shepherd. Initially, she trained her dog Matzi for Search and Rescue (SAR), but she was later asked by Montgomery County's Sheriff's Office K9 team to train her for Human Remains Detection (HRD).
Brittany was called out to serve as Matzi's handler during the recovery efforts after the Waverly floods in August 2021.
In September or 2023, she officially started working full-time for Cedar Valley Canine and has been with us for 3 years now.
Outside of her work at Cedar Valley Canine, Brittany enjoys sports, shooting, and outdoor activities.
John Feldewert
Trainer
John started his training journey by training retrievers to go waterfowl hunting with his father. He quickly started volunteering with Assistance Dogs of the West, a service dog organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
After being introduced to the world of working dogs, John went to school to educate himself more about training. While at the Tom Rose School in Missouri, John found a passion for protection dogs. That passion was continued at Tarheel K9, where he assisted in training Police K9s to a certification level in Detection, Tracking, and Apprehension as well as helping handlers learn to effectively deploy their dogs in real world scenarios.
He currently decoys and competes with his personal dogs in the dog sport of PSA (Protection Sports Association) and has been recognized regionally by being selected to decoy the Midwest Regional Championships in 2022.
John has successfully obtained both of his personal dog’s Protection Dog Certification, and as an active member/decoy of Old Glory Working Dogs he has assisted multiple teams to title their own dogs in PSA.
Completed Masters Training Program at the Tom Rose School for dog trainers in 2019
Graduated from Tarheel K9 Master trainer program in 2019
Intern at Tarheel K9 from January 2020- April 2020
Intern at Stateline Canine May 2020-May 2021
Started at Cedar Valley Canine June 2021
Certified as a Protection Sports Association Decoy in April of 2021
Regional Select Decoy 2022-Midwest Region
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