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'Protection dogs' with a $230000 price tag

MINNEAPOLIS — Don't call her a guard dog.

When she costs $230,000, as Julia did, the preferred title is “executive protection dog.” This 3-year-old German shepherd, who commutes by private jet between a Minnesota estate and a home in Arizona, belongs to a canine caste that combines exalted pedigree, child-friendly cuddliness and arm-lacerating ferocity.

Julia and her ilk have some of the same tracking and fighting skills as the dogs used in elite military units like Navy SEAL Team 6, which took a dog on its successful raid of Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan in May. In fact, Julia was sold by a trainer, Harrison Prather, who used to supply dogs to SEAL Team 6 and the British special forces. But then Prather switched to a more lucrative market.

“Either rich people discovered me, or I discovered them — I can't remember which happened first,” said Prather, the president of Harrison K-9 Security Services in Aiken, S.C.

He and others in the high-end dog training business say prices have shot up recently thanks to the growing number of wealthy people around the world who like the security — and status — provided by a dog with the right credentials. Moguls and celebrities now routinely pay $40,000 to $60,000 for a well-bred German shepherd that is certified as an expert in the sport of Schutzhund, which means “protection dog.” The price can go much higher if a dog does well at an international championship, as Julia did.

“She's a top deal,” Julia's owner, John Johnson, said as she escorted him around the grounds of his 15-acre estate outside Minneapolis. “She's won awards. She looks at you, she's got the most beautiful face.”

But $230,000?

“It's a lot of money,” he said matter-of-factly. “It's the speed, the smartness, the quickness — and you would not believe the roughness that she has inside. She's like a little pit bull when she bites. She has that model face, and then opens the gums up and lets you have it.”

Johnson said he got his first protection dog after receiving personal threats while he was running the Northland Group, a debt-collection company in Minnesota that he founded and eventually sold three years ago. Now he has six protection dogs, all German shepherds, and normally takes a couple in his car whenever he goes out.

“It's for both security and companionship,” he said as Julia nuzzled his leg, looking like a gentle enough companion. But when an intruder emerged near the tennis court of his estate, all it took was one command, “Packen!” (the bite command from the German word for “seize”), to send Julia racing across the lawn.

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For EB3 (All countries) to see some light, the changes made recently to the allocation of excess visa, spill over and also to over subscribed countries need to be revisited. Not sure, what triggered USCIS / DOS to revise the interpretation after so many years. Did IV had any role on this, or not .. do not know.. I ask this as based on all forum updates, IV appears to have little success in the Admin Fix area. I have posted this so many times in various threads and did not get an answer, may be there is none. If the interpretation was somewhat like before, EB2 /3 both would have got the spillover... and all would have benefited in the order of PD. Now with the new interpretation. all excess / spillover visa just goes only to 2 countries (EB2 India / China). Looking at the latest numbers based on USCIS website, China has far less cases compared in India based on the cut-off date, which is good for India (EB2), as they now consume a big chunk of the numbers and rest are left out for now. I am not sure, what is opinion on this from folks from ROW (EB3) on this. Does IV has any comment on this... Having said this, I have nothing against Eb2 or EB2 India specific, and not getting into the argument whether or not EB2 need to given much preference.. (Well DOS allocated on 28.6% of total numbers to both this category). This is just my concern on the changes to interpretation for the visa spill over process. The reason I am lashing at some folks here is that some people are thinking that the Durbin-Grassley bill will benefit them because it will end consulting. Some people dont realize that most US masters degree holders, both MBA and MS (Computer science) find out that in order to get an H1, consulting is THE ONLY OPTION, especially when INTEL, Oracle and Cisco arent recruiting, they do go and stand in queue in front of consutling companies (Desi or otherwise). Also, people doing full-time jobs in silicon valley (what some people call "real jobs") also do fall back to consulting when they are laid off. To say that US masters degree holders dont need "Consulting" is the most stupid comment I have ever heard. Also, how important you are to this country or tech industry is to be decided by your boss and your employer. Not by what degrees you have in your resume. So by saying that "We have masters, we deserve better" isnt really going to jive with reality.

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