Don?t call her a guard dog.
When she costs $230,000, as Julia did, the preferred title is ?executive protection dog?. This three-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 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 South Carolina.
He and others in the high-end dog training business say prices have shot up 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.?
?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.
The price tag for a protection dog has risen because of increasing demand in the US, Latin America (especially Mexico), the Middle East, Asia and other places, said Prather and Wayne Curry, the owner of Kraftwerk K9 in Rochester, Wash.
?I?ve turned down offers of more than $200,000 for one of my champion dogs,? said Curry, who added he knew of a dog that had sold for more than $400,000 because of its bloodline and breeding potential. (Although Julia?s offspring would have commanded top prices, Johnson said he had no time to breed her.)
To clients who can afford the $50,000 price for a typical well-credentialed dog, there are lots of ways to rationalise the price. ?When you compare the costs of a full-time bodyguard versus a dog, the dog makes a lot of sense,? Curry said. ?And the dog, unlike the bodyguard, can?t be bought off.?