For as long as I can remember, I have always loved German Shepherds, and for as long as I have wanted one, I had always wanted an all-black GSD puppy from Hillview Kennels.

I used to sit on Instagram and marvel over Mrs. Carrie’s puppies and how each one had this distinct look. They’re always so beautiful. I had sworn to myself that if we were to ever get a German Shepherd, that we would buy from Hillview.

As it would turn out, my first German Shepherd, Luna, came from a friend who just so happened to have an uncle who was breeding GSD’s. However, I never forgot about Hillview.

Three years later, about two weeks before our wedding, my husband mentioned seeing a pup on Hillview’s Instagram that looked like the exact pup that we were eventually wanting from Carrie. I went to look, and there he was. A perfect, all-black male who had just been forfeited by his prospective owner.

I called my husband at work and without hesitation, he told me to call Hillview. Carrie answered, and from there, we owned a Hillview pup. As easy as it was to initially get him, once we brought him home, it most definitely got hard.

We drove up to Nashville to pick up Zeus that very next weekend, and Mrs. Carrie was so helpful in getting us prepared to take home this working dog. My husband and I had never owned a working dog before, so we were very new on how this particular pup was going to adapt to us, and us adapt to him.

When we got home with Zeus, his demeanor most definitely radiated dominance, as expected. However, no matter how much of a hard time Zeus gave us, Mrs. Carrie was only a phone call away. She never hesitated to be real with us about what was going on, what we needed to do to fix it, etc. She was a God-send.

Perhaps the most important thing Mrs. Carrie did for us was suggest Applied Canine Concepts for training with Zeus, as it has changed our Hillview pup from one that we had no control over, to one of the most well-behaved dogs I’ve ever owned.

Zeus now goes everywhere with us. He is beyond sweet and exudes the type of love that I had wanted from a pup in the beginning. He is amazing, and we couldn’t have chosen a better pup than Zeus. That’s all thanks to Carrie.

-McKenzie and Austyn Todd… and Zeus!