Training with Steve Zorn

Steve Zorn has been involved with dog training for more than 20 years. Steve has always had a passion for animals from a very early age. He sensed a special bond with animals from childhood with the family dog, friends’ dogs and cats, and the many other animals he encountered on family and friends’ farms. His lifelong thirst for knowledge pertaining to animals and animal behavior is insatiable.

Since his early 30’s Steve has been involved in rescue work, where he co- founded and ran an animal rescue for 14 years. In this time Steve rescued, rehabbed, trained, and found permanent homes for well over 1000 dogs. Many of these were rare breeds, or, breeds deemed dangerous. He quickly became the go to guy for many abused, neglected, and homeless dogs that ended up in shelters and county pounds in the Midwest. Steve’s passion has always been with the animals that were ignored or deemed too difficult to bother with. He counts these as his greatest successes. Steve has also been a mentor to other animal rescue organizations offering advice on training, behavior, and, management of dogs and cats.

The breed Steve is most passionate about is the German Shepherd Dog. He has owned, trained, and competed with German Shepherds for 25 years in local, regional, and, national events in several very demanding competitive dog sports. Steve is a previous member of Topline German Shepherd Dog Club, a founder of, and the original President of Turner Junction Working Dog Club, as well as Vice President and co-founder of Yorkville Schutzhund Club. Steve has also trained several German Shepherd Dogs prior to them being accepted at police K-9 academies where they then became full-fledged police K-9’s. Steve also ran his own dog training business in the Chicagoland area, and, then again in Nashville, TN and Phoenix, AZ. While in Nashville Steve also worked with one of the inventors of the very difficult Vapor Wake Training Method for Explosives Detection Dogs. While in Phoenix Steve worked with and was training director for one of the nation’s best dog behaviorists at Phoenix Dog Training. This training company specialized in fearful, anxious, and aggressive dogs.