Our Commitment
At Reidsan, our mission is to provide unrivaled care for dogs and cats while emphasizing quality training and grooming services. We believe in treating every animal with compassion, ensuring they feel safe and loved during their stay. Our values of integrity, excellence, and customer satisfaction drive us to offer the best experience for pets and their owners. We are not just a boarding facility; we're a home away from home, where pets thrive.
Meet Our Founders
Reid and San first met in San Francisco, California, back in 1978. Wilbert Reid, known as Reid, was a sergeant in the army at the time, while Sandra Reid, known as San, had just finished her graduate degree at Howard University, earning a full academic scholarship while on the dean’s list. San was immediately drawn to Reid’s qualities and fell in love with his attentive and caring nature towards his Doberman pinscher, Jagalon, as he worked hard to earn his first obedience title.
Eventually, San trained and titled her own dog, a Bouvier des Flanders, which she had imported and specially selected from the Netherlands. After winning her first dog’s title and beating her then-husband in the obedience ring, Reid was asked, “How do you feel about your wife winning high in trial 3 days in a row?” His classic response was, “I don’t know who else you were expecting to beat me; she learned from the best.”
Reid and San began their business as an obedience club, providing trainers and enthusiasts with opportunities to learn more about their dogs and enhance their skills, whether they were competing nationwide or simply enjoying the best quality of life they could offer their pets. They invited world-renowned trainers from Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, and other countries to El Paso to lead clinics and teach about the applied science of dog training.
By developing and competing with their trainers, Reid and San created a successful business for the city of El Paso. In 1983, Reidsan was born, offering puppy, basic, and advanced group classes, along with private personal protection and competitive obedience classes after the group sessions.
In 1988, Reidsan purchased a 7-acre pecan grove in Canutillo, Texas, and started building their state-of-the-art luxury kennel. That same year, Reid was invited to assist in detecting explosives for the 1988 Korean Olympics. Two years later, their kennel was all set and welcomed their first celebrity client, Meadowlark Lemon from the Harlem Globetrotters, along with show dogs from all over the world. After showing, training, and building connections with top breeders globally, Reidsan finally had a training facility of their own.
When Reid found out he was expecting his second son, he knew he had to make a change and retire from the army. For over 20 years, Reid dedicated himself to serving the country as a nurse and jungle expert for the 82nd Airborne unit. He described retirement as bittersweet, but it also gave him the chance to be home with his family and pursue his passion for training and developing dogs. In the next five years, Reid’s love for dogs didn’t go unnoticed, attracting celebrity clients, national sports teams, movie studios, and the El Paso Veterinary Association, who all considered Reidsan the best in their field.
You might catch a glimpse of a shooting star every now and then. Dylen was Reidsan’s shooting star, first spotted in Amsterdam when he was just 6-9 months old. He was zooming through a field, carrying a log weighing about 10-15 kg, and leaping over a 6 ft fence like it was nothing. Dylen was a Bouvier des Flanders hand-selected by Reid for a client in the US who wanted a show dog to help with his portfolio. But there was one little hiccup: Dylen’s ears weren’t cropped. As a show dog, especially in the US, this was unheard of and unimaginable. Reid always believed that a show dog should be able to work just as well as it looked. For decades, his chosen dogs would not only show but also win titles in the obedience ring, protection, tracking, agility, utility, herding, and always be amazing and safe family members. Dylen would prove to accomplish all of these titles, along with an American Championship, Canadian, and a Mexican championship, and he also showed at the Westminster and won best of breed at the Eukanuba All-Breed Show. His legacy would also bring a change in breed standards worldwide. Reid chose to show Dylen with uncropped ears. His confirmation, grooming, and show training gave the judges no choice but to overlook his ears, putting Dylen above other big-name Bouviers in the country and eventually changing the standards of Bouviers to include uncropped ears in the show ring. Reid eventually acquired Dylen, and Dylen became the Reid family dog. Dylen’s story didn’t end there. The Arizona Diamondbacks’ minor league team, the El Paso Diablos, heard about Dylen’s accomplishments and offered him a day job as their official mascot. Ironically, Dylen’s efforts at the baseball stadium saved and inspired more lives than anything he did in the show ring.
For the next 30 years, Reid dedicated himself to championing, titling, and handling dogs, which meant putting countless miles on his show rig and earning numerous accolades throughout his career. San supported him and their family while he was away, and she also showed and titled dogs alongside her husband. However, she has always been more of a humanitarian, using her expertise in applied dog training to help develop service dogs from the 1990s to the present. She has trained and assisted people with disabilities by training their service dogs. She was also elected president of a therapy dog group that helps hospitals and schools through dog companionship. She uses her experience to teach others how to become extraordinary trainers worldwide, offering unique career opportunities to hundreds of trainers across the country. She bases her training theory on love through understanding and grace through faith. With the right guidance, owning a dog should be uplifting, and challenges only make the bond closer when guided in the right direction. Both Reid and San of Reidsan have provided El Paso with a safe haven and a training resource for our community for over 40 years, bringing owners closer to their pets and providing leadership to families.
Our Facility
A resort-style experience for your pets in a 7-acre pecan grove.
Grooming
First-Class Treatment for Pets
Training
Award-winning training in a nurturing atmosphere.