Premier Dog Sports & Events Center Finds Growth Opportunities in the Buffalo area

For years, Shelly Gordon traveled hours away from her home in Buffalo to train her basset hound to become a ribbon-winning agility canine.  In 2018, Shelly and her husband Don, wrote an idea on a napkin to help her stop traveling so often – open a dog training complex in the Buffalo area. Shelly wanted to create a local, safe and secure, state of the art facility to bring together the dog sporting community.

The Gordons found a plot of land in Lancaster, NY and utilized an SBA 504 loan through Evans Bank and Pursuit Lending to construct a 26,000 square foot dog training facility.  Premier Dog Sports & Event Center opened in 2021 and hosts a variety of canine classes, including puppy training, obedience, agility and many others.  On weekends, they host dog shows, drawing in dog sport enthusiast from all over the state and Canada.

There is no place like it in the Buffalo area for dog training and dog sport enthusiasts. They have one of only 8 indoor 45-foot dog jumping pools in North America.    The facility is open 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and offers more than 77 weekly classes.  Weekend shows bring in patrons from outside the area that frequent local restaurants and hotels helping the Lancaster small business community to continue to grow.

Shelly can’t believe how quickly the business grew.  Through the local lenders, with support from SBA’s capital programs, Shelly believes there’s even more growth to come.  "Since we opened 3 years ago, we've added an RV lot with hook-ups and an indoor pool. We are currently building an outbuilding to add more training classes and hope to add a fenced in area for dog meet & greets and a new AKC sport called Fast CAT."