St. Cloud Council Upholds Dog Training Permit

ST. CLOUD -- A St. Cloud couple has the green light to move ahead with building a commercial dog training facility on their property.

St. Cloud City Council members voted 6-1 to uphold the Zoning Board of Appeals decision to allow the dog kennel.

Neighbors are upset because of safety concerns over live gun fire in training the dogs and also noise from that gunfire and barking dogs.

Council members testified they had researched the ZBA's decision further and agreed with their findings.

The move clears the final hurdle for Daniel Hughes and his wife to build a 50-dog kennel on their property along Stearns County Road 136 near St. Augusta.

Hughes told WJON news he plans to train dogs for law enforcement and other security operations. The dogs will be trained to detect things like drugs, explosives and even bed bugs.