On a crisp October afternoon, Ruin, a 15-month-old Dutch Shepherd mix with dark brindle coat and one ear, takes a break from an obstacle course and perches in a red crate in a barn in Livingston, Montana.
His head sinks into the crook of Suvarin’s trainer’s arm, as Suvarin’s trainer considers Ruin one of his favorites. Two hours later, the trainer, now wearing a Michelin Man suit foamed from neck to heels, crouched near the box and imitated a silent intruder. He whips out on the rubber mat. Ruin ran across the barn, dove teeth-first into the same arm, and stayed bitten until another trainer yelled “out.”
Suvarin breeds, raises and sells dogs like Ruin, which are trained to protect, live and travel with wealthy families, for $175,000. The company’s 170-acre ranch in the town of 9,000 people 49 miles east of Bozeman is home to up to 46 mixed-breed dogs at a time until they are about 2 years old. Suvarin brought in $2.97 million in total revenue and was profitable in 2024, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. (The company has not yet finalized its 2025 financials.)
After the drill, Ruin rolled over onto his back and licked the reporter’s nose. “What we just saw was a perfect example of an ‘on switch’ and an ‘off switch,’” says Kim Green, co-founder and president of Svalinn. “Being able to deploy a dog and bring it back to obedience in just a nanosecond is a truly skilled technique.”
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Green, 51, started the company, originally called Ridgeback, in Nairobi, Kenya, with her then-husband in 2005. Green said the focus was on security advice, self-defense training and accompanying high-profile diplomats in dangerous areas.
The business was exciting, stressful and expensive to run, especially while raising twin boys, she says. “I’m kidding, we were so broke for so many years that we didn’t even have the luxury of thinking about personal finances. We were just hanging on for dear life,” Green says.
Now, Souvarin is financially healthier than ever, she says. And it’s in the right place at the right time. When the company moved to the United States in 2013, Green had no idea how popular Bozeman would become, especially among wealthy families willing to spend money on personal safety.
How to train a $175,000 dog
Even if you can afford a Suvarin dog, Ms. Green will try to discourage you from purchasing one, she says. “This is not a product for everyone. It just isn’t.”
This canine happens to be very sensitive and is intended to be a family dog that can be “deployed” if a threat approaches. The company spends two years training puppies for protection, stability, obedience, socialization, agility, and in some cases scenarios tailored to the pup’s family. Trainers said Suvarin also taught the dog how to ride a horse.
Because Suvarin hires trainers from a variety of backgrounds and gives preference to candidates with no dog training experience, the dogs are used to hearing a variety of vocal commands, Green said. “We (clients) don’t have to have superpowers or huge muscles or yell orders,” she says. “We are the public. The dogs are going to be the public. The dogs have to feel very comfortable knowing those people.”
A Suvarin dog perches on an indoor obstacle course at a ranch.
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Green said trainers personally deliver each dog to a permanent home and spend about three days teaching the family how to handle the dog. Trainers often return after 45 days for a check-in, but many owners then take their dogs to the ranch to board and train with younger puppies, Green said.
One customer, retired U.S. Air Force major and Delta Air Lines pilot Steven Mazzola, said he was drawn to Suvarin over competitors because of the website’s tagline, which emphasizes the dog’s friendliness along with training: “Raised to love, trained to protect.”
Mazzola wanted a dog to be his best friend and watch over his family’s 15-acre property in rural Montana, he said. Jet, a Dutch Shepherd mix, has been traveling, hiking and attending dinner parties with the Mazzolas since April 2024.
“As long as it’s part of the family, that’s something I can’t even put a price tag on,” Mazzola says.
From bodyguards in Nairobi to dogs in Montana
The first iteration of Suvarin didn’t involve dogs at all.
Ms. Greene met her husband in Afghanistan, where she worked as a policy adviser to former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, she said. They moved to Nairobi, one of Africa’s three major travel hubs, and started his “passion project”, Ridgeback.
When Ms. Green became pregnant, she researched ways to safely travel around Nairobi without firearms or bodyguards. The couple adopted Banshee, a Dutch Shepherd mix, “to be my best friend and protector,” she said.
People kept their distance from the banshee’s brindle coat and intense gaze, as if she were a force field, Green said. Greene’s husband decided to incorporate protection dogs into Ridgeback’s other safety products, and the company sent employees to the United States to learn how to train the dogs, Greene said.
Green (center) and Suvarin’s trainer and dog at Livingston Ranch.
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After eight years, Ridgeback was still not profitable and the family left Nairobi, Green said. Terrorism threats are on the rise in the area, and Ms. Green wanted a more hands-on education for her sons, who are in first grade, she said. They moved to Wyoming and then to Montana in search of an outdoor lifestyle for their children. They also wanted to operate their business near wealthy people, Green added.
Green said the U.S. launch felt like starting all over again. The couple flew 30 dogs overseas, applied for new licenses, changed the company name and invested in branding and public relations. By 2015, Green said, Suvarin was fully focused on its rescue dog business, and two years later, when it hired budget-minded employees, it became profitable for the first time.
But starting over is costly in other ways, Green says. “We were really committed to making this happen, but it came at a very high cost to our lifestyle… My ex-husband and I were always trying to climb the absolute hardest mountain we could climb.” The couple divorced in 2019, and Ms. Green’s ex-husband left Suvarin in 2020 with investors buying a majority stake in the company. (Mr. Green declined to name the investors.)
Green initially wanted to sell her stake in the company, but “when I realized that Suvarin was a clean slate and it was no longer someone else’s story, it was my story, and I got really excited,” she says. “I realized that I really love what I do.”
Protective dogs of the American West
When Suvarin moved to Montana, Greene invited prospective buyers to his ranch and heard “crickets on the other end” on the phone. “Five years later, the answer is either ‘we’ve been looking to come there’ or ‘we come there once a year’.”
Justin Farrell, a professor of sociology at Yale University and author of the 2020 book “Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West,” said the American West has a growing population of wealthy residents and tourists for a variety of reasons, including national parks, nostalgia for rural lifestyles, and the absence of real estate, inheritance, and sales taxes.
James Hamilton, a former FBI special agent and founder of the Hamilton Security Group, said the ultra-wealthy are also investing in the safety of themselves and their families, a trend exacerbated by incidents of public violence against public figures. Hamilton said many billionaires have comprehensive security programs in place, including guard dogs, surveillance cameras, safe rooms and staff.
Although Suvarin’s customers aren’t typically billionaires, Green points out that the business remains a logical beneficiary of the trend. But Green says she won’t train dogs for every interested buyer to protect the brand’s exclusivity and quality control. “I would rather remain boutique and very bespoke,” she says.
Green looks out over the Suvarin Ranch with his dog, Highlander.
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Despite once calling himself a “reluctant leader,” Green said he is finally happy with the business and his position within it. “This is my dream life, and it’s wrapped up in my dream job,” she says. “It’s wrapped up in a business that encompasses my entire life with my kids… being in this beautiful place and doing activities that I love with people I love being with.”
After training in October, Green takes his dog, Highlander, to a small hill overlooking the ranch. They see a barn nestled in a valley between snow-capped mountains, covered in amber grass and sage bushes.
After a few moments of silence, they head back down the hill towards the barn. Together, they disappear inside.
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