When Cora was almost ten years old, I looked at a litter of "short-hair"
shepherds and fell in love with the only "long hair" among them. That night,
I refused to leave my friend's house without him. Cora treated the puppy as her own.
We named him "Savage." He learned a lot from our Cora before she passed away
in the following year.
Savage turned out to be a very strong male dog with lots of play-drive.
He was quite smart. It was easy for me to train him for "Schutzhund," but
above all, he was a wonderful part of our family, great with children and very protective
around strangers.
We even took him with us on our yearly vacations.
Even after I had two children, I took the time to train him at our club. I was the
only one there with a "long-hair" shepherd, but was lucky in that this facility
accepted him and helped me with training-questions. I mention this because I know for
a fact that at other training facilities run by the SV (Schäferhundeverein), "long-hairs"
were not welcome, even if they appeared in a litter of one of their members. Fortunately,
the people at my local facility were more tolerant. That's the reason I am still a
member of this club after 31 years.
Some time later, we moved to a bigger house, with more land for the children and animals.
Since we had more room, I occasionally thought of getting another dog but didn't have enough time to look for one I really wanted. Then, one day, a friend introduced me to a female "long-hair" who was born in a "short-hair" litter. The pup's registered name was "Lady," but since she acted so tough whenever someone came to our house, we soon changed her name to "Toughy."
She got along well with our Savage. Sometimes I was tempted to breed
this wonderful pair, but I knew that the SV would never change their criteria..
In 1993, I opened a magazine and read about the Long-hair German Shepherd Club, e.V-commonly
known as LSVD. According to he article, the club was going to hold their annual fall
show only fifteen kilometers from our house. I registered our Toughy for the competition.
My daughter Jessica accompanied us to the show. We loved everything about this new
club, including the fact that it had strict regulations for breeding. Toughy won second
place. We came home with lots of detailed information and joined the club soon after.
In 1995, Jessica registered our kennel as "Vom Haus
Barrett." It was named after our beautiful three-year-old male dog, Barrett. Our
pups grow up in a family environment. First and foremost, we consider it our task to
breed confident, healthy family dogs who excel in Schutzhund and rescue work. Their
sires and dams must be well-trained in this work before they can be certified by the
breeding board.
Of course, one needs a lot of room to breed healthy dogs. In the year 2000, we built some kennels with spacious dog-runs on our land. The pups can roam and play on the lawns while they are growing up.
We usually have two or three dogs in the house. We change them off every day. No matter how many dogs we have, all of them are part of the family and get treated that way. This is a very important aspect in raising dogs with sound characters. It creates a lot of work, but it is rewarding to hear from new owners how happy they are with their new puppy, how the puppy loves children, and how easy it is to get them house-broken.
We usually have two or three dogs in the house.
We change them off every day. No matter how many dogs we have, all of them are part
of the family and get treated that way. This is a very important aspect in raising
dogs with sound characters. It creates a lot of work, but it is rewarding to hear from
new owners how happy they are with their new puppy, how the puppy loves children, and
how easy it is to get them house-broken.
In 1995, we purchased two pups from SV litters. The female was "Quinta
vom Mainbogen," a daughter of the famous "short-hair" male, "Ulk
von Arlett." Our new male, "Gustl von der Köhlertanne," was a son
of "Utz Arminius" and "Haifa von der Wienerau" (a sister of the
famous "Hanno von der Wienerau").
Gustl's breeder was disappointed when he saw the pup's hair growing longer day by day. If the length of Gustl's hair was bad luck for his breeder, it sure was good luck for us. The pup's confirmation looked quite promising. He had a very masculine head. If his hair had stayed short, he surely would have been exported to a well-to-do foreign owner.
All five pups of our first litter opened their eyes in 1996. Their dam was our "Ondie vom Jägerstand." The sire was "Ufo vom Lärchenwald." He had a dark-red pigment, which he passed on to the puppies. They were strongly built, with beautiful masculine and feminine heads-and showed us that our breeding program was succeeding. Our rewards were good-looking, healthy pups.
Five pups of our first litter opened their eyes in 1996. Their dam
was our "Ondie vom Jägerstand." The sire was "Ufo vom Lärchenwald."
He had a dark-red pigment, which he passed on to the puppies. They were strongly built,
with beautiful masculine and feminine heads-and showed us that our breeding program
was succeeding. Our rewards were good-looking, healthy pups.
The following year, we had a litter of nine strongly-built pups from our
Quinta. The sire was "Elvis vom Finkenschlag." Quinta was very good in the
"Schutzhund" competition. We took her to the highest levels, SchH3 and IPO
3. Then we looked for another male from her blood-line ("Ulk von Arlett").
We were lucky to find a dog who was exactly what we wanted: rich pigment, strong bone
structure, masculine head.
The pictures above show, how much a young dog can change withing a few months.
The same year, we repeated our training success with our male, "Gustl von der Köhlertanne," called "Grizzly." Because of his excellent play-drive, ease in training, and hard grip in protection work, we were able to take him to SchH3 at the young age of 22 months. Two months later he passed the breeding board with an excellent Kör Report.