Please email malinoisduchocorua@gmail.com; or call/text 508-361-6880 to ask about upcoming litters.
I expect honesty on both sides- yours and mine. Honestly consider your goals and ability to reach those goals with a puppy. Make sure you have the time, energy and interest to meet the needs of a high drive, demanding dog. They don’t stay puppies for long. Be honest about the time and energy you’ll have to work with, exercise, and train a dog.
In turn, I’ll do my best to match the right puppy to the right owner, and to produce healthy, confident, stable puppies. I always health (OFA hips/elbows and Embark) and temperament test (title in protection sport) my breeding dogs.
My breeding females are worked and titled in schutzhund (IGP). I select males based on consults with an experienced, long-time working tervuren breeder (or breeders), video review of the dog working, and through conversations with the owner and those who have watched the dog work.
Breeding studs are also titled – generally to IGP3 or equivalent- and evaluated in protection sport or work (eg. Police K9). I also extensively review pedigrees on both sides for health, temperament, and workability to make sure it is a good match.
Breeding isn’t a recipe (mix this together and get that) but I do my utmost best to produce dogs that meet my breeding goals of producing stable, confident dogs who match the working ability and drive of top-level sport and working malinois. I strive to produce well rounded dogs that meet the breed standard of temperament – while retaining critical work ability. That is why I will almost always breed to stud dogs either imported from Europe or AI out of Europe. In part, this is because it is easier to find tervuren out of malinois bloodlines that bring new blood and genetics, and are titled to high levels in Europe due to how the breed registry differs there compared to AKC.
I do not breed frequently, this is a labor of love. Working tervuren are not commonly seen titling in protection sports in North America, and I hope dogs out of my program will have good representation at IGP and mondioring trials – locally, regionally and nationally.
I will stay in contact with owners of dogs out of my program for the life of the dog (and beyond) and am eager to follow how my dogs perform in their chosen sport or work. I am especially interested in learning how a breeding combination performs in areas important to working dogs- grips, nerves, tracking, and engagement with handler. I hope those interested in a puppy know the breed (working tervuren/malinois), are familiar with my program and goals, and are prepared and eager to obtain the kind of dog that I seek to produce.
I do not breed to showlines, or “show” tervuren that are of a very different stock and temperament than the working lines. My dogs are genetically, temperamentally, and in build and body type working malinois, from KNPV, ring and IGP lines. They are as different in bloodlines, health, and drive from a showline tervuren as they are from, for example, a rough collie, or a sheltie. If you seek a showline tervuren, I can recommend some excellent breeders.
QUOTE: “I encountered an interesting question on Facebook—if you were creating a quiz to test the knowledge of potential puppy homes, what are some of the questions you would include?
There were many excellent answers offered: questions about breed history, training, nutrition, exercise, management, behavior…
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I would not quiz about knowledge. One does not need to start with a great deal of knowledge to be a great owner, and all the knowledge that is required can be easily acquired. Some of the most “knowledgeable” people are among the last to whom I would give a puppy. And it is often those who have a little knowledge who are least open to learning and growing.
If you are seeking to acquire an animal from me, I want to know if you are committed, dedicated, devoted. I want to know if you will reshape your life to accommodate an animal. I want to know if you will stay up all night to comfort a frightened puppy. I want to know if 15 years from now you will sleep on the floor every night to be with your old friend. I want to know what you will do if ten years from now you are offered a great job in a location where you cannot take your dog. I want to know if you will give your time and your heart to this animal. I want to know if you are genuinely open to listening, to learning, from others, from books, from your animal; and that you will remain open and critical to new ideas and opinions and will always strive to improve and grow. I want to know if you will laugh and cry and cuddle. I want to know if you will make a fool of yourself to make him happy; if you will see his innocence even when he is destroying your favorite possession, and his beauty even when he is vomiting on your carpet. I want to know that you will try to see the world from his perspective. I want to know that you are willing and able to make the hard decisions to do what is best for your animal, even when it is not easy or is not what feels best for you. I want to know what kind of leader you are, whether you relate through intimidation, coercion, supplication, or shared trust. I want to know how you will handle the hard days, the failures, the heartbreaks. I want to know that you have genuinely thought about these issues, not to give me the best answers, but to be certain in your own heart that you are ready and open to completely sharing your life with an animal, and to wherever that path may take you.
For me, these core attributes and aptitudes are what matter—if they are in place, knowledge will easily and surely come, if not all the knowledge in the world will not help.”
Link to full post here: http://talentedanimals.com/blog/what-i-look-for-in-an-animal-home/