Greetings Friends – some announcements and wonderful news to share!
TN – Our homebred girl Heartstrings When Will it Reign at Woodland Park becomes new CHIC certified DDB!!! We are over the moon for her owners Jim and Viola at Woodland Park. A CHIC is a DDB that has passed all 4 health screens recommended by the DDBSA: Clear heart on echocardiogram by a board certified cardiologist, OFA Elbows, OFA Shoulders, and her Penn Hip scores ranking in the 80th percentile. In the past 10 years, less than 30 DDB’s in the US have obtained CHIC numbers. Reign becomes the 8th Heartstrings-Bred CHIC!
Far more than numbers, rankings, stats…this is deeply satisfying. Starting out 15 years ago in the breed, and while we loved our Dogues, we made some bad decisions when purchasing our then “just pet” Dogues. Through these experiences, combined with our deep commitment and love for rescue, we saw far too many avoidable and inexcusable health problems in our breed. This ultimately setting us on the course to do our best to improve the breed. We know far too well and first-hand the suffering a family endures when a Dogue isn’t well. The waiting for the shoe to drop feeling, will today be a good day or a bad day, holding our breath and waiting for the calls: “how do our levels look Doc?” It’s safe to say sheer frustration and utter disappointment were the impetus to start breeding. Then, years of research, searching the world to get to the lines, health, longevity that we felt were the best choices. So to say that we are overjoyed, ecstatic to see these results is an understatement.
WI – In Wisconsin this past week Vauquois earns a 95%, 1st place and a qualifying Rally Run! Out of this beautiful litter of 10 – nearly 1 year old now – 6 Dogues are actively competing in Working and/or Conformation. In the Conformation ring several are already “pointed” and 2 with Major Wins at this tender age. Congratulations and thank you to all of our owners. Not just a feather in our caps as breeders but rather, knowing our Dogues, our lines, that they were bred to work and perform, hard-wired like this and the knowledge that this makes our puppies very happy.
OH – Lastly, US Breed Rankings have been updated and Jazzy remains #1 female in the US; #2 DDB overall!!! Recall that Ms. Jazz finished 2014 #1 female in the US. Just a few short weeks to end 2015 and we are crossing fingers and toes that she pulls out the unprecedented finish of back-to-back #1 ranked US female 2 years in a row.
