|
|
Because of experience: Cherrywood is one of the oldest Leonberger Breeding Kennels in the US. My husband, Kevin and I have been involved in showing, breeding, raising and loving Leos for more than twenty years. That experience helped me learn a lot about the breed and breeding as well as brought us a number of long lived friendships within the Leonberger community. Because of involvement: Our love affair with Leonbergers started out when we acquired our first wonderful foundation bitch, Keesha von der Heckenrose, in 1990 from Sylvia and Manfred Kaufmann of von der Heckenrose kennels in Ill. Kevin, and I have both been LCA members for twenty years. I have always been very involved with the LCA, and served on the Show Committee, the Breeding Committee and also on the Governance committee while working on the special assignment of helping to rewrite the Member Practices document for the club. I was the LCA Registrar’s assistant for a number of years and was elected to the Board of Directors. I was again a member and co-chair of the Breeding Committee from 2007-2009 as we entered the AKC part of our lives. Today I have helped launch our Leonberger University which will be a legacy of the Voices of Experience of the LCAs older members to pass down to our newer members as well as an educational adventure in learning about all things Leo. Because Canine Behavior is my profession: As a professional canine behavioral specialist and instructor, I’m a great resource person for my owners. I’ve owned and operated Happy Tails To You ® School For Dogs, a behavior/obedience school and consulting business, for 30 years. I have been enlisted as a guest speaker for talks on canine behavior and socialization for various Breed Clubs and schools, I wrote a weekly column, “Let's Talk About Dogs”, for the Elyria Chronicle in Ohio over a 7 year period. I’ve written articles for a number of breed rescue publications, wrote and narrated a video in the early ‘80’s on training which was distributed in 6 states, do Puppy Aptitude Testing for area breeders, am a Canine Good Citizen evaluator for AKC and a Breeding Assessment examiner for the LCA. I have worked, through Happy Tails To You over the years, with well over 11,000 owners of various breeds to help them build better relationships with their dogs. Because of my track record in placing puppies in the right homes. I’ve lived with the dam for a number of years and observed the litter for 2 months with a professional eye. I’ll try to pick the best puppy to suit your needs if you are honest with me about what you are interested in doing with your pup, your lifestyle and anything else that is pertinent. My selections are based on your input. Do you have children? Other animals? Do you want to show and/or breed? Do you want to do therapy work or compete in obedience? None of those options is any more or less important than the others, but they may have slightly different requirements in the type of puppy who will best fit with you. Please remember though we don’t design “custom leonbergers!” Every dog is raw material and will take a lot of work on your part to become what you want.I won't sell you a puppy if I don't think it would be a good fit for both you and the puppy. Over the years we’ve been very happy with most of our placements and, of the 143 puppies we have produced, most happily spent their lives with their initial owners. Because of passion for breeding and raising great Leonbergers: A puppy from Cherrywood Kennels is from a litter that has been thought out and planned, sometimes for a number of years; seriously, carefully and with a lot of pride in the finished products. Our litters take a lot of work and expense. From the breeding to the whelping, right through to the day they leave our home for yours, I’m working with and observing them. My husband, Kevin, is always a very big help with the litters too. We start introducing household sights and sounds after the puppies’ eyes and ears open, and they spend individual time with us on a daily basis. They have mini-agility equipment like boxes to climb on and tunnels to hide in to help them with coordination (which young Leos simply do NOT have!) and when they are able to run around and go outdoors, they are introduced to various footings like grass, (or snow!!) concrete and gravel. They go to the vet in the car, get some crate time with their various littermates, and start on bite inhibition as well. After they have had their first shots at 6-7 weeks we move them to our large training room where there is more room to run and play and which allows them supervised indoor/outdoor access, thus facilitating their housebreaking. They also meet some of my students’ families who are invited to come and play with them. Because of my pro-active dedication to the breed: I’m very pleased to say I was awarded the prestigious “Leo Award” in 2007 by the LCA for “exceptional dedication to promoting international awareness of laryngeal paralysis and peripheral neuropathy in Leonbergers, and for faithfully promoting the ideals of the Leonberger Club of America.” It’s an area I’ve worked with for the past ten years or so after one of my litters was hit with the disease that nobody would admit they had. There were two options, sit and wait for someone else to do something or start to find other breeders and owners who had experienced it. I chose the latter. It has been gratifying watching the response from the international Leo community as country after country started working with the researchers in the US, the UK, France and Switzerland, to find a carrier test. That dream was realized in June 2010 and we now have a genetic test for the LPN1 mutation that will help us eliminate a severe, early onset polyneuropathy. We are confident that soon we will be able to eliminate the mutations causing other forms of the disease. Breakthrough on LPN1 genetic test Because Cherrywood is known for being open and honest about health and longevity. We put our dogs on the open registries with their results both passing and non-passing. We know all dogs have some problems and we don't believe that hiding problems helps the breed. We're very proud of our above average lifespans and can back it up with our longevity project Because of our record of well-rounded excellence: Cherrywood’s accomplishments include: producing pups with steady loving temperaments, multi Best in Show and Best Opposite Sex wins at Regional and National Specialties as well as All-Breed shows, the first World Wide Kennel Club Ch. Leonberger in the U.S., the #1 Top Bitch in the country in 1996, the #3 Top Dog in 1996 and 1997, the top obedience Leo in 1997 and the first AKC titled Agility Excellent Leo in the US as well as the first Leonberger invited to the prestegious AKC Agility Invitational in Long Beach CA this Dec. A number or our progeny have gone on to become LCA Champions. Now that we have become AKC recognized as of July 1, 1010, we have two Cherrywood offspring, 4 grand offspring and 1 great grand offspring out of the 26 invited to the Eukanuba National this year! Nice year all around! A number of our Cherrywood Leos have attained “Therapy Dog International” and Delta Society titles and there have also been Cherrywood Leos involved in water work, search and rescue and the Read To Me programs starting at libraries and schools throughout the country. Cherrywood Kennels has remained one of the top Champion producing kennels in the US. More than any of these “wins” though, I’m proud of the great owners we’ve found for our puppies. Most are committed to protecting this wonderful breed and many have become good friends over the years. A few are now on their third or fourth puppy from us! Next page: What am I looking for in our owners Back to: "PUPPIES" |
| 18900 Chamberlain Rd. Grafton, OH 44044 | 440-926-2801 | cherrywoodleos@yahoo.com |