BIJOU STANDARD POODLES
Available Puppies !!...
Meet Our Poodles...
Pups Of Our Past...
Puppy Layette ...
About US & Our Poodles
Contact us: brownpoodles@yahoo.com
How my dog obsession began… the long version
How my dog obsession began… the
long version (not kidding..LOL).
Most Breeders start out their hobby by one breed and change to another during the years.
Some times it just takes a while to find the breed that really suits you to pour your heart and soul into.
Breeders also really "pay their dues" in the process. ( Just read my article to realize)
Many hard ships such as costly mistakes, difficult desicions to make and heart breaks along the way
are all part of the process of becoming a good breeder.
But once you have lived through it all (usually 5 years) and become an established reputable Breeder
the rewards are wonderful.
There is no greater reward than producing Beautiful healthy pups that you found loving appreciative homes for.
Words can't adequatly describe the joy that planning a litter 5 years in advance and seeing it come to fruition can provide.
In 1988 under much pressure from my
significant other, I obtained my first puppy.
We toured a facility called
“Kelly’s Kennel” that housed over 12 breeds in small cages near London Ontario
I found them in the yellow pages.
They were the only ones with assorted breeds
to choose from and who also were eager to sell to me short notice
and on a
Sunday and didn’t demand a 4 page puppy questionnaire like other breeders who
really seemed like fanatics.
I felt sure I would come home with a cute chow chow puppy I was dreaming of.
Instead I got handed a macho Rottweiler puppy, a breed I didn’t want.
Our male Rottweiler
died 3 days after purchase of Parvo virus.
I camped out at her facility until I caught her in her driveway and I was fortunate
enough to get a replacement who was a female the following week before
the Puppy Mill closed up shop and moved away.
I took obedience classes from a
very reputable and well known local Rottweiler
breeder “Helen MacPherson.”
Determined to make the most of it and do the best I could.
I
discovered the amazing world of dog training and dog shows.
Helen was a very
reluctant mentor but I was like a sponge absorbing any and all information she
would share with me.
She showed me how she did her puppy's tails and dewclaws
and with my nursing skills I began doing my own Vaccinations and Microchipping.
I found out "REAL" breeders do everything themselves.
Going to the Vet that doesn't know your breed standard can result in disasterous looking tails as well as a lot of unrequired care.
One exposure to kennel cough in the waiting room that I brought home was all it took to convince me to start doing my own medical care.
Helen also turned me onto one of the best breed books I have read to date,
titled “The Compete Rottweiler" by Muriel Freemen” because it contains practical information on raising and breeding dogs.
This book became my doggy bible. It even held instructions on how to build a perfect Whelping/Puppy box
which we have since modified slightly called the "PUPPY BOX"
...
After a 1 year tough fight I finally had to get the RCMP involved and did end up receiving my registration papers.
As a result the RCMP started to give out my name as a resource for everyone else wishing to seek out registration papers
from dogs to Horses for a few years. Before you call me, no I can’t get papers out of thin air for anyone.
Your pup's parents have to be either CKC or AKC registered in order for you to receive those registry's papers.
I also started up my own obedience
kindergarten which lasted a year before I realised the people were there for me
to train their dog.
What they didn’t understand was that I was trying to train
them.
I became too frustrated with the people and the problems they continued
to create with their dogs
and who also blamed the dog or the dog’s breeder for
the undesirable behaviour.
Here is a tip. Folks if your kids are wild and don’t
listen to you, no amount of good breeding will supply you with a well behaved
puppy.
Get control and respect from your family members and the support of your
spouse before getting a puppy to add to any problems.
Bad behaviour is your
fault because you allow it.
I continued with my Handling lessons most at no charge because I had so much fun
and was proud to see some of my pupils go onto win Best in Breeds against professional handlers.
Some people I have stayed in contact with and now they help me show my dogs.
You can't beat helping others getting into doing dog activities. Not only is it really enjoyable
to watch people grow and discover the wonderment of obedience,
agility or conformation but they will be there for you when you need help.
Keep in mind when someone asks you for assistance, give it to them.
You never know when you will need help from them.
Pay it forward and keep it humble.
You never stop learning from others.
*Click on photo to watch a dog show
I apprenticed under dog show handlers
and found out the behind the scene work involved in showing dogs.
My dedication
to doing the ground work behind the scenes,
proved myself enough to obtain a
stud male from outstanding lines,
soon followed by my purchase of a USA
I went
with the “VON KIMBALL KENNEL” name and joined the Rottweiler Club of Canada.
A few Obedience and or Championship titles
later I won 10th Top Rottweiler Breeder
in
Canada Award.
If you have seen the documentary…sorry movie..
called “Best in Show” you will know some of which I
was exposed to while in my learning faze.
Dog people are crazy. Some are just
less crazy.
Unfortunately the popularity of Rottweilers soon had a lot of undesirable people wanting a
puppy.
People asking me if they had to feed their puppy gravel or keep it
locked in the dark to make them mean or protective.
Not wishing any of my pups
to find their way into unsuitable homes and owned by misguided people,
I
started writing several articles some done “tongue in cheek” which were
published in the CKC monthly magazine,
the most notable, “Why I bought from a
Puppy Mill” to highlight areas reputable breeders could improve themselves on,
to compete with the Puppy Millers and hopefully put the Puppy millers out of
business.
I soon realised that I can’t change
people, I can only change myself and I got out of the Rottweilers
and a relationship
(yes breeding dogs is VERY difficult on a
relationship) and obtained my next breed,
or rather it obtained me. I combed
through the Dogs In Canada magazine
for the next
perfect “forever” breed that I could pour my heart and soul into.
My long time Rotty mentor “Helen M.” had once said to me “find the
breed that you have a passion for, because once you do,
no matter what trends
come and go, you will always be fine with your breed of choice, as your passion
will sustain your success”.
..
..
I dragged my long time friend
and bulldog breeder to several breeders’ homes to investigate the “Irish water
spaniel, Portuguese Water Dog, Curly Coated Retriever”
before my friend finally had enough and declared
“you keep comparing every breed to a Standard Poodle and they don't measure up, why don’t you just buy a Standard Poodle”.
“No way was I owning one of those "fru fru" dogs” I told her.
But I had to admit most other breeds just didn't have the soul of a poodle.
They just didn't look like they had that understanding heart like a Standard Poodle does.
Not to mention cold yes of the PWD, rat tail of the IWS, and greasy coat and silliness of the CCR
Poodle's looks can be hairy or short and is soft to the touch and non-smelling and tails can be hairy and long or short and clipped.
Standard Poodles look deep into your eyes and if you are sad they lay their head on you as if to absorb some of your pain.
If you are happy they feel energized and will jump around or do silly behavior to make you laugh.
A week later I saw one for sale in the local London newspaper (breeders were still such freaks to deal with) but he had been sold.
2 weeks later I saw a cream standard male named “TJ” for sale in the Toronto Star and called, but again he had been sold already.
1 week later I see an ad in the Londo Free Press for a cream male named “TJ” and could not believe my fortune.
I called an was told to meet the owner at 12:00. I showed up at 11:00am and waited for her in her driveway.
She was not happy but it worked. I found that "TJ" had a VERY calm disposition and was loving and got along well with other dogs.
I also found out he was being abused by a child gone wild and instantly purchased him to save him.
What he had wrong with him was separation anxiety and would destroy a room if he was left alone which I found out the hard way.
After 5 months with me TJ had run of the house with no problems. This was a relationship that was meant to be for sure.
I discovered that Standard Poodles do not all have shaved bums and that they are actually a working breed trapped in a
non-allergen thick woolly coat.
Structurally sound, empathetic animals my TJ and I were shortly best friends, who went everywhere together.
After a year I decided to try my hand at breeding.
I purchased my first female standard poodle from Fuzzies Kennel near Oshawa and named her "Star".
After a year I was able to buy another female from the USA named "Nikki"
Who produced some of the sweetest and beautiful pups I have seen. So much so that we kept "3" for ourselves.
I often get asked why I named my kennel "K-Lar".
My friend was always saying “ ‘K Lar lets go “ abbreviating my name to Lar.
So the kennel name “K-Lar or K’Lar”
was born.
"TJ" was one of the first Standard Poodle owners in London Ontario
His great granddaughter
Cocoa
went on
to get her CD title with 2 High in Class wins after only 2 weeks of training.
(Cocoa holding her rosette and posing with the judge)
Special thanks to Rick Freeman of Milton, ON for taking us to that level and teaching me!
I
also got into Tracking and Schultz hound and I became an AKC Canine Good
Citizen Evaluator
and worked closely with a Behavioural Specialist
Erika Reeves to gain a better understanding of the canine mind.
I also got very curious about
reproduction and how the bulldog people did a ton of
AI’ing
and tests to determine fertility.
I have heard of Vets doing
AI’s and missing or some Vets refused to do AI”s
altogether.
Most often the problem is that people go into the bladder.
Not every bitch is structurally the same.
There are subtle differences that
effect how you have to AI.
This prompted me to have my bulldog friend show me
how she was ALWAYS successful.
She showed me details that were not in any book
and after doing a sucessful AI's in difficult breeds
I too soon became known as a person to go to when someone wanted a bitch AI’d.
My USA
Over coffee I told her I
could do it and guarantee over 3 pups in her litter.
Pam laughed at my boasting
and said “sure give it a go”.
I didn’t do any timing tests or take any smears
because mother nature never lies.
If a bitch is ready,
she is ready.
So I did the AI 3 days in a row 2x a day before I had to leave to
return home.
2 months later she called me all excited saying that her English Bulldog bitch had 6 puppies.
I could go into the details of
technique but instead I put a booklet together
which outlines it all for anyone
interested or I would be more than willing to show
anyone that has a purebred,
how to do their own AI’s.
Needless to say my breeding practices have always
gotten me massive litters
(6 to 8 in small breeds and 12-14 in larger breeds) that only mother nature
could intend for them. Us humans interfere way too
much.
I also became aware of split heats.
A phenomenon often missed by many breeders.
My American Bulldog female was the
first one I have had this with.
This is when a bitch comes into heat and breeds
and then goes out of heat
and a week or two weeks later comes back into heat.
I
have had females breed up to 21 days
and nothing was wrong they had a healthy
litter.
A lot of people breed by the book and miss out on opportunities.
Sometimes you just have to write your own rules.
I try to keep my mind open to
learning opportunities and believe you me,
they do present themselves often.
By this time I was doing a lot of handling
for other people and doing a lot of obedience and Pet therapy.
I also showed my
awfully groomed poodles in conformation at a London Ontario CKC show.
But I got
laughed out of the ring.
Feeling badly I’m sure, a couple of the big named
handlers tried to pass on grooming tips to me,
but I am not an artist or a
talented groomer and so I gave up conformation with the poodles.
I did however
continue to go to the fun and Sanction matches were I continued
to win Best in
Breed and often group wins beating poodles entered in the CKC shows
much to the chagrin of the owners who hired handlers
to show their poodles the next day in the “real” shows.
I also started Ring Stewarding in
the Obedience ring.
I still bred my Standard Poodles much to the dismay of show
people who felt that you should only breed if your dogs were champions.
But I
could not groom the coats nor keep the coats in show condition.
MY poodles were
my loved and cherished pets that ran and played in the yard
and pulled each
other’s hair out and laid inn the sun bleaching their coats…
I was not about to
keep them kennelled or caged or to send them away for months on end with a
stranger to get their championships.
It is a shame to see so many good poodles not be shown because they have to
have 2 feet of hair to compete.
Hopefully AKC and CKC will change the rules to allow poodles to be shown in a sporting clip
as entrys ($) would for sure double.
My one friend Pamela Heath of Shurwin Cattery had gotten into breeding Persian and
Himalayan cats and she soon had me fascinated
by the amazing colour
combinations and the chance of showing them.
Chocolate and Lilac being the most desirable and rare colour.
Of course I dove in head first obtaining my
first breeding lilac and chocolate Himalayans from a very
unknown small breeder in Simcoe named "Giselle"
who bred under the prefix or cattery name of "Pulcherimus" and
I went under my Cattery name of “KIM-BALL
CATTERY, KIMBALL CATTERY”
I began showing almost every weekend in USA and Canada with CFA and CCA
My Lilac Point, Champion-"Lilas Mauve of Kim-Ball" (later sold and name changed to "Lilas Mauve of Fur Pleasure")
Which is behind some of the most famous CFA Grand Champion Lilac & Chocolates to date such as
Chocolate Male "GC Lake Hyco's Brown Thrasher "
Lilac Male "GC Fur Pleasure Dennis Phantom Menace"
Unfortunatly breeders removed the "Kim-ball" prefix and suffix from my kittens so not all of my kittens will reflect my cattery name unless you go back another generation.
Statchy Cattery in Europe imported a couple of my Lilac Points"Kim-ball's Syrinx of Statchy" that went on to champion in Netherlands
and who you can see behind "Ch. Prairiecats Forest Gump of Scaatycat" pedigree along with many others.
Pedigrees I had to beg Giselle for over a year before she
entrusted me with one of her kittens
for breeding and combined her lines of Pulcherimus with
the Shurwin cats. Because the colour was so rare, the
type was awful.
But I knew within 3 years I would have type and colour with
blending these two pedigrees.
I was just that determined and studied the pedigrees
that much.
All this was before internet so you can imagine how much homework I
had to do.
There were VERY few breeders who understood how to get the colours
lilac and chocolate and even understood less about recessives and visuals.
I
admit that I lacked the knowledge about patterns but I was concentrating on
solids at the time.
I had people calling me from all over the world asking me
about how to breed for the colour.
My cats were in high demand and I placed
many kittens in homes all over the world.
I got laughed at at
my first cat show in 1990s.
My cats were taken out of their display cages and held by
the judge for examination and everyone laughed and pointed.
I sat there and
faced my mockers and announced “laugh now
but in 2 years time I will be back here
with a Grand Champion Chocolate”.
Sure enough I returned with several champion
Lilac and Chocolates and a new colour a Lilac-cream which was one of the first
in CFA (like the AKC for dogs) history to Champion CH Keltset Cherry Blossom of Kim-Ball
(Br: Louis Wheeler, Ow: Laura Barton),
CH Kim-Ball Peaches of Shurwin (Br: Laura Barton-T., Ow: Pamela Heath) ( http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/articles/persian-particolor.html).
I also had a kitten that I bred that went on to grand champion.
Kim-Ball
Persians are behind some of the most well known Grand Champion lilac and
chocolates.
One of my mockers a very well known reputable Blue point Himalayan
breeder actually came over and shook my hand
saying “I laughed at you and now I
have to shake your hand as you did it”.
Of course like anyone greedy I wanted
more. I understood colour genetics like no one else took the time to do.
My new
goal was to create the first ever lilac chinchilla Persian and Himalayan.
I
bought my first chinchillas well on my way.
Unfortunately back then there was
no ring worm vaccination and I soon became infested with ring worm.
My vet
bills a month were thousands and so
I made the decision to sell my cats to my
friend who started me in the hobby.
I was still receiving phone calls from Europe
about my cats until 2006 when our phone number changed.
In 2006 I was also asked to contribute to a peice in Cat Tracks Magazine (official publication of The Atlantic Himalayan Club)
about my discovery of a new shade of chocolate now being called Cinnamon
Left empty handed again for a breed
to show, I discovered American Bulldogs through my bulldog breeding friend.
I
was hooked when I found out that they were good natured, showy colours, single
coated,
non-smelling and could be shown rare breeds and that they were indeed
fairly rare to find.
I searched the world and found an unknown breeder of
American Bulldogs that had the most incredible male that I had ever seen.
The
breeder Mark Ross of MD Kennels gave me this big old sloppy puppy
that no one
wanted, saying that I must see something in him that no one else did.
In return
a year later I sent Mark two of Keno’s pups that went on to champion for him.
my kennel ad is still on Molosser world web page
"Rock-Solid's Keno of MD" name later changed to "Dual CH. Rock Solids M.D. Keno " Top American Bulldog with the RBCOSWO
Keno (the sloppy puppy) also won multiple Best in Breed and Group wins when he
matured into the great AB I knew he would.
His son Beau won Best in Show
Specialty and Top Dog in Canada
They can see what that individual dog can do
for their programs.
I think you have that talent. Keep up the good work”.
Next I purchased "Dual CH. K-Lar's Radical Red of Kennedy" (name later changed to "Kenndy's Radical Red K'Lar")
Kenndy's American Bulldogs who went on to champion and win BIS RBCOSWO
Later I purchased a puppy who became "Champion - KENNEDY'S JUST CALL ME BOSS" who also went on to win RBCOSWO Top American Bulldog Award
"Boss and Red" produced "Rock-Solid's Winning is a Breeze" (name changed to "DBK'S WINNING IS A BREEZE" who won BIS Puppy
I decided not breed Standard
Poodles any longer, only keeping my “Nikki”.
No one wanted Standard Poodles
anymore.
A load of people the previous years had gotten into breeding them and
standard poodles became a dime a dozen.
You could not give a litter away.
Temperament
problems also arose as people were breeding with no papers and a lot of
inbreeding was happening,
as no one knew what was related to what.
Breeders
just don’t seem to understand the concept of keeping the supply low, will keep the demand for their pups high.
You can make
a good buck selling a puppy for breeding rights,
but within in a year you will
find 10 pups competing for the same pet homes as you are trying to get.
To me
it is not worth that instant dollar,
to ruin my already limited pet puppy
market.
I want great homes available for my precious puppys.
Selling for "pets" allows me to have great homes and keeps pups from being in shelters,
Although I do not make a fortune like I would if I did not care.
Today unfortunatly people are breeding labs and goldens to poodles
which is cementing hip and elbow problems and the breeders of this well marketed mutt
are not screening the dogs for dysplasia.
Soon all "oodle" breeds will be having a bad reputation of being unhealthy
due to lack of health screening that is conclusive and available today.
A couple years later I had a lot of
people calling me that wanted a second “K-Lar”
standard poodle.
They had been around to a lot of breeder’s homes and found
that they just didn’t have the nice calm temperaments that my dogs had.
So I
tracked down one of the males I had bred that had not been neutered and
arranged to take “Nikki” to him.
The resulting litter of Standard Poodles
contained a weird colour.
I tried towel drying it and towel drying this funny
coloured poodle before realizing that it was dry and it was a BROWN !
Using my cat colour genetic knowledge I knew that I
had a 1 in 4 chance of producing browns and I did it.
“K-Lar’s
Hot Cocoa, CD” was born.
I had always wanted to breed rare brown and red coloured
Poodles but had heard horror stories about how vicious and hyper red and brown
poodles were.
Cocoa
My dream was fulfilled.
The following year I was contacted by VetGen Labs
about contribuing DNA from my brown poodles to establish the brown gene.
This would help breeders determine if a poodle "carried" the brown gene which we were only to happy to partake in.
Thanks to us and other breeder's contribution of DNA
Vetgen Lab is now able to DNA test a Poodle to verify if it is carrying recessive colours.
I decided to purchase a dark brown
male from the USA
Also to get more into
the colour. Over the 17 years I have purchased a few brown standard
poodles from many VERY well known kennels in the
USA
A good looking Brown Puppy I bought from Gettysburg, PA was so
hyper and skiddish
acting I could not keep her and one VERY good looking brown male from Tampa, Florida even attacked and killed a
young litter of 6 week old puppies.
In one other case, I finally got a Standard Poodle Male from Weatherford, Texas who had the
perfect temperament
and he turned silver at 9 months of age everywhere except
his ears and tail.
After a few expensive investments later I finally just
decided to breed and keep my own male
“K-LAR'S HERSHEY WINS AGAIN”
who is still a deep dark brown
but also has the calm, loving, confident nature that we have become so famous
for.
At the same time I had finally
accomplished my brown Standard Poodle Breeding program.
I was getting more into
the American Bulldog breed and getting frustrated at the lack of information or resource
for the American Bulldog in Canada
I felt unless breeders banned together quickly that the breed would become the
next Rottweiler. There were a few breeders but no one
to offer public education.
I made it my mission to form an American Bulldog
Club and then turn it over to the existing breeders to run it.
This of course
bombed as breeders were doing fine on their own
and didn’t feel the need to
offer free public education or have a unified voice.
So I formed the American
Bulldog Club of Canada and held the office of President for 3 years with 34
members and growing to over 100 within a couple years and became an ABA Sanctioned Club.
The club had a quarterly
newsletter which contained around 30 pages of breed information from around the
world.
Again this was when internet was still new to most people and very few
had email.
...
Rock-Solid's American Bulldog puppies
The club had their first American Bulldog Specialty
show at the Skydome with Alan Scott of as a judge who is
also one of the AB breed founders named for the “Scott type” of American
Bulldog.
The event was filmed and shown on TV on one of the sporting channels.
We did many TV interviews promoting and doing public education about rare
breeds
and I also sat on the City of St. Thomas Breed Ban Committee to protect the rights of people wishing to own dog's deemed dangerous,
fearing that the AB would soon be listed.
I
also wrote for the CKC breedlines for over 5 years which helped to
familiarize the AB to Canada
The ABCOC was world recognized club and resource for the breed in
Canada
I dove
head first into the breed, hoping to be the most famous American Bulldog Kennel
in the world next to JDJ (John D Johnson) himself.
2 years later Rock-Solid
American Bulldogs was world famous and highly sought after.
I had my pups all
over the world being shown.
I also won Top Dog Award 2 years in a row.
American
Bulldogs soon fell way of the Rottweiler.
I could
command prices of over $5,000.00 US for a puppy and still people that wanted
them, wanted them for guard dogs and fighting dogs.
I also got involved in Agility, tracking and Schutzhund.
...
I also decided to built and market affordable, quality agility equipment hoping to sell,
which really flopped and only myself and the dogs enjoyed.
Today my kennel name of Rock-Solid is now
being used by a different kennel located in Florida,
totally unrelated to my American Bulldogs and totally different style more "pitbull type" than mine ever were.
I traded my last American Bulldogs
to a long time respected AB breeder in Canada
and began breeding Boston
Terriers from Razor’s Edge Kennel under the prefix of K-Lar.
CHAMPION - "K-Lar's Southern Bell"
Winning BOB, BP, Group 4th (and 5 points) under Judge: Phyllis Wolfish on November 17, 2001 8 months old and only her second show.
All my Bostons championed easily and had wonderful
natures, very loving eager to please.
After many easy championships and
multiple Group wins and breeding a few litters I became leery and sad about
doing the required C-Sections to these poor little dogs who
did nothing more than live to please me.
It is funny to note that without any manipulation on my part,
Just letting mother nature dictate when my bostons would be bred after 10th day and for how long
My Boston Terriers always had 6-9 puppies.
My most notable accomplishment with
the Boston Terriers
was to win BIS at Forest City Kennel Club sanction match 2
years in a row with my Boston Terriers.
I stopped breeding them and decided
Pugs were the way to go. Still cute as buttons, easy to show
and no C-Sections.
After a great deal of research I selected my 3 girls and 1 male from various breeders in the USA
“well Laura one thing
everyone knows about you is that you can make silk purses out of a sow’s ear”.
So I had no doubts about my ability to champion my pugs and create my own line of Champions.
It was then that I completely tore
my ACL playing squash and required surgery.
Little did I know that this
accident would totally change my life for the better. I
needed a 6 month recovery off of work and I only took 4.
I had been through
several relationships over the years and I finally met Mr Right at around this
same time.
As a full time Nurse and Addiction Counsellor I kept my dog habit
pretty quiet
and very few of my single friends knew about my addiction to dogs
and dog shows.
My future husband decided we would get engaged and he would move
in so he could care for me.
What he didn’t expect was a complete doggy family.
When I finally had the courage to
introduce him to my dogs
he was a little shocked to say the least and also
announced he was allergic to animals.
I was devastated as he laid out the new
rules of no dogs in the house,
no eating off of our plates, never to be in the
bedroom or near him.
Relationships are about compromise,
so I called up a women that had been emailing me
constantly about Pug puppies as she wanted to breed and show.
I ended up
telling her that her dream of breeding pugs
was about to come true sooner than
she expected.
I offered her all 4 pugs with full registration and who could be
bred in 4 short months.
She took me up on it and went on to have 3 litters of
4-6 pups within 6 months under the kennel name "PugPaws".
Her investment paid her back easily within a few
months.
As for the poodles…well that was
non-negotiable, they were here to stay.
I just had to wait for them to work
their magic.
I was so happy when I came home from work to find him in bed
watching a movie with a poodle under each arm and one across his legs.
To my
shocked expression he responded with his thick French accent,
“these are not
dogs, they are like humans.
I am not sneezing or allergic to them.
They are
such wise creatures”.
They soon had him trained to give them treats by sitting
by the cookie jar and starring.
Or as he said “I trained them to ask for
treats”.
The Poodles soon had him wrapped around their paws in record time, as
I knew they would.
He also agreed that he would help me with what ever I wished
to do with the poodles as long as that is the only breed I would own.
I agreed
knowing that doing conformation would be a distant dream.
During my recovery I often sat on
the front porch having coffee with Cocoa
I was
becoming frustrated with the hostile climate and intense back biting
that St.
Joseph’s Hospital encouraged amongst it’s staff in order to have Full time
permanent nurses
quit or get fired for minor infractions
only to be hired back
as casual part time staff with no benefits saving the hospital tons of money
and a market flooded with nurses who
have to work 2 and 3 jobs to make one full
time pay check. Folks…there is no
shortage of nurses.
There is a shortage of full time nursing jobs.
Give nurses
full time permanent jobs and the hospitals would be flooded with staff.
2004 Fire Academy
I left Ben at home with the Poodles
while I went to Fire
Academy
He
bred one of my poodles and raised a litter all on his own, with a very little
direction from me.
For a person not raised with dogs, he soon began to share my
passion for the breed and showed his aptitude for training dogs and raising
puppies.
While I was away, the Lion’s
Seeing Eye Dog foundation called me
saying one of my puppies had failed their
program because it had a seizure.
It was then that I found out through a
naturopath friend of mine, about the hazards of Vacinosis.
My husband drove to
their facility and retrieved our puppy and began treatment.
This puppy is alive
and well today in a fabulous pet home at 3 years of age
with no reoccurrences
and no other incidences of seizures in our puppies.
I was pretty absorbed in my Fire Training
and studying for a new career as the training and exams are very demanding.
After the Academy's Training and Courses, you still have to apply for a job.
Courses just help you beef up your resume.
Myself and 3,000 other applicants went to every cities recruitment
hoping to get one of the 1-12 positions Cities were hiring for.
I also put more energy into doing races and duathlons
and body building and enjoying the poodles as pets and jogging partners and
took several years away from the dog hobby.
If you want a motivated running
partner, jog with a poodle.
Raven’s ease of doing hill repeats kept me
motivated to do it again and again.
When I felt like giving up on my runs,
Raven would give me that extra pull and look at me
like “come on I know you can
do more” and I did.
I would come home exhausted after working out and Cocoa
I finally got hired and had to commute 1.5 hours away, so I decided to rent an apartment
in town living next door to a crack house as that is all I could afford, through the week.
I missed the dogs and Ben terribly, so after a year we decided to move closer to my work.
Changing careers, Selling my house, Buying a house, Going through Studying to pass Probation Period, all while caring for the dogs.
...
...
Today after 5 years of a GREAT DEAL of hard work and 17 years of breeding.
I finally have my dream career, the perfect doggy home with 1 acre fully fenced yard
for the dogs to run and the support of a wonderful friend, my husband.
With my life finally settled,
I have
decided to embark on the Red Standard Poodle breeding program
after years of
contemplation about the rare colour.
I found a fabulous breeder who really
cares about her poodles
and who also entrusted me with one of her precious
poodle babies.
I decided that with a new life I needed a new kennel name and so
in 2006 Bijou Standard Poodles came to be.
My red program will have the Bijou
prefix (a reflection of the precious jewels that Standard Poodles are)
and my
brown line will continue to have the K-Lar prefix
that is already established in pedigrees.
I hope to keep the two programs
separate and pure.
It was around the same time that I
heard about the UKC (United Kennel Club) dog shows and how there is no professional handlers allowed
and that poodles can be shown shaved down into a sporting clip!
I was so excited as this is what I have wanted since the very
beginning.
Now I can fully enjoy my Poodles, no other substitutes. In 2007 I
championed my 2 reds Ruby and Razz andCocoa and Java were pointed.
In 2007 I am getting back into the dogs and the dog
world again. Keep an eye on me, as I will soon be world famous for my vibrant
reds and deep dark browns.
Return to Bijou Poodles Home Page
How my dog obsession began… the long version (not kidding..LOL).
Most Breeders start out their hobby by one breed and change to another during the years.
Some times it just takes a while to find the breed that really suits you to pour your heart and soul into.
Breeders also really "pay their dues" in the process. ( Just read my article to realize)
Many hard ships such as costly mistakes, difficult desicions to make and heart breaks along the way
are all part of the process of becoming a good breeder.
But once you have lived through it all (usually 5 years) and become an established reputable Breeder
the rewards are wonderful.
There is no greater reward than producing Beautiful healthy pups that you found loving appreciative homes for.
Words can't adequatly describe the joy that planning a litter 5 years in advance and seeing it come to fruition can provide.
In 1988 under much pressure from my
significant other, I obtained my first puppy.
We toured a facility called
“Kelly’s Kennel” that housed over 12 breeds in small cages near
I found them in the yellow pages.
They were the only ones with assorted breeds
to choose from and who also were eager to sell to me short notice
and on a
Sunday and didn’t demand a 4 page puppy questionnaire like other breeders who
really seemed like fanatics.
I felt sure I would come home with a cute chow chow puppy I was dreaming of.
Instead I got handed a macho Rottweiler puppy, a breed I didn’t want.
Our male Rottweiler
died 3 days after purchase of Parvo virus.
I camped out at her facility until I caught her in her driveway and I was fortunate
enough to get a replacement who was a female the following week before
the Puppy Mill closed up shop and moved away.
I took obedience classes from a
very reputable and well known local Rottweiler
breeder “Helen MacPherson.”
Determined to make the most of it and do the best I could.
I
discovered the amazing world of dog training and dog shows.
Helen was a very
reluctant mentor but I was like a sponge absorbing any and all information she
would share with me.
She showed me how she did her puppy's tails and dewclaws
and with my nursing skills I began doing my own Vaccinations and Microchipping.
I found out "REAL" breeders do everything themselves.
Going to the Vet that doesn't know your breed standard can result in disasterous looking tails as well as a lot of unrequired care.
One exposure to kennel cough in the waiting room that I brought home was all it took to convince me to start doing my own medical care.
Helen also turned me onto one of the best breed books I have read to date,
titled “The Compete Rottweiler" by Muriel Freemen” because it contains practical information on raising and breeding dogs.
This book became my doggy bible. It even held instructions on how to build a perfect Whelping/Puppy box
which we have since modified slightly called the "PUPPY BOX"
...
After a 1 year tough fight I finally had to get the RCMP involved and did end up receiving my registration papers.
As a result the RCMP started to give out my name as a resource for everyone else wishing to seek out registration papers
from dogs to Horses for a few years. Before you call me, no I can’t get papers out of thin air for anyone.
Your pup's parents have to be either CKC or AKC registered in order for you to receive those registry's papers.
I also started up my own obedience
kindergarten which lasted a year before I realised the people were there for me
to train their dog.
What they didn’t understand was that I was trying to train
them.
I became too frustrated with the people and the problems they continued
to create with their dogs
and who also blamed the dog or the dog’s breeder for
the undesirable behaviour.
Here is a tip. Folks if your kids are wild and don’t
listen to you, no amount of good breeding will supply you with a well behaved
puppy.
Get control and respect from your family members and the support of your
spouse before getting a puppy to add to any problems.
Bad behaviour is your
fault because you allow it.
and was proud to see some of my pupils go onto win Best in Breeds against professional handlers.
Some people I have stayed in contact with and now they help me show my dogs.
You can't beat helping others getting into doing dog activities. Not only is it really enjoyable
to watch people grow and discover the wonderment of obedience,
agility or conformation but they will be there for you when you need help.
Keep in mind when someone asks you for assistance, give it to them.
You never know when you will need help from them.
Pay it forward and keep it humble.
You never stop learning from others.
*Click on photo to watch a dog show
I apprenticed under dog show handlers
and found out the behind the scene work involved in showing dogs.
My dedication
to doing the ground work behind the scenes,
proved myself enough to obtain a
stud male from outstanding lines,
soon followed by my purchase of a
I went
with the “VON KIMBALL KENNEL” name and joined the Rottweiler Club of Canada.
A few Obedience and or Championship titles
later I won 10th Top Rottweiler Breeder
in
Canada Award.
If you have seen the documentary…sorry movie..
called “Best in Show” you will know some of which I
was exposed to while in my learning faze.
Dog people are crazy. Some are just
less crazy.
Unfortunately the popularity of Rottweilers soon had a lot of undesirable people wanting a
puppy.
People asking me if they had to feed their puppy gravel or keep it
locked in the dark to make them mean or protective.
Not wishing any of my pups
to find their way into unsuitable homes and owned by misguided people,
I
started writing several articles some done “tongue in cheek” which were
published in the CKC monthly magazine,
the most notable, “Why I bought from a
Puppy Mill” to highlight areas reputable breeders could improve themselves on,
to compete with the Puppy Millers and hopefully put the Puppy millers out of
business.
I soon realised that I can’t change
people, I can only change myself and I got out of the Rottweilers
and a relationship
(yes breeding dogs is VERY difficult on a
relationship) and obtained my next breed,
or rather it obtained me. I combed
through the Dogs In Canada magazine
for the next
perfect “forever” breed that I could pour my heart and soul into.
My long time Rotty mentor “Helen M.” had once said to me “find the
breed that you have a passion for, because once you do,
no matter what trends
come and go, you will always be fine with your breed of choice, as your passion
will sustain your success”.
..
..
I dragged my long time friend
and bulldog breeder to several breeders’ homes to investigate the “Irish water
spaniel, Portuguese Water Dog, Curly Coated Retriever”
before my friend finally had enough and declared
“you keep comparing every breed to a Standard Poodle and they don't measure up, why don’t you just buy a Standard Poodle”.
“No way was I owning one of those "fru fru" dogs” I told her.
But I had to admit most other breeds just didn't have the soul of a poodle.
They just didn't look like they had that understanding heart like a Standard Poodle does.
Not to mention cold yes of the PWD, rat tail of the IWS, and greasy coat and silliness of the CCR
Poodle's looks can be hairy or short and is soft to the touch and non-smelling and tails can be hairy and long or short and clipped.
Standard Poodles look deep into your eyes and if you are sad they lay their head on you as if to absorb some of your pain.
If you are happy they feel energized and will jump around or do silly behavior to make you laugh.
A week later I saw one for sale in the local London newspaper (breeders were still such freaks to deal with) but he had been sold.
2 weeks later I saw a cream standard male named “TJ” for sale in the Toronto Star and called, but again he had been sold already.
1 week later I see an ad in the Londo Free Press for a cream male named “TJ” and could not believe my fortune.
I called an was told to meet the owner at 12:00. I showed up at 11:00am and waited for her in her driveway.
She was not happy but it worked. I found that "TJ" had a VERY calm disposition and was loving and got along well with other dogs.
I also found out he was being abused by a child gone wild and instantly purchased him to save him.
What he had wrong with him was separation anxiety and would destroy a room if he was left alone which I found out the hard way.
After 5 months with me TJ had run of the house with no problems. This was a relationship that was meant to be for sure.
I discovered that Standard Poodles do not all have shaved bums and that they are actually a working breed trapped in a
non-allergen thick woolly coat.
Structurally sound, empathetic animals my TJ and I were shortly best friends, who went everywhere together.
After a year I decided to try my hand at breeding.
I purchased my first female standard poodle from Fuzzies Kennel near Oshawa and named her "Star".
After a year I was able to buy another female from the USA named "Nikki"
Who produced some of the sweetest and beautiful pups I have seen. So much so that we kept "3" for ourselves.
I often get asked why I named my kennel "K-Lar".
My friend was always saying “ ‘K Lar lets go “ abbreviating my name to Lar.
So the kennel name “K-Lar or K’Lar”
was born.
"TJ" was one of the first Standard Poodle owners in
His great granddaughter
went on
to get her CD title with 2 High in Class wins after only 2 weeks of training.
(Cocoa holding her rosette and posing with the judge)
Special thanks to Rick Freeman of Milton, ON for taking us to that level and teaching me!
I
also got into Tracking and Schultz hound and I became an AKC Canine Good
Citizen Evaluator
and worked closely with a Behavioural Specialist
Erika Reeves to gain a better understanding of the canine mind.
I also got very curious about
reproduction and how the bulldog people did a ton of
AI’ing
and tests to determine fertility.
I have heard of Vets doing
AI’s and missing or some Vets refused to do AI”s
altogether.
Most often the problem is that people go into the bladder.
Not every bitch is structurally the same.
There are subtle differences that
effect how you have to AI.
This prompted me to have my bulldog friend show me
how she was ALWAYS successful.
She showed me details that were not in any book
and after doing a sucessful AI's in difficult breeds
I too soon became known as a person to go to when someone wanted a bitch AI’d.
My
Over coffee I told her I
could do it and guarantee over 3 pups in her litter.
Pam laughed at my boasting
and said “sure give it a go”.
I didn’t do any timing tests or take any smears
because mother nature never lies.
If a bitch is ready,
she is ready.
So I did the AI 3 days in a row 2x a day before I had to leave to
return home.
2 months later she called me all excited saying that her English Bulldog bitch had 6 puppies.
I could go into the details of
technique but instead I put a booklet together
which outlines it all for anyone
interested or I would be more than willing to show
anyone that has a purebred,
how to do their own AI’s.
Needless to say my breeding practices have always
gotten me massive litters
(6 to 8 in small breeds and 12-14 in larger breeds) that only mother nature
could intend for them. Us humans interfere way too
much.
I also became aware of split heats.
A phenomenon often missed by many breeders.
My American Bulldog female was the
first one I have had this with.
This is when a bitch comes into heat and breeds
and then goes out of heat
and a week or two weeks later comes back into heat.
I
have had females breed up to 21 days
and nothing was wrong they had a healthy
litter.
A lot of people breed by the book and miss out on opportunities.
Sometimes you just have to write your own rules.
I try to keep my mind open to
learning opportunities and believe you me,
they do present themselves often.
By this time I was doing a lot of handling
for other people and doing a lot of obedience and Pet therapy.
I also showed my
awfully groomed poodles in conformation at a London Ontario CKC show.
But I got
laughed out of the ring.
Feeling badly I’m sure, a couple of the big named
handlers tried to pass on grooming tips to me,
but I am not an artist or a
talented groomer and so I gave up conformation with the poodles.
I did however
continue to go to the fun and Sanction matches were I continued
to win Best in
Breed and often group wins beating poodles entered in the CKC shows
much to the chagrin of the owners who hired handlers
to show their poodles the next day in the “real” shows.
I also started Ring Stewarding in
the Obedience ring.
I still bred my Standard Poodles much to the dismay of show
people who felt that you should only breed if your dogs were champions.
But I
could not groom the coats nor keep the coats in show condition.
MY poodles were
my loved and cherished pets that ran and played in the yard
and pulled each
other’s hair out and laid inn the sun bleaching their coats…
I was not about to
keep them kennelled or caged or to send them away for months on end with a
stranger to get their championships.
Hopefully AKC and CKC will change the rules to allow poodles to be shown in a sporting clip
as entrys ($) would for sure double.
My one friend Pamela Heath of Shurwin Cattery had gotten into breeding Persian and
Himalayan cats and she soon had me fascinated
by the amazing colour
combinations and the chance of showing them.
Chocolate and Lilac being the most desirable and rare colour.
Of course I dove in head first obtaining my
first breeding lilac and chocolate Himalayans from a very
unknown small breeder in Simcoe named "Giselle"
who bred under the prefix or cattery name of "Pulcherimus" and
I went under my Cattery name of “KIM-BALL
CATTERY, KIMBALL CATTERY”
I began showing almost every weekend in USA and Canada with CFA and CCA
My Lilac Point, Champion-"Lilas Mauve of Kim-Ball" (later sold and name changed to "Lilas Mauve of Fur Pleasure")
Which is behind some of the most famous CFA Grand Champion Lilac & Chocolates to date such as
Chocolate Male "GC Lake Hyco's Brown Thrasher "
Lilac Male "GC Fur Pleasure Dennis Phantom Menace"
Unfortunatly breeders removed the "Kim-ball" prefix and suffix from my kittens so not all of my kittens will reflect my cattery name unless you go back another generation.
Statchy Cattery in Europe imported a couple of my Lilac Points"Kim-ball's Syrinx of Statchy" that went on to champion in Netherlands
and who you can see behind "Ch. Prairiecats Forest Gump of Scaatycat" pedigree along with many others.
Pedigrees I had to beg Giselle for over a year before she
entrusted me with one of her kittens
for breeding and combined her lines of Pulcherimus with
the Shurwin cats. Because the colour was so rare, the
type was awful.
But I knew within 3 years I would have type and colour with
blending these two pedigrees.
I was just that determined and studied the pedigrees
that much.
All this was before internet so you can imagine how much homework I
had to do.
There were VERY few breeders who understood how to get the colours
lilac and chocolate and even understood less about recessives and visuals.
I
admit that I lacked the knowledge about patterns but I was concentrating on
solids at the time.
I had people calling me from all over the world asking me
about how to breed for the colour.
My cats were in high demand and I placed
many kittens in homes all over the world.
I got laughed at at
my first cat show in 1990s.
My cats were taken out of their display cages and held by
the judge for examination and everyone laughed and pointed.
I sat there and
faced my mockers and announced “laugh now
but in 2 years time I will be back here
with a Grand Champion Chocolate”.
Sure enough I returned with several champion
Lilac and Chocolates and a new colour a Lilac-cream which was one of the first
in CFA (like the AKC for dogs) history to Champion CH Keltset Cherry Blossom of Kim-Ball
(Br: Louis Wheeler, Ow: Laura Barton),
CH Kim-Ball Peaches of Shurwin (Br: Laura Barton-T., Ow: Pamela Heath) ( http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/articles/persian-particolor.html).
I also had a kitten that I bred that went on to grand champion.
Kim-Ball
Persians are behind some of the most well known Grand Champion lilac and
chocolates.
One of my mockers a very well known reputable Blue point Himalayan
breeder actually came over and shook my hand
saying “I laughed at you and now I
have to shake your hand as you did it”.
Of course like anyone greedy I wanted
more. I understood colour genetics like no one else took the time to do.
My new
goal was to create the first ever lilac chinchilla Persian and Himalayan.
I
bought my first chinchillas well on my way.
Unfortunately back then there was
no ring worm vaccination and I soon became infested with ring worm.
My vet
bills a month were thousands and so
I made the decision to sell my cats to my
friend who started me in the hobby.
I was still receiving phone calls from Europe
about my cats until 2006 when our phone number changed.
In 2006 I was also asked to contribute to a peice in Cat Tracks Magazine (official publication of The Atlantic Himalayan Club)
about my discovery of a new shade of chocolate now being called Cinnamon
Left empty handed again for a breed
to show, I discovered American Bulldogs through my bulldog breeding friend.
I
was hooked when I found out that they were good natured, showy colours, single
coated,
non-smelling and could be shown rare breeds and that they were indeed
fairly rare to find.
I searched the world and found an unknown breeder of
American Bulldogs that had the most incredible male that I had ever seen.
The
breeder Mark Ross of MD Kennels gave me this big old sloppy puppy
that no one
wanted, saying that I must see something in him that no one else did.
In return
a year later I sent Mark two of Keno’s pups that went on to champion for him.
my kennel ad is still on Molosser world web page
"Rock-Solid's Keno of MD" name later changed to "Dual CH. Rock Solids M.D. Keno " Top American Bulldog with the RBCOSWO
Keno (the sloppy puppy) also won multiple Best in Breed and Group wins when he
matured into the great AB I knew he would.
His son Beau won Best in Show
Specialty and Top Dog in
They can see what that individual dog can do
for their programs.
I think you have that talent. Keep up the good work”.
Next I purchased "Dual CH. K-Lar's Radical Red of Kennedy" (name later changed to "Kenndy's Radical Red K'Lar")
Kenndy's American Bulldogs who went on to champion and win BIS RBCOSWO
Later I purchased a puppy who became "Champion - KENNEDY'S JUST CALL ME BOSS" who also went on to win RBCOSWO Top American Bulldog Award
"Boss and Red" produced "Rock-Solid's Winning is a Breeze" (name changed to "DBK'S WINNING IS A BREEZE" who won BIS Puppy
I decided not breed Standard
Poodles any longer, only keeping my “Nikki”.
No one wanted Standard Poodles
anymore.
A load of people the previous years had gotten into breeding them and
standard poodles became a dime a dozen.
You could not give a litter away.
Temperament
problems also arose as people were breeding with no papers and a lot of
inbreeding was happening,
as no one knew what was related to what.
Breeders
just don’t seem to understand the concept of keeping the supply low, will keep the demand for their pups high.
You can make
a good buck selling a puppy for breeding rights,
but within in a year you will
find 10 pups competing for the same pet homes as you are trying to get.
To me
it is not worth that instant dollar,
to ruin my already limited pet puppy
market.
Selling for "pets" allows me to have great homes and keeps pups from being in shelters,
Although I do not make a fortune like I would if I did not care.
Today unfortunatly people are breeding labs and goldens to poodles
which is cementing hip and elbow problems and the breeders of this well marketed mutt
are not screening the dogs for dysplasia.
Soon all "oodle" breeds will be having a bad reputation of being unhealthy
due to lack of health screening that is conclusive and available today.
A couple years later I had a lot of
people calling me that wanted a second “K-Lar”
standard poodle.
They had been around to a lot of breeder’s homes and found
that they just didn’t have the nice calm temperaments that my dogs had.
So I
tracked down one of the males I had bred that had not been neutered and
arranged to take “Nikki” to him.
The resulting litter of Standard Poodles
contained a weird colour.
I tried towel drying it and towel drying this funny
coloured poodle before realizing that it was dry and it was a BROWN !
Using my cat colour genetic knowledge I knew that I
had a 1 in 4 chance of producing browns and I did it.
“K-Lar’s
Hot Cocoa, CD” was born.
I had always wanted to breed rare brown and red coloured
Poodles but had heard horror stories about how vicious and hyper red and brown
poodles were.
My dream was fulfilled.
The following year I was contacted by VetGen Labs
about contribuing DNA from my brown poodles to establish the brown gene.
This would help breeders determine if a poodle "carried" the brown gene which we were only to happy to partake in.
Thanks to us and other breeder's contribution of DNA
Vetgen Lab is now able to DNA test a Poodle to verify if it is carrying recessive colours.
I decided to purchase a dark brown
male from the
Also to get more into
the colour. Over the 17 years I have purchased a few brown standard
poodles from many VERY well known kennels in the
A good looking Brown Puppy I bought from Gettysburg, PA was so
hyper and skiddish
acting I could not keep her and one VERY good looking brown male from Tampa, Florida even attacked and killed a
young litter of 6 week old puppies.
In one other case, I finally got a Standard Poodle Male from Weatherford, Texas who had the
perfect temperament
and he turned silver at 9 months of age everywhere except
his ears and tail.
After a few expensive investments later I finally just
decided to breed and keep my own male
“K-LAR'S HERSHEY WINS AGAIN”
who is still a deep dark brown
but also has the calm, loving, confident nature that we have become so famous
for.
At the same time I had finally
accomplished my brown Standard Poodle Breeding program.
I was getting more into
the American Bulldog breed and getting frustrated at the lack of information or resource
for the American Bulldog in
I felt unless breeders banned together quickly that the breed would become the
next Rottweiler. There were a few breeders but no one
to offer public education.
I made it my mission to form an American Bulldog
Club and then turn it over to the existing breeders to run it.
This of course
bombed as breeders were doing fine on their own
and didn’t feel the need to
offer free public education or have a unified voice.
So I formed the American
Bulldog Club of Canada and held the office of President for 3 years with 34
members and growing to over 100 within a couple years and became an ABA Sanctioned Club.
The club had a quarterly
newsletter which contained around 30 pages of breed information from around the
world.
Again this was when internet was still new to most people and very few
had email.
...Rock-Solid's American Bulldog puppies
The club had their first American Bulldog Specialty
show at the Skydome with Alan Scott of as a judge who is
also one of the AB breed founders named for the “Scott type” of American
Bulldog.
The event was filmed and shown on TV on one of the sporting channels.
We did many TV interviews promoting and doing public education about rare
breeds
and I also sat on the City of St. Thomas Breed Ban Committee to protect the rights of people wishing to own dog's deemed dangerous,
fearing that the AB would soon be listed.
I
also wrote for the CKC breedlines for over 5 years which helped to
familiarize the AB to
The ABCOC was world recognized club and resource for the breed in
I dove
head first into the breed, hoping to be the most famous American Bulldog Kennel
in the world next to JDJ (John D Johnson) himself.
2 years later Rock-Solid
American Bulldogs was world famous and highly sought after.
I had my pups all
over the world being shown.
I also won Top Dog Award 2 years in a row.
American
Bulldogs soon fell way of the Rottweiler.
I could
command prices of over $5,000.00 US for a puppy and still people that wanted
them, wanted them for guard dogs and fighting dogs.
I also got involved in Agility, tracking and Schutzhund.
...
I also decided to built and market affordable, quality agility equipment hoping to sell,
which really flopped and only myself and the dogs enjoyed.
Today my kennel name of Rock-Solid is now
being used by a different kennel located in Florida,
totally unrelated to my American Bulldogs and totally different style more "pitbull type" than mine ever were.
I traded my last American Bulldogs
to a long time respected AB breeder in
and began breeding Boston
Terriers from Razor’s Edge Kennel under the prefix of K-Lar.
CHAMPION - "K-Lar's Southern Bell"
Winning BOB, BP, Group 4th (and 5 points) under Judge: Phyllis Wolfish on November 17, 2001 8 months old and only her second show.
All my Bostons championed easily and had wonderful
natures, very loving eager to please.
After many easy championships and
multiple Group wins and breeding a few litters I became leery and sad about
doing the required C-Sections to these poor little dogs who
did nothing more than live to please me.
It is funny to note that without any manipulation on my part,
Just letting mother nature dictate when my bostons would be bred after 10th day and for how long
My Boston Terriers always had 6-9 puppies.
My most notable accomplishment with
the Boston Terriers
was to win BIS at Forest City Kennel Club sanction match 2
years in a row with my Boston Terriers.
I stopped breeding them and decided
Pugs were the way to go. Still cute as buttons, easy to show
and no C-Sections.
After a great deal of research I selected my 3 girls and 1 male from various breeders in the
“well Laura one thing
everyone knows about you is that you can make silk purses out of a sow’s ear”.
So I had no doubts about my ability to champion my pugs and create my own line of Champions.
It was then that I completely tore
my ACL playing squash and required surgery.
Little did I know that this
accident would totally change my life for the better. I
needed a 6 month recovery off of work and I only took 4.
I had been through
several relationships over the years and I finally met Mr Right at around this
same time.
As a full time Nurse and Addiction Counsellor I kept my dog habit
pretty quiet
and very few of my single friends knew about my addiction to dogs
and dog shows.
My future husband decided we would get engaged and he would move
in so he could care for me.
What he didn’t expect was a complete doggy family.
When I finally had the courage to
introduce him to my dogs
he was a little shocked to say the least and also
announced he was allergic to animals.
I was devastated as he laid out the new
rules of no dogs in the house,
no eating off of our plates, never to be in the
bedroom or near him.
Relationships are about compromise,
so I called up a women that had been emailing me
constantly about Pug puppies as she wanted to breed and show.
I ended up
telling her that her dream of breeding pugs
was about to come true sooner than
she expected.
I offered her all 4 pugs with full registration and who could be
bred in 4 short months.
She took me up on it and went on to have 3 litters of
4-6 pups within 6 months under the kennel name "PugPaws".
Her investment paid her back easily within a few
months.
As for the poodles…well that was
non-negotiable, they were here to stay.
I just had to wait for them to work
their magic.
I was so happy when I came home from work to find him in bed
watching a movie with a poodle under each arm and one across his legs.
To my
shocked expression he responded with his thick French accent,
“these are not
dogs, they are like humans.
I am not sneezing or allergic to them.
They are
such wise creatures”.
They soon had him trained to give them treats by sitting
by the cookie jar and starring.
Or as he said “I trained them to ask for
treats”.
The Poodles soon had him wrapped around their paws in record time, as
I knew they would.
He also agreed that he would help me with what ever I wished
to do with the poodles as long as that is the only breed I would own.
I agreed
knowing that doing conformation would be a distant dream.
During my recovery I often sat on
the front porch having coffee with
I was
becoming frustrated with the hostile climate and intense back biting
that St.
Joseph’s Hospital encouraged amongst it’s staff in order to have Full time
permanent nurses
quit or get fired for minor infractions
only to be hired back
as casual part time staff with no benefits saving the hospital tons of money
and a market flooded with nurses who
have to work 2 and 3 jobs to make one full
time pay check. Folks…there is no
shortage of nurses.
There is a shortage of full time nursing jobs.
Give nurses
full time permanent jobs and the hospitals would be flooded with staff.
2004 Fire Academy
I left Ben at home with the Poodles
while I went to
He
bred one of my poodles and raised a litter all on his own, with a very little
direction from me.
For a person not raised with dogs, he soon began to share my
passion for the breed and showed his aptitude for training dogs and raising
puppies.
While I was away, the Lion’s
Seeing Eye Dog foundation called me
saying one of my puppies had failed their
program because it had a seizure.
It was then that I found out through a
naturopath friend of mine, about the hazards of Vacinosis.
My husband drove to
their facility and retrieved our puppy and began treatment.
This puppy is alive
and well today in a fabulous pet home at 3 years of age
with no reoccurrences
and no other incidences of seizures in our puppies.
I was pretty absorbed in my Fire Training
and studying for a new career as the training and exams are very demanding.
After the Academy's Training and Courses, you still have to apply for a job.
Courses just help you beef up your resume.
Myself and 3,000 other applicants went to every cities recruitment
hoping to get one of the 1-12 positions Cities were hiring for.
I also put more energy into doing races and duathlons
and body building and enjoying the poodles as pets and jogging partners and
took several years away from the dog hobby.
If you want a motivated running
partner, jog with a poodle.
Raven’s ease of doing hill repeats kept me
motivated to do it again and again.
When I felt like giving up on my runs,
Raven would give me that extra pull and look at me
like “come on I know you can
do more” and I did.
I would come home exhausted after working out and
in town living next door to a crack house as that is all I could afford, through the week.
I missed the dogs and Ben terribly, so after a year we decided to move closer to my work.
Changing careers, Selling my house, Buying a house, Going through Studying to pass Probation Period, all while caring for the dogs.
......Today after 5 years of a GREAT DEAL of hard work and 17 years of breeding.
I finally have my dream career, the perfect doggy home with 1 acre fully fenced yard
for the dogs to run and the support of a wonderful friend, my husband.
With my life finally settled,
I have
decided to embark on the Red Standard Poodle breeding program
after years of
contemplation about the rare colour.
I found a fabulous breeder who really
cares about her poodles
and who also entrusted me with one of her precious
poodle babies.
I decided that with a new life I needed a new kennel name and so
in 2006 Bijou Standard Poodles came to be.
My red program will have the Bijou
prefix (a reflection of the precious jewels that Standard Poodles are)
and my
brown line will continue to have the K-Lar prefix
that is already established in pedigrees.
I hope to keep the two programs
separate and pure.
It was around the same time that I
heard about the UKC (United Kennel Club) dog shows and how there is no professional handlers allowed
and that poodles can be shown shaved down into a sporting clip!
I was so excited as this is what I have wanted since the very
beginning.
Now I can fully enjoy my Poodles, no other substitutes. In 2007 I
championed my 2 reds Ruby and Razz andCocoa and Java were pointed.
In 2007 I am getting back into the dogs and the dog
world again. Keep an eye on me, as I will soon be world famous for my vibrant
reds and deep dark browns.