this is Ava and I doing focused heeling at the bank ATM. A well trained dog in public is not only under control but also very intimidating to passers by. Ava has been Obedience trained using only reward based training

The above list of costs are just the costs associated with breeding, whelping and raising a litter.  What isn't included is all of the costs to title, train and test the breeding dogs we use in our program.  On average entry fees, gas money, handlers for shows and training can be anywhere from $2000 - $20,000 per dog per year.  The higher price is is what we would easily spend to "campaign" a show dog.  Dogs like Jack and Charm are 2 dogs we've campaigned.  

We do not win money showing dogs.  We also do not win money in protection or performance trials.  The whole reason for competing in any trials is because I want our dogs judged by an expert judge with an unbiased opinion.  These judges, essentially are looking at our dogs against others of their own breed and then award points toward a title.  In performance trials, our training and the trainability as well as nerve, grip and sociability are judged and awarded a title.  

For a Buyer, who is looking at what breeder to buy a puppy from, titles mean that a breeder's dogs have been evaluated by an unbiased judge.  Its a stamp of approval in a way.  We only compete in American Kennel Club events for conformation.  For Performance we compete in American Kennel Club Obedience, Agility and Rally trials.  For Protection Sport we compete in Schutzhund and Ring Sport.  ALL of these types of competitions have been around for a very long time.  With a very long and prestigious history.  The titles from these organizations can be a challenge to achieve. For AKC Conformation, other dogs of the same breed MUST be present in order for you to accumulate enough points for a Championship.  In other venues, you only need to show up once and have a judge deem your dog a "champion."  No other competition needs to present.  While these venues aren't a bad thing, especially for breeds that are extremely rare, to us, its not enough.  Competing in AKC conformation is the most prestigious conformation competition in the world and as an AKC judge, I love it.  For the performance sports, there are strict criteria and specialized behaviors that a dog must exhibit in order to pass a trial and receive a title.  

So in doing all of these activities with our dogs, it only makes for better offspring.  Puppy buyers may not think they "need" a dog from titled parents.  After all, you just want a great companion. Having parents who have proven themselves to be stable, confident and conformationally correct will only make the most wonderful companion.  We never "expect" or push our puppy owners to compete.  We truly just want our pups to have loving wonderful and appropriate homes.  If an owner is interested in competing, we are happy and excited to mentor our puppy owners.  

The Lowchen Club OF America in conjunction with the NorCal Lowchen Club, supported the entry of Lowchen at the Mensona Kennel Club dogs shows on 8/26-8/27/2017.  
Friday Canolli was Winners Bitch for a point
Saturday Sparkle was Best of Winners and Winners Bitch for her second major
Sunday Canolli won Winners Bitch again and Boomer won Winners Dog and Best of Winners for his first major and baby Parker won Reserve to the major.   SO proud of how all the dogs showed and how much fun we had with friends!

Rio, of Laefa x Shogun litter, demonstrates how I teach the pups to lure.  The click is their marker and they are quickly rewarded using kibble.  I did this with all 10 puppies but didn't have enough memory in my phone to record everyone 

17 Cane Corsos were entered at the dog shows in Ventura CA and Charm was selected Best Of Breed at the Cane Corso Association of America Regional Specialty on Saturday!  He again won Best Of Breed the next day on Sunday.  Charm is being shown by Bruce and Tara Schultz and Daniel Magee.

We are SUPER proud of Noelle and her momma Norma. Norma is starting a program within her school district to teach students about various topics that relate to animal care careers, responsible breeding, shelter management and dog behavior and training. Norma's Lowchen, Potrero & Tapestry's First Noelle at Leonine, will be the face and ambassador for the project. Noelle will go to school with Norma a few times a week to promote the project. 
This is wonderful exposure for the Lowchen breed, purebred dogs and for Noelle! I'm really happy for them
Here is the flyer for the program

Here is Jesus demonstrating the shaping we did last night. All I wanted was for him to go into the crate on his own without prompting or luring. While of course you could just put the food in the crate and have run in there, teaching it this way helps the puppies learn to offer a behavior (going in the crate) in order to receive a reward (dinner). This is the very first session, later sessions will result in much faster responses and then basically be automatic. I LOVE training young puppies because they learn behaviors quickly and tend to retain the information long term especially if the new owners also continue the work.   

We made a quick video. Here is just a small amount of the work we do with the babies at 5 weeks of age. In addition to the stuff in the video, we are also shaping and luring new behaviors, introducing the puppies to different surfaces, sounds & objects, feeding them various protein sources so they get used to grain and no grain and taking them on field trips to new places. Oh yeah and we clean up poop. So enjoy this little glimpse into our daily routine!