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Like most novice people, I didn’t know any better and I bought my first German Shepherd Dog in 1972 from a pet store. And besides the pet store used to be around the corner from where I worked and I just couldn't help myself from going in there a couple a times of week "just to look." Then I saw her and it was love at first sight. She was a long coated puppy, but had the "love of life" type of personality that attracted me to her.
She was extremely intelligent, and also a clown as we would soon find out when we took her to obedience classes. She was always the cut up of the class. Right about this time, we discovered a thing called "dog shows." And what better place to introduce us to the world of show dogs than Westminster at Madison Square Garden in New York City. We fell in love with the beautiful very dark male that took Best of Breed that day. We noticed how very different all these German Shepherds looked next to our own beloved "Helga." We went to the benched area to look at all the lovely dogs and to talk to their breeders. We met the man who owned the Best of Breed dog. He was a very well known breeder from Pennsylvania. When we told him about our "Helga", he told us, "The only place that you'd find a dog like that was at a pet store." He gave us his card and told us when we were ready for a show dog to give him a call. We couldn't get his beautiful dog out of our minds so we called him and told him we wanted one just like him. He sent us a very dark male puppy who was about 12 weeks old telling us this was definitely a show quality animal. We were soon to find out, he was not. His lack of proper breed conformation was the least of his problems. He was very aggressive with strangers and although it broke my heart, we sold him at 11 months old.
We became luckier with the next purchase of a show quality male. We bought a GV Ch Scorpio ROM son out of a GV Ch Lance of Fran-Jo ROM daughter. This male was everything we could have asked for in a dog. Gorgeous type, movement and temperament. We were even luckier that our very first handler was the incomparable Jimmy Moses. He put a 4 point major on him and then 3 more points. Unfortunately, our gorgeous young dog died of the dreaded torsion. He was only about 2 1/2. We were devastated. He was our baby. He was just starting to show the producing ability of his great heritage as well by being the sire of: Sel Ch Rogue Haus Paolo of Rym-Sas. We owned his litter sister who was also pointed.
We soon found out that in order to be successful in the dog show world; we needed to buy good bitches if we were ever to succeed as breeders. We purchased a few and bred them to top stud dogs and kept some more bitches from those litters. Here and there, we’d put some AKC points on them. But we were still looking for that special one.
Then opportunity came "knocking" on our doors. We belonged to the Greater New Haven GSD club in Connecticut. One of their members had a "superstar" bitch that had won two majors from the puppy classes. We had approached the breeder about purchasing this magnificent animal. Of course she laughed at us. Several months later, this same breeder announced she was looking to sell this gorgeous bitch. I picked up the phone, made an appointment with Barbara Conroy of Arbar kennels and went to her house to give her the money to purchase this gorgeous bitch. We happily sang all the way home at the good fortune that was just bestowed upon us. This breath taking animal would later be known to the German Shepherd fancy as BIM Ch Arbar's Xanadu ROM. Xanadu finished her championship in five shows. Then she went on to win BEST IN MATURITY at the Northeast futurity under Dave Rinke. We showed her to some Best of Breed wins and then we decided to breed her. This is where she would excel. She would attain one of the most sort after titles any breeder can hope to achieve and that was her ROM.
We bred her three times to GV Ch Coberts Trollstigen ROM. With this combination she produced: American Ch Sel #3 BOF International Ch Chieftain's Kharu CD, Ch Chieftain's Kazan, Ch Chieftain's Nobility, and BOM Chieftain's Nuance.
Then we leased a bitch and bred her to Can GV Am Sel #2 Ch Prime Time of Billo ROM. This litter produced the spectacular moving dog, Chieftains Lucky Strike who won a 5 point major. Shortly thereafter, his owner passed away and that was the end of that promising young males show career.
Throughout the years our dogs have won both in the United States and Canada. Then when a personal crisis came to my life, I stepped back from showing while maintaining a few of my beloved dogs as my companions. When my last dog died, I didn't purchase another dog for awhile. Then when it came time for me to start over again, I looked for a well bred bitch that had the important qualities that I was looking for. I was fortunate to purchase my special bitch "Amber's Strike A Pose" bred by the prestigious kennels of Amber. And so this is the call name that I gave her as well. She is a daughter of GV Ch Wayside's Honky Tonk Man ROM OFA. Her mother is a Sel Amber's Surprize ROM OFA daughter. She got the best from both sides of her pedigree. Amber is now the foundation of my new kennel. She has magnificent temperament. Everyone who sees her loves her.
Chieftain's has always been a small kennel selectively breeding only one or two litters a year. This ensures that all of my dogs get the attention that they need to be healthy, thriving, sound animals. I breed for mentally and physically sound dogs that will be ambassadors of the breed for the betterment of the German Shepherd Dog.
I am a member of the GSDC of America and an active participant of the Monticello Kennel Club. I was a past board member of the GSDC of Greater New Haven and The Taconic GSDC. I was also the newsletter editor for both of those clubs. I am a contributing writer of dog related stories and articles for such publications as "The German Shepherd Dog Quarterly" and the "AKC Gazette" and many of this countries top GSD club newsletters have used my articles as well. I also write for four GSD Lists on the internet. Someday, I hope to self publish some of my dog stories in a book.
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