In addition to the dogs in our current show and breeding program listed above, we do have other dogs listed below that are or have been a part of our family and are loved very much.
HILJA Blässhunde USA aus der Leinemasch
Born: Dec. 13, 2014
On February 21, 2015, we got a new App for our home...Hilja.
Hilja's mom, Usha, was bred in Germany under the kennel names Blässhunde USA & Appenzeller aus der Leinemasch. Hilja was trained to help us look after the pugs when they are outside on our property. We were really happy to have her and are very grateful to both Sheryl Green and Manon Siebe for trusting us with her.
Hilja was a great addition to our family and the pugs all loved her. Hilja and Desta did not get along well together. Hilja is a loving, warm and wonderful dog, while Desta is an extremely loyal and protective one-person dog. Desta would not do well being re-homed, while Hilja has a much more sociable and accepting demeanor. Because of this, we made the most difficult decision to re-home her.
Hilja now resides in Denver, CO with a wonderful loving mom. She gets to go for long hikes, lot of walks and gets so much more ono-on-one time. Turns out this change was the best ever for Hilja.
Desta from Townview
Nov. 27, 2013 to Sept. 30, 2021
Desta joined our family on January 22, 2017 at just over 3 years of age.
Desta was born in Linden, Alberta. Her registered name is 'Desta from Townview'. Desta was the pick of the litter by her breeder. When she was 9 months old, Desta went to Utah to live with a very wonderful man. They had a wonderful loving relationship but due to unfortunate circumstances, her dad had to find a new home for her. When we heard about Desta, it did not take Art & I long to get in touch with Peter to let him know we would be happy to add her to our family. Within a few days, Art was on his way to Utah to pick her up and bring her home.
Desta is a very beautiful tricolour female Appenzeller. It was always planned for Desta to be bred and we agreed to breed her when she came into season. She arrived to our home on Sunday, had her health tests completed 3 days later on Wednesday morning and started her heat on Wednesday afternoon. The following Wednesday Desta went on a road trip with Art to Alberta to be bred with Quinn vom Felsengarten. Desta's first litter was born on April 4, 2017.
Desta did not prove to be a good brood bitch but she was a fantastic mom. She had trouble when it came time to whelp her puppies so the mortality rate for her puppies was not good. Five of eleven puppies survived from her first litter, five out of nine puppies survived the second litter and two out of twelve puppies survived her third litter...twelve out of 32 puppies survived. Desta did not go into whelp on time due to her body's inability to produce oxytocin. The delay caused respiratory distress for the puppies so most did not survive. Because we could not confirm whether this issue was genetic or not, we decided to breed Desta a final time so that we could document all aspects of the breeding process. We were able to create a detailed report but unfortunately due to Covid-19, we were unable to complete the whelping process with our regular Vet and subsequently lost six out of seven puppies from Desta's final litter...this survival rate had nothing to due with the puppies going into respiratory distress. It was due to the puppies being delivered by a C-section prematurely under the Vet's recommendation.
On September 30, 2021, Desta wandered off our property. It was not unlike Desta to wonder around the property checking out different smells. Desta has never gone further than our front road or to the neighbours field but something possessed her to leave the property, we are not sure if it was a coyote, rabbit or something else, she did not bark as she would normally do, so we will really never know why she wondered off but she did and ended up being hit and killed by a car on a major road a just over a block away from our property.
As much as Desta did have social issues around others, she was a real sweetheart with us. We loved her very much and are devastated about losing her.