Our kennel

You will find us in FRANCE, more precisely in Puits-la-Vallée, a small village (250 inhabitants) located one hour north from Paris, just 3 km off the highway leading to Calais.

1) What we strive for in our Rottweilers

- size within the German Breed Standard, which is the only standard we recognize.

- strong bones

- strong substance : deep and broad chest, strong muscles, a compact body

- a typey head : typical expression, good stop, dark eyes, and dark mouth pigment

- stable, sound mindset, self-assurance : a Rottweiler must be a loyal companion to its family, yet possess sufficient hardness and determination to perform all kinds of utility work (we have dogs from our kennel training for IPO, French Ringsport and Utility Tracking), as well as sufficient courage and fighting drive to ensure the protection of its home and family.

2) The way we do the things we do

Our dogs are first and foremost, beloved and loyal everyday companions. They are not "zoo animals" who spend 23h30 a day in the kennel away from the house.

We do have a professional-quality kennel, in a concrete building aside from our home, with everything that is necessary to our dogs' comfort, but only use it at night and when we are not home. As soon as we're home, the dogs are with us all the time, inside the house. I am a University Professor and in France this means I only teach 24 weeks a year... which gives me 28 weeks a year at home. My working weeks are also pretty light since I only teach about half the week. Therefore I enjoy long hours at home. One of my dogs' favorite activities is sleeping in my office when I am typing articles on the computer or doing research.

I thus also have much time for their daily walks and exercise. We have a 4000 m2 backyard, and if it doesn't suffice, our house is surrounded by miles and miles of fields, which are a frequent and ideal playground for our dogs.

3) Raising the pups

Only a restricted number of dogs allows a true "family life" for the dogs. Much in the same way, only a limited "production" ensures that the birth of a new litter remains a magical moment and joyful time of the year.

The puppies are born inside the house, in one of our two living rooms, where we spend most of our time when we are at home. They stay there until they are 6 or 7 weeks of age (usually at that age they figure out how to come out of the whelping box, and they are getting very rowdy). For as long as they are inside the house, the pups are therefore submitted to every possible noise and situation : phones ringing, kitchen appliances running, loud TV and stereo, loud computer games, and of course the everyday hustle-and-bustle of us and our dogs walking in and out of the room, slamming doors, turning lights on and off, etc. Several times a day, they are taken out of the box by turn, and spend some time around the house with us and our adult dogs. Special time is devoted to petting and handling.

Our experience has shown us that this lifestyle from birth to 6 or 7 weeks, ensures pups with very good nerves, who fear nothing and feel "at home" wherever they go. This is very important in their future life.

When they become "too big" to stay inside the house 24 hours a day, they move outside to a special kennel, near our adult dogs. It is equipped with a good stereo system, so they can "listen" to the radio and music all day, and also have their daily exposure to a special CD with all sorts of strange noises : trains, planes, cars, trucks, tractors, mopeds, railway stations, school playgrounds, whistles, fireworks, you name it, it's on the CD they listen to once a day. Again, this ensures very good nerves and self-assurance in future new situations, and our "customers" keep telling us how amazed they are with their pup's active and bold attitude in the most stressful situations. Of course the bloodlines we rely on account for much of that, but so does the thorough socialization we provide our pups with.

Myself with Ugo vom Cäsarenkamp, just sitting around the house.

Until they leave our kennel, the puppies spend much time every day with their mom, just like Nature intended. Hence they receive proper "pack hierarchy" notions and an indispensable basis to be good, well-balanced dogs throughout their lives. This is also very important, as nobody wants a fear-biter who attacks other dogs for lack of proper intra-species socialization at an early age. Of course this socialization must be carried out by the new owners in the first couple of months of the pup's new life in its new environment, but a good basis is the best asset for any future work.

Again, this "letting-the-pups-run-around-loose-with-their-mom" is rendered possible by the fact that we only produce one litter per year. It's much more difficult to do in kennels where they have three or four simultaneous litters, or worse, pups all-year-round.

Spending time every day, with each pup individually, also allows us to really know their personality traits, which is very important when the time comes to advise people as to which pup is best suited to their purpose. We can therefore pride ourselves on having only "happy customers".

4) Selecting the right dogs

Every year, we travel thousands of kilometers, in order to learn always more about Rottweilers and those bloodlines prone to bettering the breed according to the breed standard, on the one hand, and according to our conception of the Rottweiler within that standard, on the other.

Our frequent trips, as well as the extensive use of as many available sources as possible, also allow us to closely observe the main foreign breeding stocks, whether German, Austrian, Italian, Belgian, but also Hungarian, Slovakian, Dutch, Scandinavian, Canadian or American.

A dog breed is constantly and quickly evolving, the most striking and fascinating aspect of that evolution being that a "generation" only lasts two years. Therefore, within a 6 year time span, we can go from the great-grand-father to the great-grand-children. In order to remain aware of the qualities and faults of each bloodline, so as to use those prone to bettering the breed, one has to be constantly looking out for new dogs and constantly question the validity of his or her choices regarding bloodlines. That's what "selection" is all about.

Keeping this in mind, it is therefore logical that we should try and rely on the work of those countries that have been controlling and monitoring their breeding stock for years, keeping an eye on the production of qualities as well as faults, on the ability to work, all this within the rules set by the breed standard. For the time being, no country in the world is as advanced as Germany in this field of studies.

This is not about placing Germany on a pedestal. It is not a sales pitch either. Selection is no exact science and is far from being one.

However, the Germans have been keeping a breed book for many years, in which one can find all the puppies born in Germany, along with all the faults observed, as well as the HD and ED grades of all X-rayed dogs. On top of this, we also find the entire description of dogs who have gone through the ZTP and Körung tests. Last but not least, the selection trials (Körung) and National Specialty Show (Klubsiegerzuchtschau) have been filmed and available on tape for years.

It is precisely this honesty and willingness to expose even the most unpleasant facts regarding the production of such or such dog, that nowadays account for Germany leading the way in the field of good Rottweilers.

We have been members of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Rottweiler Klub (A.D.R.K.) or United German Rottweiler Club, since 1997. The study of dogs in the showring, in Germany and elsewhere, as well as the careful analysis of all available documents regarding the selection of the breed, have given us a good grasp of the Rottweiler's "whereabouts" over the last 15 years.

From this, we have come to our own conclusion that successful breeding means producing dogs who are better than their parents. One cannot succeed in doing so all the time, but such should be our endeavor whenever we set out to produce a litter. The key to this is extensive knowledge on the existing bloodlines.

We sincerely hope you will share our vision of Rottweiler-breeding. We remain at your disposal for any questions and discussion.

nnolf@wanadoo.fr