Personally, my breeding story goes back many, many happy years – over 30 years. I am a nurse and I started breeding English Bulldogs while I was in nursing school at Gloucester County College in NJ in 1983 (more of that story to follow below). While I adored the bulldogs and still do, I decided to focus on a breed that could have natural puppy birth. In 1985 I moved to Philadelphia to a 4th floor
apartment and I was still bitten by the breeding bug. I fell in love with the Great Pyrenees “Pyrs” and they were my whole world from then on. After my back surgery in 2006, I had to face reality and acknowledge that I could not manage to breed such large family members. Around that time the cover of Dog World had this wonderful, fluffy white puppy. Fortunately, my Pyrs get along wonderfully with the Cotons. Take a look at my Cotons with their guardian Pyrs photo album [COMING SOON!!]. You will see Tinkerbell standing guard over Mr. Birchie who was a puppy at the time. Now Birchie is six years old and all grown up. He stars in a lot of the pix and lives with my daughter and her 9YR old son, his BFFs Rocky (an unusually verbal Shiba Inu), Charlie (kitty kat now 16yrs old!) and two parakeets my grandson named Finn and Marceline after Adventure Time show characters. Cotons are a fun, loving (and fun-loving), playful, highly intelligent and very affectionate breed. Most Cotons are happy to meet new people and great with children and other furry friends. They are also easy to train as they are eager to please their family. You can’t help but love them from the moment you meet them. In terms of appearance and conformation, I will leave that to the many websites that cover those details. One item to make note of is that they are one of the few breeds that have hair, and are a great fit for people with allergies. As I mentioned above my great adventures began in 1983. My daughter, Michelle (Birchie’s mom), fell in love with English Bulldogs. I asked around and researched the dog magazines. I also decided that anyone living in our household had to earn their keep. It turned out that Charlene Seabo lived in a town next to mine, they had the most superb kennel and were infinitely patient with me. They agreed to part with a young female become my mentor. There began my learning curve. Training- not a problem. But breeding an English Bulldog (Artificial Insemination) and delivery (C-Section) was more than I anticipated. This all occurred while I was studying OB/GYN so I thought I was prepared. Not so. Emergency delivery at Philadelphia Veterinary School at 2 AM… then a lesson in bottle feeding because mama would not take care of her progeny. Goats milk, then burp each puppy, etc. This was the ground floor work. Her name was Crash and she gave me a real Crash course!!! In 1985 I moved to Philadelphia. This is when I adopted Kasha, a female Great Pyrenees. Kasha's pedigree was handwritten by Carolyn Hardy, a top judge and owner in the world of Pyrenees. I contacted Carolyn to discuss the lineage (Karolaska and Quibbletown) which I knew to be gorgeous dogs. She kindly became my mentor and before I left Philadelphia for NC in 1990 I found my wonderful Ryatt, my first male Pyr. I bred Pyrs from 1985 until 2008. During the last 7 years I spent some time in the show ring and took my Magnus to his Championship. His granddaughter placed 4th in Puppy Sweepstakes at the Pyr National in 2006. After back surgery that year, I realized if I wanted to continue to breed my own dogs, I had to change my breed and my career. And from there you know the rest of my history of Amour de Cotons and my love for the canny, smart, loveable, loyal and a bit clownish Coton de Tulear.
