Just a quick update to announce our Quest has found her people. Her new family is well experienced with our offspring. Quest is their third. Quest will be hanging out with her older brother from another mother. Her people are very active and athletic so she’ll be involved in many great adventures. We are so happy for her and all her extended family.
Quest is still waiting for her forever human(s). She is a well balanced female; plenty of drives with a nice “off switch”. Quest is started in IGP tracking, obedience, and protection. We have plenty of videos of her doing all phases. She also enjoys our obstacle course.
Quest LOVES people, and is well behaved in public and in our home. As her name suggests, she is an adventure lover, and as a puppy gaining more confidence and independence, she is currently learning longline training.
We are NOT looking at offloading this beautiful girl. Her price will continue to go up as more training (and if need be) titles are put on her. Quest is DCM Clear by parentage (DNA tested), and comes from health tested and titled parents. You can see her pedigree here.
Quest is fully vaccinated, microchipped, CKC registered, and as you can see in the photos, has had her first grooming. She is also crate trained, and housebroken. She travels well in the vehicles, and walks well on a leash using a fursaver collar.
Ideally, Quest would go to a working or sport home where she can continue to flourish at what she’s bred for, however in fairness to her, we will consider an active companion home. If you’re interested in Quest, please complete our Potential Puppy Owner Questionnaire.
October was such a busy month, it’s taken me until November to update our website! Mostly I’m bogged down with so many amazing photos. I will post a few here now, and work on a gallery for the rest.
On the weekend of October 14th and 15th, our club The Sirius Working Dog Association celebrated its 20th anniversary by hosting a club trial in the sport of IGP. You can see all the results on our Facebook page, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll just announce the results of our own dogs.
On Saturday, October 14th, Ron entered our Flirt aka Fyokla vom Gleinalmblick for her FPr1, (first level tracking degree). They had a nice track and a score of 89 points (out of 100).
Also on Saturday, Ron entered our boy Zeus vom Goldbergsee for his IGP2. This title includes tracking, obedience, and protection work. They had a good day and finished with a score of 93/88/85 with a TSB rating of “a” which means Pronounced in courage. Pictured here with DVG Judge Amanda Hoskinson, and our helper Benoît Maye.
Our final entry on Saturday was me and our girl Phyre von der Leidenschaft. Phyre is a very happy dog to work, but on trial day with so many distractions, we barely passed our BH! There is no score given for the BH, which is a combined obedience and temperament test, it’s a pass or fail. Fortunately Phyre’s amazing temperament showed stronger than the obedience of the day!
On Sunday, October 15th, day two of our club trial, Ron entered Zeus for his IGP3. It’s challenging enough doing one three-phased title at a trial, to do two of them in one weekend is quite a feat! The lower score reflects the exacting level of judging for this, the highest degree in the sport.
Pictured here with me, Ron, our helper Benoît Maye, and DVG Judge Amanda Hoskinson, we celebrate Zeus’s IGP3 with a score of 86/84/80 and again with “a” Pronounced in courage.
Ron had hoped to achieve IGP1 with our Flirt this year but our “sweet and spicy girl” still had a long way to go for her dumbbell work, and control in protection. Ron chose to do the IBGH1 Obedience title instead, and they did a great job, earning 89 points.
It seems to be a tradition with me to trial a bitch in heat! Fortunately I had a good experience titling our girl Jade for her IGP1 (IN HEAT) back in October 2017 so it gave me the confidence I could recreate the event with Nevr. It wasn’t pretty but we got it done with scores 92/70/80 with the all important “a” Pronounced courage. The photo with me, Nevr, and Benoît Maye is an attempt to recreate the photo I had taken with Jade. Nevr is her niece, and shares a lot of the qualities I so loved about Jade.
Staying local with our friends Jutta and Brad, Qricket will continue to train with our club alongside her new bro, Tucker!
The transition from our pack to their home was super easy and the bonding is going very well. Very excited she’ll still be a part of our lives.
Quest continues to enjoy life here at Gnome Man’s Land. She runs with her momma Nevr, who is so good with her babies!
Quest is continuing to train in tracking, obedience, and protection. She’s a great sport prospect, or at the very least, a confident, active companion!
If you’re interested in Quest, please complete our Potential Puppy Owner Questionnaire.
On September 20, 2023, Que left our home with her new people to travel to California. With a new call name of Storm, our big bossy girl will indeed be proving herself a whirlwind of activity in the IGP world.
We’re very excited to see Que – Storm her way on to the podium in time.
Congratulations to her new family!
While we’re busy getting our adults ready for our IGP competition in October, we are still committed to working our remaining Q’s in all aspects of our sport. Quest and Qricket are both tracking, learning some lure based obedience, building ball and food drives, and of course even while teething, some gentle puppy prey bitework. So with all that going on, we really haven’t had time for updated photos. Although we did make time for short video clips of the girls tracking this week.
Que, Quest, and Qricket are busy, confident girls waiting for the perfect adventure partners. All three of them are sleeping overnight in individual crates and are being house socialized. In addition to the basics of house training and social skills, we train each puppy formally to develop their skills in tracking, basic obedience and leash training, and puppy prey-driven bitework. The more time, effort, and expense that goes into these “started puppies” the more they cost.
All of our puppies come with health guarantees from the known hereditary issues in our breed. Their parents Nevr von der Leidenschaft BH and Zeus vom Goldbergsee IGP1 are both cleared on hip and elbow dysplasia, DCM, and eye issues. These three Q-girls are in excellent condition and will be getting their second set of vaccinations plus the kennel cough vaccination at the beginning of the week. At that point they will be suitably protected to start visiting public places.
As well as vaccinations, these puppies are microchipped, and Canadian Kennel Club registration is in the works.
Que is bold and bossy! She is very driven in her prey, and determined to bite! She is not a puppy for the newly initiated. This girl will need a job where she can use her drives and determination. We will continue to build on these natural drives to make her an excellent sport or civil prospect.
Quest is busy! She is fast and super agile. She has high food drive, and shows great dedication to tracking already. She LOVES to play in water, and has super prey drive. A whole world of sport options or civil applications are open for this girl.
Qricket is our calm puppy. I mean as calm as a working line Giant Schnauzer puppy comes. She has plenty of prey drive, takes full mouth bites, and holds calmly. She’s happy to chill while the other two are being crazy, but would still require an active lifestyle.
Inquiries for these girls can be made via our Potential Puppy Owner Questionnaire.
Poof! Just like that, we’ve gone from birth announcement to 9 weeks old!! We have three beautiful girls still waiting for their perfect match. All of our puppies come with health guarantee, CKC issued microchips, complete vaccinations as is age appropriate, deworming, CKC registration, and of course a lot of positive exposure and socialization. If you are interested in applying for one of these beauties please complete our Potential Puppy Owner Questionnaire.
Thanks so much to Leshelle at Silver Fox Photography for this fun photo shoot. I hope you’ll agree the results are GORGEOUS!
Que is big and bold! Lots of confidence and drives. She would suit a sport/working home, or an active/experienced companion home.
Baby Boo has been our littlest from the start, but you won’t know that by looking at her now, or by her demeanour. She is bold and beautiful. Confidence galore! Blue would suit a sport/working home, or an active/experienced companion home.
From day one Quest has been our investigator. She would climb high up on Nevr’s side, always going over instead of around. She is sassy, outgoing, and a wee bit independent. The world is her oyster. She would suit a sport/working home, or an active/experienced companion home.
In birth order:
Purple Boy is named Quinto. He is being trained as a dual purpose dog, drug detection and protection.
Green Boy is named Quake. He is in an active, loving family home in charge of neighbourhood watch and his three young girls.
Purple Girl is named Quigley. She is being trained for the sport of IGP.
Red Boy is named Quincy, but called Danté. He is being trained for the sport of IGP.
Red Girl is named Qira. She is in an active home and will be personal trainer to her uncle Leon.
Black Boy is named Q-Tyr, called Tyr in honour of Canada’s first Giant Schnauzer Police Service Dog. He is also in charge of three young girls in his household.
We are looking forward to interacting with our families and watching another generation of Von Der Leidenschaft Giants grow up.
To say we’re relieved to have this litter arrive safely would be an understatement! Now to get them through the critical days of gaining weight, staying warm, and not getting laid on by mom! Nevr is being an amazing momma, just like her momma before.
I can honestly say, I don’t know if or how many pups might be available, as that has been the furthest thing from our minds. Getting them here, and keeping Nevr happy and healthy has been our immediate focus. That said, we are always accepting puppy questionnaires. See Our Giant Schnauzers page for more details.
We are excited to announce our girl Nevr is expecting!
Nevr is a good sized bitch with tons of drive, rock solid nerve, and an energetic and loving temperament. She has an excellent balance of prey and defense drives, without the sometimes troublesome “hunt drive.”
Zeus is a solid male with excellent sporty drives, and strong nerve. He is extremely affectionate but has an intimidating impression. His pedigree features the #1 Working Giant Schnauzer (in sport) in the world! Xaro von der Schönburg IGP3 IPO3 FH2.
Our O-litter (May 8, 2021) features the same pedigree, with a bitch from our K-litter. This combination is already proving itself with two BH results last fall. The owners of the nine pups from the litter couldn’t be happier, and we fully expect the Q-pups to measure up.
You can follow the progress of the pregnancy and the litter here on Facebook!
We’re here! We made it through 2022!
Comparatively speaking we came through it pretty much unscathed. In fact, there were a lot of positives later in the year.
As we muddled through the early months, still trying to wrap our heads around our losses, we introduced Phyre to our pack, with the amazing help from her older sister Nevr. If the way she taught the baby is any indication of what kind of momma she’s going to be, I would predict she will do Rogue proud. Even today as maturing bitches, they can still get past the dominance dance and play well together. Our hearts are full again.
Throughout the late spring, and summer, and into the early fall, our club members in The Sirius Working Dog Association, busted their butts to pull off a two day IGP trial on the October 1st and 2nd weekend. We were ALMOST completely successful in achieving new titles.
Nevr von der Leidenschaft achieved her BH, but only managed a 61 on her Tracking 1. Flirt aka Fyokla vom Gleinalmblick achieved her BH, a monumental effort by Ron, and our many club members. Zeus vom Goldbergsee achieved IGP 1 with 93, 83, and 79, and then the following day did his Obedience 2 with a score of 78.
Many of our puppy owners had trial successes in 2022 as well.
At the end of September, Tom Zinn and his girl Xena aka Onyx von der Leidenschaft achieved BH at 16 months old!
Ed Nagle and Loek von der Leidenschaft achieved their IGP1 with 80-86-80 score at Schnauzerfest in early October.
Another O-puppy, Orca von der Leidenschaft, with her owner/handler Ala Krivov achieved her BH later in October.
And, at the tender age of 13 months, Gator, aka Poet von der Leidenschaft competed in his first nose work trial, achieving his NW1 with the National Association of Canine Scent Work. Owner/handler Donna Yacovacci says “NACSW is emulating to best of their abilities in real life scenarios, it was developed by police and military persons. I only compete in NACSW as it’s considered the “creme de la creme” of scent work association or clubs.”
If we’ve missed any accomplishments, please let me know. Civilian working dogs, and sport competition dogs take an insane amount of time, energy, and commitment. This in no way takes away from the amazing companion dog owners we have! There really should be titles for those who ensure their families and their dogs live cohesively and in harmony.
With regards to our breeding program, many of you know, losing Rogue left us without a ready brood bitch. That said we are happy to announce Nevr has passed her health clearances and will be bred (hopefully!) on her next heat. To date, Flirt has passed her OFA exams, with Excellent hips and Normal elbows. We are sending off DNA testing this week to determine her status on Dilated Cardiomyopathy. We will schedule her eye exams in the spring. We still have a lot of work to do with Flirt in the home to ensure she will be receptive to whelping a litter with us. We aren’t interested in rushing either of these girls, they are both just two years old. Mental maturity is as important as physical maturity and health clearances. Raising a litter is stressful enough without Mom being an emotional mess with trust issues.
The year ahead will see us continuing to train for our fall trial in October. Goals are BH for Phyre, IGP 1 for Nevr, IGP 1 for Flirt, and IGP 2 (possibly 3) for Zeus. We are also hoping to raise our Q-litter should Momma N see fit.
We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, and wish everyone the very best for the year ahead.
It’s been quite some time since I was excited to write anything on our website; 2021 was an extremely trying year.
That said, apparently the products of that year are beginning to come into their own.
Of course, I’m referencing puppies.
At a mere 16 months old, the first of our O-litter puppies achieved her BH. First born female, Purple Girl at birth, registered Onyx von der Leidenschaft, call name Xena, with handler (owned and trained by) Tom Zinn competed at the Saugeen Schutzhund Club of Ontario on September 18th, 2022.
Tom knew before he even got Xena, not only his goals, but where he would be training her. Working K9 in Ontario offers police and military training with obedience at the core of their program. Tom took the applications he learned there and tempered them towards his goals of competing in the sport of IGP.
GSSCC Judge, Jim Crisp told Tom they lost a few points for Xena’s bouncing during heeling but commented on her being such a happy puppy. If you’re going to lose points, happy is the best way!
Fall trial season is underway, and we hope to announce more titles in the coming weeks.
Onyx von der Leidenschaft is out of Khira von der Leidenschaft, sired by Zeus vom Goldbergsee. The pedigree includes many prominent dogs in the sport and in civil working applications around the world.
We’re proud of our lines, and the amazing owners we trust our puppies to. Thanks Tom and Jessica Zinn for being part of our “family.”