About Me:

My normal response to a short introduction is something like – “I’m an over-educated, under-socialized hick from the sticks” …   That is essentially a true statement, but not very satisfactory. So, I’ll try to provide a bit more information.

I’ve always been more comfortable around animals than people. As a result, most of my life I’ve been involved with horses and dogs. I was quite seriously into horses until a car accident forced me to consider a career change. So, I went back to school, for a LONG time! I got my BA in Biology and English from Augustana College, in Sioux Falls, SD, where I had grown up. I went on to get a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

I first became aware of Belgian Shepherds while I was in Chapel Hill. A Belgian Sheepdog (or Groenendael) lived in a friend’s neighborhood. I really admired that dog – stunningly beautiful and also seemed like a really cool dog. I vowed to find out more about the breed when I could get a regular sized dog. During graduate school I had a little apartment-sized dog, a ShihTzu name “Squirt”. What a little character he was! Eventually I got my PhD by writing my doctoral thesis titled “Single Channel Kinetics of External Tetraethylammonium Block of Large-Conductance Calcium-Activated Potassium Channels”. Yep, a real page turner!

From Chapel Hill I moved to the Silicon Valley area to take a HHMI Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford. That was when I got my first Belgian, Tiago. Since that time, my work has taken me across the country and up north to the Boston area. I am now working in the Pharmaceutical/Biotech industry helping to develop better new treatments for diseases with significant unmet needs.

Breeding Philosophy:

I’ve had 4 working line or “old American lines” Belgians now. Tiago – my original Belgian, a rescued Belgian Sheepdog that rescue agreed to place with me, even though I didn’t have a fenced yard, because no fence could contain him anyway. I never was able to learn his true pedigree but he really helped to form the basis of my opinion of what a good Belgian should be like. He is also the reason that I ultimately transitioned to working line Tervs.

I liked his size, his substance, and LOVED his athleticism and temperament. He was truly a go anywhere do anything kind of dog. And I LOVED that! As he started getting older, I considered what I would do next. He was the first ‘breed” of dog that I had gone looking for and I was inclined to repeat. I really thought I’d like to get another dog like him that I raised from a puppy myself

As I was looking for my “next Belgian” I kept running into a lot of really small, foxy-looking dogs that didn’t have near the “joie de vivre” that he did. They didn’t have that bold, “I’ll try anything at least once” approach to training and adventures that he did.

So, I started looking at the working lines and found exactly the type of temperament and character that I like in Gata, and eventually Tor and Nina, too. I could go on describing all their similarities and differences, but I won’t here. I’ll leave it with a simple statement that their similarities and differences are sufficient to make me appreciate and wonder about the genetic contributions toward temperament in Belgian Shepherds.

In a manner that is entirely typical of me, I dedicated myself to understanding more about the history and genetics of the breed. Fortunately, I found 4 incredible mentors in my pursuit of these topics – Jeannette Bout, Anne Weitz-Heeland, Damien Marrec and Mario Pessel. I hesitate to think of how many hundreds of hours each of them has spent in discussions with me about this or that question relating to genetics, health or history of the breed. Fortunately, they all really seem to enjoy those discussions as well.

I also made it a point to go to Europe and meet more dogs. Fortunately, my job helped with that and I was able to meet up with working line Terv enthusiasts in many major European countries, in between work engagements. I traveled to the French Nationals and/or National Elevage whenever I could. So, over time, I really started to better appreciate the range of temperaments and physical types available even within my preferred working line Tervueren.

That also led me to the realization that what we see in the working line Tervueren population in the US, and North America, in general, is much more limited that what is really available. I had already started helping several breeders in their quests to find interesting males for breeding or potential next generation brood bitches. I started to think about becoming a breeder myself, but wasn’t certain that my lifestyle would ever mesh with breeding.

Either way, I was always looking for interesting litter announcements for folks that were looking to import new bloodlines. Finally, there was one such announcement that I just couldn’t pass up – the announcement of Nina’s litter. Mario graciously agreed to sell me a puppy and continued to mentor my interests.

I will say that all of the breeders I have interacted have strongly influenced my approach to breeding.

My approach to breeding will likely fluctuate between all of those elements and more over time.