August 2023 News

Three Q-Girls are waiting for their perfect matches!

Started Puppies

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.

Healthy Puppies

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.

Personalities

Que

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

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

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.

July 2023 News

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!

Black Girl, now called “Que”

Que is big and bold! Lots of confidence and drives. She would suit a sport/working home, or an active/experienced companion home.

Blue Girl, still deciding on her perfect name!

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.

Green Girl, now called “Quest”

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.

The rest of the Q’s.

We are very pleased with our selections for the remaining Q’s.

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.

May 2023 News!

On Saturday, May 13th, Nevr gifted us with 10 puppies. Five males and five females. She’s being an amazing mom and we’re so happy to share this news!

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.

April 2023 News!

Our Q-Litter von der Leidenschaft is confirmed by ultrasound, and due on May 14, 2023.

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!

January 2023 News!

Wishing our “Family” and followers a very happy, safe, healthy, and gratifying year ahead!

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.

September 2022 News!

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.”

November 13 Update

I’m grateful you all recognize how very busy we are, and you’re patiently waiting for news. I’m sad to say we’re down to 7 males and 2 females, with our little Grey Boy not doing well at all. 😔💔🌈 We’re doing all we can, and have had so much help, and appreciate everyone of you for your kind words. At this time, I can honestly say we can’t accommodate everyone on our waiting list. I will be contacting people directly as to who will not be getting a P-litter puppy. And that list could be cut as well if we lose any more. Normally we take deposits when the litter is one week old, but this time we will wait for 4 weeks as the surviving puppies begin the weaning process. I wish I had better news. We are beyond devastated.

October’s Devastating News.

⚠️TRIGGER WARNING⚠️


First off, I apologize to everyone who didn’t get the information privately before we made this public. We simply didn’t have the time. Our hearts are shattered at the loss of our sweet Rogue. The best Momma ever!

The litter was large and Rogue was suffering from uterine inertia. She simply didn’t have room to contract, or break her water. We decided to do an emergency C-section on Tuesday morning. We were blessed with 16 of 17 pups out alive. Rogue’s vitals were stable when we brought her home, and she nursed her litter for about 3 hours total, 8 puppies at a time. We’re guessing she had a blood clot; she died while nursing.

We’ve been hand feeding around the clock, and many friends have come to help, and many more from away have offered financial support, and hugs, and prayers. Sadly in the wee hours of this morning, we lost our smallest male to fading puppy syndrome, and I fear, our smallest female is heading in that direction. We are trying to save her.

We are numb, but for the babies, we are putting one foot in front of the other.

A friend of a friend reached out, offering her Australian Shepherd as a surrogate nanny. Bunny arrived last night and accepted the pups without hesitation. Today she is actually putting herself between the pups and anyone going into the whelping box. It’s unbelievable. She had very little milk, but with extra groceries, and the vigorous pups stimulating her, she is coming back to her milk. And even just the bum cleaning and physical stimulation are a huge help.

Initially my reaction to a surrogate nanny was absolute rejection. I felt so guilty and didn’t want anyone else to raise Rogue’s babies. Of course logic prevailed. Thursday morning, I was preparing for the morning nursing with my cup of tea. I happened to glance down at my tea mug, bubbles floating from stirring in the sugar, and the heart in my tea cup spoke louder than any words could. My girl was telling me it was okay.

We are so blessed to have our extended dog family, and as much as your messages mean to us, please forgive us if we are brief to answer, or not at all just yet. I am taking the month of November off work to be home with the litter. We are determined to keep as many of Rogue’s precious babies alive as possible. They have jobs to do, lives to enrich, and love to give. Thank you Dominica McCutcheon for Bunny. Thanks to everyone else who plays a part in saving the P-litter. You are priceless.

September 2021 News!

Confirmed today by ultrasound, Rogue vom Klingsgarten IS pregnant with our P-litter! Dr. Finley anticipates a good sized litter. We will x-ray on October 18 to get a better count.

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