About Konalae Japanese Spitz...

  My interest in the Japanese Spitz begin in 2003 with the adoption of my first puppy, Nani.  I loved the breed from day one and began a full out search for a suitable male to add to my lines.  In mid 2004 I located Warry in Western Australia, he was 18 months old when he arrived in early November and had earned his Australian Champion title.   He was ready to retire which he did to some degree until we moved here to Texas, now he's back in the show ring and seems to be enjoying himself : )  

My research on the Japanese Spitz rendered me finding out that in the United States the Japanese Spitz is considered a rare breed.   At the time only one breeder was online, Excalibur in California.   In 2003 only the Continental Kennel Club and the American Rare Breed Association recognized the breed.  I petitioned the AKC for recognition and was denied due to the similarity between the American Eskimo and the Japanese Spitz.  I co-founded the Japanese Spitz Club of the USA in mid 2005 to help us with the AKC and we continue to petition them at least annually.  While they continue to deny us entry we continue to petition them.    Now with the clubs formation more of us are online with our own websites and this is truly assisting us in gaining more recognition within the US.

As I began to research deeper I became good friends with a breeder in England, Houndbrae Japanese Spitz, and her husband the webmaster of Japanese Spitz Club of England.  They have been an invaluable couple!!   I have become very good friends with many of the breeders here in the United States and have made some invaluable contacts abroad!   I believe in knowing the breed, the standards, and truly breeding only to improve upon my lines.   An important quality for me in my dogs is their tempermant, and thus I know the dogs I breed to as well as their owners to ensure the best match possible.  

My family and I are a military family and thus we tend to move about every 3 years.  So this was a big discussion in our family as to how much it would cost to import the dogs to Hawaii, as this is where we lived when it all began.  I would only be able to import form Australia and the British Isles due to quarantine laws. The travel cost was far too great to bring in from the British Isle so I imported from Australia to begin with. The other factor would be the cost to ship dogs to the mainland when we did get transferred as well as for anyone who wanted to purchase puppies from me.  All these factors weighed in on our decision and with my families support I opted to go for it and haven't turned back yet.  I'm loving being a breeder, even with all it's ups and downs.

Unfortunately we ran into complications with Nani as she developed ovarian cysts and had to be spayed to save her life.  It was a sad day.  It was the first of many eye openers for me to breeding, it's not easy in the slightest!  And it's definitely NOT a money maker.  I hadn't gotten in this to make money so that wasn't an issue. I wanted to show dogs and breed them to meet and exceed the breed standards... and that's what I'm out to do.  With Nani being spayed I had to begin my search for a new broad bitch... a breeding female dog.  In came Holly, imported from Australia in April 2005 at the age of 9 months old.

A great deal has happened for me and my family over the years.  We had to put our Rhodesian Ridgeback, Kainoa, to sleep due to inoperable hip displasia just before our move from Florida to Hawaii in early 2003.  We gained 5 beautiful Japanese Spitz, made another move, this time to Texas from Hawaii in December 2005, and purchased our new home.  There are many ups and downs with breeding, but I'm still very interesting and continue because I truly am loving it!

My family and I agreed when I started this up that our pups would be raised with our family as members of the family and that's exactly what we've done.  My first liter was born October 4, 2005 and was the most wonderful experience I could have asked for.  The pups grew up so fast and were such a delight!  Our second litter was born on August 22, 2006 and they were even more fun, even though I did lose a pup at the young age of 6 weeks due to a non-hereditary congenital birth defect.  The girls both help me in raising the pups and really enjoy their time with the pups each morning before school and after school.  My eldest daughter Jordan is becoming interested in showing as well now that we've been watching many of the national shows on TV.  She has begun showing and is loving it, she's good at it too!  The best thing is there are 2 shows here in Texas this year with the ARBA and 1 with the International Dog Show plus several nationwide...and now with the UKC there are several more shows we can attend!!!   My goal is make it into the show ring at CRUFTS in England and the AKC National Title is needed to get there so look out here I come!

Our Family, Our Dogs...

  Our dogs are raised as members of our family.  We love them with all our hearts as they are a great joy for us to have in home.  

  My dogs LOVE to be outside and  play, especially in the sprinklers!  There favorite is play outside with the girls, though they're still learning about the swings and not being under them while they're swinging : ).   We take walks around our neighborhood as well and they truly enjoy that.  It's great fun with all the construction in our neighborhood, it gives the dogs many different sounds and sights to adjust to.  It's good for them!  

  When we first moved into our home it had no grass in the backyard so we had to sod it and make sure it was fully dog friendly...  It is now and they're loving it.  We put in a dog run as well so when we have puppies or a dog comes into season we can keep them separate from the others to give them some place fun to play.   

Mia was enjoying the sprinkler this summer  as it was a bit warm out!

     Presently I have 4 dogs with me.  All have been imported from the highest quality lines available to me.  Warry is from Australia, Jasna is from Denmark, Toby is from the UK, and Izzy is from the USA.  Each of my dogs are shown at the local dog shows as often as possible.  The shows I attend tend to be here in Hutto, Texas at the indoor facility called Triple Crown Academy.  It's a wonderful facility and I've been able to attend 3 different shows there two for ARBA, another for the International Dog Show and two with the UKC.  I'm very fortuneate to have the facility so close and all the clubs like to use it!  I love this arena, very nicely set up.  I was also fortunate enough to go to Chicago for a dog show that was our specialty show for the Japanese Spitz Club of the USA in October 2006.

 In January 2007 I imported a male from England from Houndbrae Japanese Spitz.  He is adorable and cute.  He is a big boy and has some great lines.  His dad is the winner of the 2005, 2006 and 2007 CRUFTS Best of Breed.   He is a wonderful addition to our family!  He listens well to, though he is all puppy, lost track of how many shoes I've lost!

The dogs love to be inside and run through the downstairs.  They've never seen snow to date but I hope to eventually get them out into some snow.  I want my children to see snow too so it may be sooner than later!!!   The weather in Texas is definitely different than Hawaii!!!   We've enjoyed nearly three years here now and Warry seems to truly enjoy the winters.  We've had a few cold days, for us anyway, that have dropped into the low 30's.  When the wind is blowing hard the dogs tend to not want to stay out too long, but when it's just cool out without much wind it's hard to get them back in!  

The dogs get along well, and enjoy the indoors.   Warry is my lazy bones, he's definitely living the life of luxury just being lazy in "his" chair.  When it gets warm they all enjoy laying out on the kitchen floor where we have the large tile floor, during the winter they tend to head to the living room for the carpet to stay warmer, but now they have only the hard wood floor and their beds to to keep them warm.  Still have some training to do with the dogs, as I've mostly just trained them for the shows, now it's time to work obedience!  Jasna loves to escape out the front and run through the neighborhood, she scares me terribly as we do have a few cars that fly through here.  Most of my neighbors are very helpful in catching her, but she definitely needs some assistance in learning to stay in her own yard!