Hebiron's Working Groenendaels

My love of animals and horticulture started at a young age. My mother's main passions were a mixture of horticulture and animals. Dogs soon became her main focus. I never knew a world that didn't involve some sort of planting soil mix, dog kibble, and squeaky balls. My mother introduced me into the competitive world of dogs in 1978. Her breed of choice was Shetland sheepdogs and conformation was her passion. We disagreed on many issues concerning my desires to enter more challenging sports. Being a junior handler had it's perks, but I soon want to challenge both mine and my dogs abilities with a more challenging type of sport. Unfortunately my mother never fully understood my desire to sneak away to talk and learn from different people involved in working sports. I understood the amount of work to obtain a correct example of the breed; however, nothing  matches the beauty of watching a dog utilizing  it's natural working abilities. My mother never fully understood my growing love of working dog sports or my desire to combine logic from different sports and find the best solution for each dog. Through the years, I learned little tricks of the trade from different trainers and gained beneficial theories involved in foundation training from different sports. I learned that their wasn't one correct way to train or judge a dog's abilities. I spent my childhood watching the success, struggles, and failures involved in different breeding programs. When I had the chance, I tried to learn from every opportunity. Some people focus all their energy into the struggle to create the perfect example of the breed's standard, Other people struggled to produce a dog that could perform to the breed's proud heritage. While other tried to find the perfect combination of beauty and working ability. As the years past, I started to see the change accruing in different breeds. More breeds were becoming less commonly found on a working field. Certain breeds slowly lost their ability to work and it became more difficult for fancier of these breeds to maintain the desired amount of working drive. Slowly proud breeds became just beautiful example of their standard and the once proud working heritages of these breeds faded into the history books. I watch the damage that accrued with the introduction of temperament issue into successful breeding program of both working and conformation show dogs. I understand the difficulty in maintaining perfect example of a breed, but I also know the difficulty in maintain the heart, temperament, depth in character, working ability, and the soul of our breeds. I am grateful for the opportunity to experience the depth in the character in my first groenendeals. They showed me the potential and the depth of heart that a belgian sheepdog contained. They also introduced me to the type of dog I would spend my rest of my life fighting for. It is in their memory that I struggle to maintain the heart and soul of the dogs who once shaped their breed. The heroes of the past.

In 1987, I went to Texas to show a few Shetland sheepdogs. I was asked to handle a belgian sheepdog bitch. With years of pleading my mother for a large breed dog, I was delighted to have the chance to show a larger dog. After winning three unexpected majors that weekend, I finally had the opportunity to bring home a larger breed. It was our first groenendael. This female showed me all the qualities that inspired me to lose all interest in any other breed. It was easy to understand how this breed could have such a legacy thru history. A few years later, my mother suffered from numerous terminate illness. She was given a few hours, then a few days, and a few years to live. After many years of fighting to keep her alive, my mother passed away. During this time, our shelties and belgian sheepdogs were retired from the conformation show ring. Some were placed in new homes and the rest retired as family dogs. All our energy was focused in my mother's fight against death. It took me a few years to get my life back on track. During this time, I always missed the joy I found in working with dogs. After buying my first house, I decided that I could start the search for that one special dog I could work with and achieve a certain level in . I looked into many breeds, but no dog could match the heart, courage, loyalty, and depth in character that I had experienced in my first groenendeal. I was offered many different breeds of dogs, but the search ended with the offer of distant offspring of my first groenendael. At this time, a groenendael was a breed of dog that had lost respect for it's working ability and sound temperament. I was assumed delusional in my unwavering beliefs concerning groenendaels. In 1994, I was introduced to French Ring Sport. I fell in love with the sport. It was strongly assumed that a groenendeal could never be successful in this sport, but I refused to give into common beliefs. Each day I struggled to move forward with the breed I loved. Along the way, I fell in love with a belgian malinois who shared similar traits that I adored in groenendaels. This belgian malinois gave me so much hope, because in her eyes were the reflections of what I wanted. She was Atos granddaughter. The qualities I saw in her made me spread my research in all four varies of the belgain shepard. She was responsible for both the direction I took in my research and the growing love I formed for all the varies of belgians. My research started to follow a pattern concerning all descendants of Atos. The temperament, loyalty, depth of character, and how a they worked impressed me. I found dogs that surpassed the memories of my first groenendaels. I spent the next two years researching pedigrees, health, working ability, type of character, courage, and the heart of the dogs who were descendants of Atos. Watched endless number of dogs from similar foundation work in different types of sports and watched how each reacted in different environments. 2002, I imported my first male. He was my first groenendeal that I trained in French Ring. Belgerac Battleheart of Hebiron surpassed all my expectations at six months. With him as my teacher and my best friend, I started my fight to find the groenendaels that surpassed all my hopes and resembled the the heroes from the breed's past. The type of dog that inspires hope in one's heart. A dog that is bigger than life. A type of dog that will go against any type of odds to finish his job. A type of dog that knows no limits because it's is motivated by love and the need to please it's owner. Like the heroes of the past, the type of dog that understands that it had a job to complete weather it was to save an police officers life, deliver medical supplies to injured soldiers during wars, brave harsh environments to rescue lost victims, help support a family by being both a livestock working dog, protector, and a form of transportation of goods thru cart pulling, save lives by detecting explosives, offering comfort during difficult times, and being that one special dog that makes a lasting impression on it's family.

Thru the years, I keep working towards my goals. It is true that protection sports are my passion, but I don't limit my interest and research to only protection sports. Each sport explores and challenges a dog's abilities differently. I strongly disagree that one sport is superior to another. It is true that certain sports push a dog harder in certain exercises, but a sport shouldn't define what a dog can't accomplish. Some sports pin point certain problems better than others. Just because a dog is accomplished in harder sport, it doesn't mean that that dog couldn't accomplish success and titles in other sports. Success is measured by the dog's ability to perform.... not by the limitations it is placed under. A dog shouldn't be judged only by the limitations placed by the handler's lack of the interest in a sport, limitation of finding good training, or limitation of the handler. A protection dog doesn't need to be sharp or handler aggressive. Aggression is an issue of that certain dog and not an issue of the sport or training. A sport doesn't define a dog, but a sport expores a dog's ablities to rise to a challange. Just because a herding dog can accomplish success in herding, it doesn't mean that the dog doesn't have the courage to perform protection sports. Does the dog really have any less courage or nerve when it works to control stubborn rams and cattle? Does a search dog that works thru harsh and challenging weather conditions have any less determination or courage? How is the dog motivated to work? Where does the dog pull the extra strength to keep moving forward? How does it reason and solve problems? Is it out of sharpness/ anger, inspired by unstable fear drive to get something before something gets it, or does it pull from the bottom of it's heart. What is the dog's driving force? Does the dog have heart , a level head, and courage? Is the dog stable loyal, and trust worthy? I don't believe in stereotypes, I allow a dog to explain all it's faults, limitations, and strengths.

My main concerns are with health, correct structure, temperament, depth in character, courage, strong nerves, depth of heart, the source of the working drive, and determination to please. Nerve, character, and temperament is my most valued trait I search for. I don't want sharp or mean dogs. I don't want a nervy dog that I can't trust. I want a dog that is strong, confident, and loyal. A healthy dog with iron strong nerves and a heart of gold.  It is not my goal to produce the most puppies, gain public respect, make money, have the most friends, or prove a point. My only concern is for the future of a breed that stole my heart and earned my respect with everything the breed does. This doesn't have room for personal conquest or ego. For me,  it is about quality and never about quanity. My kennel is a tribute to everything I love. A combination of my husband's name, my mother's old kennel name, and a statement of hope I place upon each of my dogs. Hebiron....... "may he be iron ". With everything he does, may he be iron.