About usOn this page you can read a little bit more about the people behind Kennel Amazonite. We are Ryan and Karen and we live just outside Aalborg, Northern Jutland, with our son, Storm (born in 2010 - and so far our best breeding!). Ryan is working with architecture and planning and has his own business www.arkiviva.dk . Karen works as a psychologist. We currently have 4 Dogue de Bordeaux's - 3 females and 1 male.
Our love affair with this breed started in 2005 where our very first dogue, Vega, was born. We knew absolutely nothing about the world of pedigree dogues and purchased her from a local ad. We never got her pedigree and she was always just a pet. However she was the most fantastic dogue and she was the one who made us fall head over heels in love with this breed. We soon after decided that we would like to breed them and started researching bloodlines, talking to experienced breeders, going to shows etc. About 1 year after getting Vega Clio and Calypso(imported from Italy) moved in. And 6 months later J'adore (imported from Germany) followed. Our first litter was born in 2008 and since we have had 1-2 litters a year. All dogues live inside the house with us as a family and all puppies born here are raised inside the house as well, so when they leave for their new home they are used to life in a family, other dogs, a child etc.
We very much consider dog breeding a on-going learning experience and we are very grateful for the more experienced breeders who has helped us during the years. There has been many phone calls :-) Our goal is to breed healthy, typical and well balanced dogues with great movement. While we certainly believe in health testing (we test our dogues for HD, ED and heart disease before breeding them) we don't think it says everything there is to say about the dogue. While there has been a massive focus on hips and elbows (which can certainly also be a big problem) the real "killers" seems to be cancer and different kinds of organ failure. Longevity is a very important issue for us, as far too many dogues die at a very young age. We think old age in the lineage often can be seens as a good indicator of good health, but of course there are no garantees. We like to focus on old proven bloodlines rather than the "next new thing".
Unless there are puppies in the house we try to go to some of the big shows around Europe and the french Nationals is a must!
It is very important for us that our kennel is just a hobby and not a business, and that our main motivation for breeding is the love of the breed. We try our very best to do combinations that we feel has something positive to offer for the breed and we would never do a combination we wouldn't want to keep a puppy from ourselves.
Our kennel will always be a family type of breeding which for us means;
* Our dogues live with us in the house as a family
* Limiting the number of dogues to approximately 5, this allows us to spend quality time with each of them.
* Respecting the quality of life and life cycles of breeding dogues; we are definetely against intensive breeding and it's excesses.
* Focusing on one breed only; the Dogue de Bordeaux as it is our passion.
