Ashes & Buster December 1997I became interested in Weimaraners in the early 1990’s. I had lost my Dalmatian and wanted to move on to a different breed. Each year it was tradition in my home to watch the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. I saw the Weimaraner and fell in love with the look; it was so beautiful, the coat color, those eyes! Everyone had a Lab or a Golden but I wanted something different. I began doing my research and purchased my first Weimaraner, Ashes, in 1991. As typical of the Weimaraner, she was my constant companion and was always with me. She lived through many important life changes with me: she was there when I graduated college, when I moved into my first apartment, when I met my future husband. Speaking of which, Scott was a ‘cat person’ when I met him but we’ve slowly converted him. And yes, his cats and my dogs lived together harmoniously, which is not always typical with Weimaraners. We added to our Weimaraner family in August of 1997 when Scott surprised me with an engagement ring and a male puppy, Buster. I don’t know which I was more excited about, the ring or the dog!
It was very difficult when we lost Ashes in late 2001. It took awhile but we finally decided it was time to bring another puppy into our home. I started doing my research and actually contemplated other breeds, but I finally came to the conclusion that Weimaraners were for me and I wanted to stick with this breed. I contacted many breeders and spoke to many different people. I was on several waiting lists when I finally got the call from Nadine Todd of Quantrels Weimaraners that she had a litter and there was a female puppy available for me. We discussed the potential of showing and decided that we’d give it a try, but if it didn’t work out that was ok. Having a new family member was the most important thing to us. So Nadine matched us with Ramblin’ Brooke and we brought her home in April of 2002. As Brooke spent time with us, it was odd how she was so similar to Ashes. Their looks, personality, temperament, quirks, it was as if Ashes was reincarnated. We began handling classes and showing when Brooke was 6 months old. Who knew I would get hooked? As it turns out, I loved going to dog shows and meeting all the wonderful people who enjoyed their dogs as much as I did. My competitive spirit did not like when we lost, but that was all part of it. You win some you lose some. Brooke is my ‘princess’ and we took many a road trip together to attend dog shows in several different states. Nadine became a great mentor to me in the dog world, and a friend. We continued showing Brooke until she obtained her Championship. Our next venture together was Rally Obedience and after that Competitive Obedience.
Our family grew again in 2004. Sharon was a temporary member of our family and then became permanent a few months later. She also participated in Confirmation and earned her Championship in both the U.S. and Canada. We also began Rally after Confirmation and she has earned several Rally titles.
We decided to breed Sharon and had our first litter in the fall of 2007. Deciding to start a breeding program is not something you do without serious consideration. I probably would not have considered this if we didn’t have the help of Nadine. She and I will co-breed this litter and will hopefully collaborate again in the future. She is very experienced and has the same goal of improving the Weimaraner breed, including both structure and temperament. Everything went really well with this first litter. We found wonderful homes with loving families, which was really important to me. As much as we (well really I) protested and said I wasn’t going to keep a puppy from this litter, one in particular made a special connection so we did keep Sawyer with no regrets. He finished his Championship at 16 months old so we have bright hopes for his future!
Part of the preparation of starting our breeding program was deciding on a kennel name. This is something we gave a lot of thought. There are many different methods of creating a name but the end result should be something meaningful. We decided we wanted to honor the Weimaraner that started it all for me, Ashes. At the same time Brooke began my entry into the dog show world. Therefore we decided to honor them both and will use Ashbrooke as our kennel name.
We hope you enjoy viewing our web site and find some good information about Weimaraners. Thanks to my husband Scott for his creativity and hard work in putting the site together for me.
- Michelle
