After much reading and research to learn for sure that this was the breed for us, and many, many phone calls, we found Elaine and Lee Squires, of Honeybear Berners, in Morris, IL. They were expecting two litters in April and would possibly have a puppy for us.
On June 19, 1993 we picked up our first Berner, ‘Bernie Roo.’ A year later, on June 18th, our first daughter, Melanie, was born. A couple years later, and after a move from Wisconsin to Ohio, twins Megan and Parker arrived and ours was a very busy household!
For nine years, Bernie was our only Berner until we lost him to Malignant Histiocytosis, a fast progressing cancer that occurs in Berners and some other breeds. Being left without a Roo for the first time compelled us to become more involved in the breed.
Since 2002 we have added nine Berners to our family. Five have been purchased as show prospects, one rehomed with us after being returned to his breeder, two we rescued and one is a ‘failed foster,’ who we just couldn’t send on to another home. We have also fostered other Berners and assisted in several rescues.
Having met while working at The Indiana Daily Student newspaper on the Bloomington campus of Indiana University, Rob and Jeannie decided on a name for their kennel by combining the nickname of their alma mater with their nickname for Berners.
Jeannie & Rob are members of the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America, and founding members of the Ohio Valley Bernese Mountain Dog Club. Jeannie also volunteers as a site operator for Berner-Garde, the open database of health information of Bernese Mountain Dogs.
Dog shows are generally family affairs with Rob acting as the ‘Unpaid Kennel Help,’ managing dogs during grooming and outside the ring while Melanie assists Jeannie in the show ring and sometimes enters in Junior Showmanship. Megan likes to do obedience training and has started to compete in agility. Parker is happy to stay and watch over any dogs not being shown. Megan goes along to agility trials with Jeannie and works as ring crew, score or leash runner, and whatever else she’s asked to do!
In addition to being active with the Roos, our human family has many interests including soccer, volleyball, horseback riding, bicycling, video games, gardening and swimming, and the Roos enjoy being involved with us just as much, if not more, than we enjoy doing things with them.
We are currently showing Molson, Mia and Nita in conformation and Keeneland, Nicki and Roofus in agility. Megan has been training Roofus for the past year in agility and started competing in May, ’08. While it is our plan to eventually breed Bernese Mountain Dogs, for now we only raise and train them. If you are interested in getting a Bernese Mountain Dog, please feel free to contact us as we can recommend many responsible breeders and are always happy to answer any questions you may have.
