The History of Messy Hair Kennels and their Schapendoes

          My daughters and I began Messy Hair Kennels back in 2010.  As a family we work together spreading our passion for the Schapendoes breed to everyone we meet.  We began breeding Schapendoes to encourage the growth and development of this beautiful and rare breed. 

          We first fell in love with the Schapendoes at the All About Pet Show in 2003.  The Schapendoes stood out from all the other breeds at the show, they were beautiful, goofy, playful, and charming.  It was from that moment that our love for this breed began.  We welcomed our first Schapendoes puppy, Mugsy, into our family by the end of 2003.  We weren't thinking about breeding at that time, however, we were continuously stopped and asked about him and the breed.  After Mugsy unexpectedly passed away 2010, we decided that we wanted to get another Schapendoes.  But this time we wanted to be more than just a family home for the dog, we wanted to prepare ourselves to start breeding these beautiful, elegant, and rare dogs.   

          Our Kennel officially began when Quigley joined our home in 2010.  Quigley's name when translated from Gaelic means "Messy Hair".  In the summer of 2011, we added Millie to the family.  At this time we began to enter the dog show world.  We loved going to shows where many people would ask what type of dog we had.  It was exciting and challenging.  We still continue to take our dogs to shows today in confirmation, agility and obedience/rally.

           Over the years we have continued to help in the development and growth of the Schapendoes here in Canada.  When we breed, we select Schapendoes from Canadian or European championship lines.  We focus on the health, temperament and structure of the Schapendoes as guidelines for which dogs to breed.  Our Schapendoes do well in confirmation, agility, obedience, and rally, but above all are Schapendoes are great family pets.  We have also helped in the growth and diversity of Schapendoes here in Canada by importing many new Schapendoes from Europe.  Dalia was our first imported female from Slovenia in 2015.  Since then we have welcomed Nora in 2018 and Hazel in 2019 both from Sweden.  We also have two male Schapendoes currently living with their families in Quebec, Neo and Charlie, who also came from Sweden in 2019.  When Millie retired in 2016, we decided to keep her daughter, Audrey, to join our family.

          Our puppies are raised in our family home.  We prepare our Schapendoes puppies to go to their  forever homes through proper socialization in many different situations and environments.  We allow friends to meet with them when they are four weeks, along with the other dogs within our home.  We take them outside in the backyard and they are part of our everyday lives while here in our home.  We also begin their foundation training for when they leave.  We teach them to sleep in a crate at night, start their potty training routines, and also some basic commands.   We have the puppies evaluated to ensure that the puppy and its new family are a great match for one another. 

          We welcome anyone who would like to learn more about Schapendoes to please come for a visit (by appointment) or phone.  We love to talk about our Schapendoes, but we do believe that they are better at showing just why Schapendoes are such a great breed.