The founder of the american alsatians™ (This information has been sourced from the schwarz kennels website)
Lois Elaine Denny was born in 1953 in the city of Cocili, Panama on Government Land, as her father was enlisted in the military. In 1962 the Denny family moved to California.
During her childhood years Lois bred and raised many small animals. Along with this, she recorded the many different things she saw and the outcomes of the breeding’s. Each baby animal had a name, number and a description along with a photo. She got into rats, mice, turtles, birds, fish, pigeons, rabbits, guinea pigs and of course the family dog.
Lois started training dogs when her family got their first Pure Bred Boxer from Central America around 1960, followed by a small Poodle by the name of Tiki. Tiki would do anything for food so the Denny girls taught Tiki a number of impressive tricks. Folks were amazed and Lois wondered why people thought that Tiki was so smart. Lois also trained her ducks to walk on cat leashes and to swim in the family swimming pool.
One day Lois's younger sister came home with an absolutely drop dead gorgeous, sable German Shepherd pup and she was stoked! Lois was about fourteen and extremely jealous. Where on earth did she get that dog? And how did she know to get that particular one? Where did she find it and how did she pay for it? Lois was now determined that she would also get a wonderful dog one day.
That day came when a Shepherd mix puppy followed her home. Lois thought that this was the perfect dog! She began training him and soon Caesar would follow her anywhere. They were pals. Lois then found a home for Caesar and got fifty dollars for this eight month old trained German Shepherd mix. That was the beginning of her quest to find the ultimate companion dog, she just didn’t know it yet.
Lois then got a job as a cashier for a neighborhood gas station. During this time Lois was able to continue her work with canines as she climbed the ranks within the company to become manager of several gas stations throughout Ventura County.
Lois began serious breeding at the age of twenty-two and chose the American Cocker Spaniel because that breed was a family 'all-around' kind of breed. She also wanted to try her hand in the show ring. Lois started a small business within the Bird Aviary field raising a variety of colorful birds. She took this time to study more on her passion in genetics.
Lois bred the old fashion Cocker with the short, easy to care for coats. “American Cockers” that would retrieve anything a person threw out in front of them. These cockers were great bird dogs and would quarter back and forth in front of her sniffing the ground and reading all that came into their senses. When walking one of her dogs a person's eyes would go right to his little tail because it was always wagging and happy.
Lois had a lot of fun with those dogs but she had a problem with the “Cocker Spaniel Club of America” and the breed standard verses the A. K. C.. judging of this breed in the ring. Lois couldn’t accept the new evolution of the long cottony coats being that they were in complete opposition to the standards for the breed that stated that the Cocker coat was to be short and easy to care for.
Trained and Groomed for show, her dogs entered in puppy classes and different show events around central California.
With her dedication to the breed, Lois let one of her new style Cockers enter the show ring unclipped to make a statement - this is the dog that was replacing the 'old style American Cocker Spaniel'. You can just guess at the outcome.
Her Cocker Spaniel Business was thriving and she sold her pups throughout the United States. She obtained six generations of solid chocolate Cocker Spaniels of which she is very proud of and all the while she kept the retrieving instinct in the gene pool. She bred a multitude of different lines and recorded all data.
Lois then moved to Stratford, California and started up the ‘Bozeman’s Barnyard Kennels’ where she raised, bred and boarded a variety of animals. This is where her experience in all of God’s creatures went into full bloom as she bought and trained horses, goats, cows and pigs as well as bred chickens for a variety of colors and recorded the characteristics of the eggs as well as the quantity produced by the different species. Lois was ready to move on and she wanted to try her hand at protection training and more serious causes.
Lois started teaching obedience classes at naval bases and she knew that she needed the ultimate dog to use as a demo, but which breed? Lois chose her first AKC registered German Shepherd.
Because of the love of facts and truths, Lois seriously decided to try her hand at becoming a police officer and enrolled in the College of Sequoia Police Academies 54th class in the town of Visalia, Calif. She was awarded her P.O.S.T. and was now on her way to becoming an officer of the law. She applied in several different police stations but her need for a job was pressing so she jumped into the truck driving field and was soon on the road driving the big rigs.
Lois had a plan to create the best companion dog ever, and her desire inspired her to stay up nights studying every book she could get her hands on. This fuelled her cravings for more...
This is when the idea of the new breed of dog came into the picture and she began to form the dog in her mind and on paper. She had always known she was going to do this, but it never really presented itself until the opportunity arose.
Lois started up the ‘K-9 Emporium’ in Oxnard, California where she ran Saturday obedience and show classes. She also started up a night class for people interested in learning to groom, breed or show their animals. One of her students told her that they were going to be moving out of California and they couldn’t take their six month old Malamute pup with them, so Lois said she would take him. This Malamute was a very loving dog and a very smart dog as a pup, but after all that obedience work that she put into him she found out that Mal's would refuse to work commands as they become very independent as they mature.
Now, this Mal knew all the commands and knew them well - Lois had been training dogs for over 20 years at that time in her life. While Buddy was a pup he would perform right on the money for all her attention, but when he got to a certain age, bam…, it flew right out the window! The obedience 'recall' wouldn’t work if there was a cat or small dog as a distraction and it only got worse as this dog aged. Eventually, he did only what he wanted to do, regardless of any reprimands.
With her spare time Lois took a home study course in animal sciences and finished it ahead of schedule with scores in the top 90's. Her ‘One stop dog shop’ was so successful that she opened up another two.
Lois knew that she had to go back to the German Shepherds, so she went to find the perfect German Shepherd Dog for Buddy.
Lois began the New Breed of dog that she would call the 'North American Shepalute'. She began the club and as always, kept records of all the breeding’s, sales, characters, temperaments and out-crosses that she bred. She kept charts and genealogies and sold the offspring to those who wanted what she could provide.
Lois bred the mix Cockapoos, Terripoos, Maltipoos, Shihtzapoos, Pekapoos, as well as all the registered pure breeds of the small companion dogs and found that there was a huge demand of these small cute mix breeds. Lois then became a buyer and seller for many people throughout the state.
All the while Lois continued work on her favorite mixed breed, the "Shepalute." She had to start a quantity of genetic branches and at one point she had acquired over thirty dogs in her kennels in the mountains. After she began developing the next generation, homes had to be found for the retiring matrons. She never tired of such work and people from all over came to her for help with their Shepherds as well as to 'trade' their shepherds for hers.
Her major concern with these new pups was that they not only fit her high standards, but that their character and temperament far exceeded most other dogs. Somehow she had to have dogs that had the brains and the want or will, to do the work put before them. She didn’t care too much about how they would look; she just wanted the ultimate companion dog! She wanted a laid-back, friendly dog that wasn't hyper, did not whine or bark.
Next Lois had to consider what this ultimate companion dog would look like. She figured the wolf in her mind. She believed that a large Dire “wolf looking” dog would be a good prosperous look. She should then be able to appeal to the public dog lovers of America with that “wolfy” look. It shouldn’t be too hard with both the Mal and the Shepherd. Well, now she had a set of standards and a goal to breed for…
Lois thought it would only take 6 generations. She had it all planned out, Ha… fooled her. She was right on track with the personality, the intelligence and the trainability of this new breed, but the look was far from where she wanted to go after the six years of breeding crept by! Lois did not figure that the German Shepherd dog would be so dominating in breeding its 'type' within outcrosses, so she persevered.
Lois knew that she needed more bone and mass to achieve her goal for the 'Shepalute' to resemble a Dire Wolf, so Lois then purchased her first English Mastiff and fell in love with the breed. She found another Mastiff shortly after.
Lois entered her English Mastiffs in AKC shows and enjoyed the time spent running around the state showing off her dogs. One of her Mastiffs fell pregnant to a nice stallion of a Shepalute - the pups were born with larger bones to improve Lois' stock. She kept the best pups to breed back into her concentrated lines.
There were so many difficult problems to overcome and genetic defaults to get rid of! Lois was forced to drop many of her lines because of skin problems, Panosteitis, hip displasia, ear sores, bad feet, epilepsy, and then Corona virus struck her puppies! Her dogs had to have the best immunity systems to survive.
Generation after generation she hand picked the best pups according to her tests of what the ultimate companion dog should be. She continued to test for soundness, strength, health, temperament and lovability. She also had to find homes for the many pups who did not meet her stringent requirements.
Year by year went by and generation after generation until finally all the dogs started to look similar. She had made it! Eighteen years and fifteen generations had gone by with so many hills that she had to climb.
Many families got some really great dogs and she was proud to sell those wonderful temperaments and those intelligent dogs to the public!
Lois figured it to be a good thing that she did not know how long it would take to get where she was now, for if she had known perhaps she would never have undergone such a journey.
What makes these dogs so different from other 'designer' breeds? No one knows more about temperament and character and how to obtain it than Lois does. Over 45 years of breeding the many different species and then trying to help Jane and Joe public find the right companion dog, Lois knows what character and temperament is needed to keep her dogs out of the pounds. Easy going, NON HYPER, NON Barkers are what Americans want and Lois has bred over 18 generations with this in mind!
Lois moved to White City, Oregon in 1999 then Married James Schwarz in 2000. Today they both continue to raise and breed the best Large Breed Companion Dog in the WORLD!
