We are located in the Poconos of Pennsylvania
about an hour and a half from center city Philadelphia and New York
City. We live on five wooded acres on the side of a ridge. All of
our bullmastiffs are born in the house and live there with us until
they are a year old and have outgrown our puppy yards. Then they
move outside where they spend nights in the kennel and days in one
of three large paddocks. Our Cairn terriers are all house dogs.
We have been involved with breeding bullmastiffs (Andalusian Bullmastiffs) since 1983 and with Cairn terriers since 2001. In the early 1990s we made a dramatic change in our feeding and healthcare practices. We had seen just too many deaths from parvo, hemolytic anemia, cancer, kidney and liver disease. It was "get out of dogs" or find better methods of husbandry. The most significant changes were to switch from commercial kibble to a fresh raw diet of meaty bones, fish, eggs, fruits and vegetables and to use homeopathic nosodes to prevent parvo and distemper rather than vaccines.
Since making these changes we have seen dramatic improvements in the health, temperaments and longevity of our dogs. We also find ourselves with a different puppy-buying clientele. Our buyers often have had horrendous medical problems with their pets. They are looking for new solutions just as we did in the 90s. They are anxious to learn new ways to keep their pets healthy - and happy to avoid skyrocketing veterinary costs.
Andalusian Bullmastiffs has long maintained two bitch lines. We are now raising our seventh and eighth generations of puppies from these lines. Although we have imported from the UK, Canada and Australia in the past -- and infrequently resorted to American studs -- we are now in a position where we have sufficient genetic diversity in our own breeding program to be self sufficient. This means fielding studs as healthy as our own line-bred bitches and diminished incidence of devastating, hidden genetic anomalies in our puppies.
Our Cairn terrier breeding program, while relatively new, goes forward buttressed by the knowledge we've acquired in our longstanding bullmastiff breeding program. Working closely with established breeders of healthy Cairns, our goal is placing healthy, sturdy, stable and affectionate puppies with discerning new owners.
In selling both Bullmastiffs and Cairns our ideal customer is not a show buyer; it's a good home provider. While we are happy when our most able dogs get to the show ring or into performance eventing, what we wish most for them is that they become valued members of stable, caring families.
