Denim Dog Kennel's Olympian Litter ~ Western PA ~ Belgian Sheepdogs/Groenendaels

About the Olympian Litter

Our 3.5 year old female Belgian Sheepdog, Images-N-MiKel's Flower Power, aka 'Lily', gave birth Saturday Feb. 13th, at 3am to six beautiful, healthy pups in our basement. She was bred to Liswyn's Kosmopolitan, aka 'Brinker', from Dallas, TX. Brinker is a beautiful big Groenendael boy with whom we were thrilled to be able to arrange a mating for Lily. But more about that later.

Olympian Litter Puppy Names
Naturally, each puppy needs some sort of name to give them an identifier. Some kennels only refer to pups as 'Blue Boy' or 'Pink Girl', related to colored identification ribbons commonly tied around their necks. Since our Olympian litter pups were born between 3am and 6am on Saturday, Feb. 13th, 2010, only hours after the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C, Canada, we have named the pups after classic Greek gods as a part of the registration 'theme' for their naming.

Olympian Litter: | Gallery

Pink Girl = Hera | Picture
Yellow Girl = Athena> | Picture
Purple Girl = Aphrodite | Picture
Red Boy = Zeus | Picture
Green Boy = Apollo | Picture
& finally
Blue Boy = Colbert (aka, 'Coal-Bear') | Picture

The Breeding and the Belgian breed

Enlarge picture Brinker at Westminster Kennel Club Show - 2004 Lily was bred to Ch. Liswyns Kosmopolitan (aka 'Brinker'), a Champion Belgian Sheepdog who lives in Dallas, TX, and is owned by Lisa Leffingwell, a professional breeder/handler. Lily 'visited' with him over nearly a week in early/mid December, 2009. You can get a look at Brinker on YouTube or at some pics from his appearance at the Westminster Kennel Club annual show in 2004 with his owner. He's a truly handsome, stunning dog.
You can download a copy of the Pedigree for the Olympian Litter pups to see more about the breeding history of both Kosmopolitan (Brinker) and Flower Power (Lily).

Health:
CH. Liswyn's Kosmopolitan ~ OFA Hips Excellent, OFA Elbows, CERF, CHIC #12829 (See OFA Site)
Images-N-MiKel's Flower Power ~ OFA Hips Good, OFA Elbows, CERF, Cardiac, Thyroid, CHIC #59426 (See OFA Site)

For more information about the Groenendael variety of the Belgian breed, see the AKC site for the Groenendael, or the breed page on Wikipedia. The Groenendael breed is definitely not for everyone, as the dog is a variety of an historic and current herding breed, and requires a household ready to take on the active lifestyle and demands of the breed, and as well as the unique needs of early socialization to ensure great relations with other dogs, children, other pets, and other adults beyond the immediate family.

Many people may have heard of the Belgian Malinois, commonly used for police work, search and rescue, and the official dog of the Secret Service. Our one Malinois, Baron, was a rescue we were fostering for the ABMC, and whom we just fell in love with. The Belgian breed classically also includes two other varieties: the Belgian Tervueren (or Tervuren), and the Belgian Laekenois, the latter of which has not yet been recognized by the AKC.

We love our Belgians. And though we've owned and had ample experiences with other breeds like Golden Retrievers, German Shorthairs & Border Collies, for now, we're kind of partial. :)

You can keep up with our dog life, view more pics and info about Nico, Baron, & Lily at our dog-blog at Moanin' Groenens, also.

Interested in an Olympian Litter puppy?

UPDATE:
All six pups will be placed from the Olympian Litter! At this point, we have closed applications for this litter. If you continue to be interested in a Belgian Sheepdog pup, please:

Fill out an online application and

Contact us to confirm your interest and discuss your application. We will discuss our breeding schedule with you and the next planned litter timing.

Once a litter is imminent and your application is reviewed & approved for the litter, you may be asked to place a deposit to reserve your pup, based upon the personalities and temperaments observed in the pups in the litter.

Note: Our approach relies on assisting in matching pups to home placements based upon many factors. It is possible that the personality, temperament, and/or conformation attributes being sought or that are a best fit for a particular home may not exist in a given litter. It is Denim Dog Kennel's intention to place dogs in 'forever homes' and not just sell dogs; please understand this means that sometimes a match between pups and homes may not be found at a given time. We will work with parties to either refer to other quality breeders, hold names on a 'litter wait list', or help in any other means possible to locate the most appropriate dog.

Chart of the Olympian Litter's Daily Growth

Curious about our Whelping Box?
We've built a whelping box from 1/2" plywood. It is rectangular: 3' by 4', and is 2' high; it sits on a scrap of thick vinyl flooring to raise it up even higher off the vinyl covered cement floor for warmth. Over that layer, we originally had two small thick loop rugs taped down with gaffing tape--one of which was used until 14 days after birth, taped over a small heating pad set to low where we can help pups keep warm in Lily's absence (as if!). Over this during the birthing we used repeating layers of absorbent pads and blankets. Now, you will only see one or two layers of polar fleece or woven cotton blankets in the box.

Contact Mike at Denim Dog Kennels for information on the box.