About Us
We are Sandra and Harry Brownlie and we live on a farm in the
beautiful Clyde Valley in Scotland. We are around half hour drive
from Glasgow airport, 50 minutes from Edinburgh and about 1 hour
from Prestwick for those people who wish to visit.
We have a joint history in many breeds over a large number of years,
so you can guess that we are no youngsters! Harry was a great terrier
and lurcher man with an enviable knowledge of lines and the working
aspect of these dogs having travelled the length and breadth of
the country to see dogs at work or to work his own.
We have both previously owned between us large breed dogs, including
a Rottweiler, Dobermanns, Boxer, German Shepherd and we still own
one Akita. We have successfully owned, bred and shown Akitas for
a number of years, our first being a rescue dog which we called
Chieftain. We had a very enjoyable time with the Akitas and our
hard work paid off with a win at Crufts, one of the largest dog
shows in the world and possibly the most prestigious.
In 2002 we started to look for a new breed to join us at Sandaharr
to be a house dog and companion for myself. Breeds we researched
and visited all over Britain include the English Mastiff, Bullmastiff,
Cane Corso, Presa Canaria, Dogue De Bordeaux, Bouviers and also
Russian Black Terriers. As much as we respect and admire all these
breeds the 'WOW' factor wasn't there until Harry saw a picture of
the Boerboel in a Dogs magazine and then we were committed to finding
out as much as possible about this breed. Then followed a lengthy
time of research and visiting the breed and we were very impressed
with what we saw on visiting Anthea Jones in the South of Wales
with Celtic Connection Boerboels. Others who helped us in our early
quest for knowledge were Lynne and Gareth at Accolade Boerboels
and also Attie Badenhorst from Baden Boerboels, their help and advice
was invaluable.
We got our first female 'Razina' (means strong and patient) in January
2004. We had picked a puppy with attitude as the Akitas play rough
and can be dominant and she would have to be of strong character
to deal with this. She proceeded to settle in wonderfully well forming
a very special bond with our old male Akita, Chieftain, who has
sadly passed away since then. Over the next 3 years our interest
in the breed grew to a time and life consuming passion, (hence the
move to a farm) and we are proud to say that we have made many great
friends and contacts at home and worldwide through the breed.
It is very important to us that all our dogs can play as a pack and exercise as a pack. We like to run all the dogs together for the main part, which not a lot of breeders will do. To this end we have to be in control of the pack and more importantly each individual dog and the pack leader who at the present time is Razzy. We have to be very firm with the dogs to achieve this harmony. We have brought dogs in at various ages and we work hard to integrate them with the others. We have though, had to re-home certain dogs as they don't gel with the others and while fine as part of a one dog or two dog family, they don't meet our needs as sociable animals or perhaps are too submissive. Even puppies we have bred have been re-homed for this reason, it's all down to the pack mentality and acceptance. Yes, we do have the occasional skirmish but it is very quickly dealt with and over, bad behaviour will not be tolerated from any of the dogs. When you visit we will ask if you feel more comfortable seeing/walking the dogs individually or all out together. We won't be offended if you decline to see the lot of them out together, we understand that it can sometimes be overwhelming at first.
Written by Sandra Brownlie.
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