While living in the Ft Collins, Colorado area in 1982 my husband, Steve and I brought our first Doberman into our home. Although Shadow was a backyard breeding she introduced us to the love, loyalty and joy of the Doberman. Since that time we moved to the Wichita, Kansas area and are still devoted to the Doberman.
With the loss of Tempest in December 1997 we began looking for another Doberman to share our hearts and home. In our search I met Kathy Horniman and Julie Stade. At that time Julie Stade, BJF Dobermans, had a litter and we brought Heidi into our home.
To me basic obedience training for any breed is extremely important. All our bitches have gone through the basic classes. While in the basic classes at the Wichita Dog Training Club with Heidi, I learned about competing in AKC obedience trials.
At the time I was also training Heidi to compete in the breed ring. After showing her in several shows for over a year, I came to realize Heidi would not finish without sending her out with a handler. She is so much a part of our family we could not have her away so I started seriously training for obedience competition. On our journey we met some wonderful people that helped us train and learn to compete.
Heidi, BJF A Christmas Carol CDX RE CGC TDI and I had some wonderful years training and competing. Heidi passed over the Rainbow Bridge December 9, 2009 a few weeks shy of 11 years old, she is greatly missed and forever loved.
As I was searching for another puppy, I contacted Mike Penny of Paradigm Dobermans. We talked about my accomplishments with Heidi as well as my goals for the next puppy. I told him I wanted a puppy I could finish in the breed ring and title in performance sports. Sight unseen Mike sent me Zoe, he said "she will take you on a ride!" Little did I know at the time what a ride it would be!
When Zoe arrived at the airport in Oklahoma City, I could not believe my eyes, a beautiful 13 week old red bitch. I started her conformation training a few days later.
She caught on quickly and loved the work. At 4 months old in her first puppy match, she quickly caught on to ring procedure and won her first Best Puppy in Match. The next 2 months she won several more Best Puppy in Matches. At 6 months old and her second weekend out at the Wichita Cluster shows I asked Mike Penny to handle her so I could see what she looked like in the ring. Zoe was beautifully presented by Mike and won her first points, a 4 point major out of the 6-9 class going Best of Winners over an entry of 63 under judge Michelle Billings. Since that day Zoe has been owner-handled.
To be fortunate enough as an owner-handler to be sent a wonderful representation of the Doberman by a breeder that has faith in your abilities and goals and to be as successful as we have been was more than I had dreamed of.
Handling Zoe as a Special is a very rewarding experience; my greatest joy was being in the ring with her.
Zoe was bred in January 2008 to CH Trotyl de Black Shadow, a very handsome young dog. They produced 7 beautiful puppies as shown in the puppy section of this site.
I kept two of the puppies a red male and red female with which MiraVia Dobermans was born.
Rio, CH MiraVia Ruarc finished his breed championship at 12 months old with 3 majors out of the Bred-By class in only 6 weekends out.
Mya, CH MiraVia Riona finished her breed championship with three 4 point majors out of the Bred-By class. Mya is training for agility competition to debut the Spring of 2012.
Zoe, CH Paradigm Paradigm Paradise Regain'd NA NAJ CGC WAC ROM continued to win Specialty Best in Shows, Best of Breeds and Group Wins until she was bred again at 7 years young!
Zoe was bred to CH Wendorf's Valor in January of 2011. This Zeppelin litter is Gunner's first breeding. They produced 5 beautiful puppies, 3 of which are show prospects. See the Zeppelin section of this site as well as Ziggy's section for his show accomplishments.
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