About Heart-Throbs

I started showing dogs when I was 8 years old handling and training German Shepherds. I moved on to handling other breeds quickly. I have taught obedience and conformation classes all over Louisiana and East Texas, and handling classes throughout the state for years and I also worked with 4-H kids for a few years. I trained and handled many breeds for clients, German Shepherds, Belgian Sheepdogs, Finish Spitz, Bulldogs, Irish Wolfhounds, Chihuahua's, Setters, Shetland Sheepdogs, Papillion's, Cocker Spaniels, Poodles and a few other breeds. I continued handling and training dogs, but started having heart problems, due to the health issues with my heart, I had to get out of the big dogs and quit handling.  I couldn't imagine my life without the dogs in it that I loved so much, so my search began for the breed I wanted to be in that would not put too large a strain on my heart.  My mother, (Judy Spears) had gotten a schipperke, and I fell in love with him, he was a beautiful boy, with a great pedigree, he had a wonderful temperament and I knew then that I really liked the breed and that this was probably the breed for me. We started searching and found a nice female. The schipperkes absolutely stole my heart, which was still having it's own set of problems, and that is how I came up with the kennel name of Heart-Throbs. Our very first homebred Champion from our first litter  was CH. Heart-Throbs Bilbo Baggins. He was the love of my life and I knew that I was hooked for life on the breed, and that he was special from the moment he was born. His first time out was at the nationals and he placed high in the puppy classes 2 and third, and in sweepstakes and we had 8 different offers to buy him on the spot, including someone that wanted to trade us a bred CH. bitch for him. We kept Bilbo. Since then I had married, had kids, and divorced, married again, and some our human kids have grown up, some of our dogs have passed on, but schipperkes are still a very large part of our lives and I can't imagine life without one. Today, my husband Jesse and I, live in Arkansas on 3 acres with a stocked pond. We relocated from Louisiana with Jesse's work, but are longing to go back home so that we are closer to our family and true friends. We still have one son at home for now, and the grandkids visit frequently, so between all the dogs, dog shows, our kids and grandkids, and a fishing trip now and then, we do stay quite busy and very active with out dogs.

We care deeply about the health issues that are in schipperkes and health testing all of our dogs is a strong commitment that we have. We will not breed any animal found to have any health related issues and luckily we have not had any. We believe in education and in helping others to learn about schipperkes. We strive to produce dogs that are not only sound in body and structure, but healthy individuals with sound minds and temperaments as well. I do not compete in performance events but we have many dogs that do and also do service work as well as search and rescue. We breed when we want something to show and almost always keep a puppy from the litters that we breed. We do occasionally have a pet quality puppy or dog available, and we do retire our dogs out in qualified pet homes. We do not usually breed our girls back to back, we believe that the body does need time to rest from having a litter, and that breeding every time they come in heat does nothing to help the overall health of the dog, in fact, if anything we feel that it puts a constant strain on them and can jeopardize their health in the long run.