We are Becki and Jamie Belcher and our children Matthew, Joshua and Emily. We have shared our lives with Leonbergers, since July 2002. I (Becki) was brought up with Boxer dogs and thought that I would never want any other breed of dog. Then we saw a Leonberger in a book and the rest is history.

Once we decided that we would like a dog to complete our family and after researching the Leonberger breed through several books and club web sites, we decided to meet the dogs in person and went to the first UK Leonberger Championship Show in October 2001. We saw so many wonderful dogs and were completely hooked after just 10 minutes. It was the quietest gathering of 200+ dogs we have ever been to.

After deciding that the Leo was the breed for us we started our search for a breeder that might have a litter from which we could have a puppy, this is where we found our beautiful Willow.

Initially we only wanted a Leo to join our family as a pet but we soon became involved in showing and since then we have also bred our first litter of 11 pups all of whom were homed in May 2005.

From our first litter we kept our beautiful boy Ti who has been lightly shown in the ring. November of 2005 we welcomed to our family a beautiful little Leo girl Indi, she has the sweetest and most gentle nature and is very good at obedience, we hope to do PAT work with her when she has matured.

To add to our every growing family, my son Matthew had a dog for his 9th birthday, Rudi the Border Terrier, joined our family in October 2006. Matthew and Rudi enjoy doing agility together and have a lovely bond between them.

As a member of the LCGB I took the plunge and in 2007 stood for election for the Working sub committee, during my first year I set up and started to run and train a group of Wet Leo's, a Water Rescue Training group near Swindon Wiltshire. Then in 2008 I stood for re-election and main committee in order to help promote the working leo within the club as well as outside it. I was successful and as part of my promise to those who entrusted me with their vote, I set up another new group, this time for agility calling on my experience and training in this area to give another event for Leo owners to join. I have thoroughly enjoyed doing these things and shall continue to investigate other fun events to start for Leo owners working alongside the other members of the working sub committee.

As a family we have made lots of changes to include our Leo's, we rarely holiday abroad as we can't bare to be away from our dogs, we changed our car for something bigger to fit them all in in comfort and in June 2006 we moved to a new house to provide more inside and outside space for everyone, we now have an acre of land for the dogs and kids and a house big enough for a few more Leo's......so be warned....if you want a Leo your life will change, but for us it has been for the better.

Sadly in more recent news, in 2008 Willow was diagnosed with AF (anal furunculosis) a severe disorder which in most breeds is hereditary. We decided to removed our dogs from breeding lines as we did not wish to potentially pass these disorders on to any future dogs and as one of our puppies from our first and only litter also now suffers from suspected LP (Leonberger Polyneuropathy) this was the correct decision to make.

With the health of all pedigree dogs under the microscope, I have joined a select few who have been brave enough to voice their concerns about LP/AF and other disorders that are now increasing in our beautiful breed, this has made me less than popular with a few Leo individuals. I believe that honesty and openness is always the best policy, this information is crucial to help prevent the spread of these devastating diseases and I will not be silenced by the petty threats of such unscrupulous and uncaring individuals who's ambition for notoriety goes before the health of the dogs they produce.

For our beautiful breed first and foremost.

Becki Belcher