SHENANWOOD

SHENANWOOD is a home-based hobby kennel where Bill and I do everything from showing, breeding, and raising puppies to daily clean up. Our dogs live as part of our family and puppies are born and raised in our kitchen. Our main goal is to continue to produce physically, mentally sound Tibetan Spaniels that fit the American Kennel Club breed standard. Our dogs excel at conformation, and performance events as well as just being incredible companions, according to the interests of their owners – you will see many of the dogs we have placed with others on the “Dog Friends” page.

Many years ago (would you believe over 60 years ago), I began my long journey in the wonderful world of show dogs. I was not able to own my own dog while growing up. However, I was still able to get a strong foundation thanks to my aunt and uncle. Mary and Andy Carey, of Carey’s English Springer Spaniels, had many top winning dogs in the 1960’s and 1970’s and I was able to spent many wonderful weekends and summers at their home in Fairfax, Virginia learning to show both in Children’s Handling and conformation. I have some wonderful memories of those times (see the Springer section) and when I was able to purchase my first dog in 1972, there was no question it would be an English Springer Spaniel. Andy and Mary did not have any puppies so I was referred to the Angelovic’s and came home with Glen-Lovic’s Black Sorceress – my beloved Elsa. My first Springer litter was in 1974 and I continued showing and breeding Springers until the mid-1990’s. When an arm injury would not allow me to do the intense grooming needed for Springers in the show ring, I began my search for a smaller, easy to care for breed. I looked at a lot of breeds but kept coming back to Tibetan Spaniels. Thanks to Margie Wikerd, Bluvali Alvin joined our family in September, 1993 and the rest is history. Alvin was quickly joined by Jemari Last Rose of Summer (see their stories on their own pages) along with several champions from Ellen Klein before her move to England. These dogs provided part of the strong foundation for SHENANWOOD Tibetan Spaniels.

You can follow our journey in Tibetan Spaniels throughout this site. These dogs, now representing multiple generations, are proof that SHENANWOOD ‘s breeding program is consistent, and is a guarantee that our Tibetan Spaniels are happy, healthy and represent correct breed characteristics.