Welcome, my name is Darlene and have loved miniature schnauzers for over 30 years! I am a member of the American Miniature Schnauzer Club, the Tampa Bay Kennel Club, and the Central Florida Miniature Schnauzer Club. I live in Tampa, Florida but I am originally from New Orleans, Louisiana.
I am a graduate of Louisiana State University with a Masters in Business Administration and a degree in Animal Science with an emphasis on genetics and reproductive physiology. As soon as I graduated, I got my first Miniature Schnauzer from a breeder in New Orleans, his name was Chivas Regal! We called him "Chevy."
But once Chevy was gone, I was devastated at the loss of my best friend for 15 years. My husband Mark started looking for ways to cheer me up which usually included traveling. Researching the internet, he learned about some breeders' in the wine country of Sonoma County, California. I thought "What a super combination: Miniature Schnauzers and great wine!" After several visits to California, I found myself with a new black male puppy, "Windsor". I always thought that you really need to have two miniature schnauzers to keep each other company. As luck would have it, a few month later we purchased our beautiful girl "Maggie", whose sire is still the top producing black sire with 35 Champions! Both Windsor and Maggie are AKC Champions and have produced beautiful black puppies. Maggie was bred twice, lives with us, and retired to supervise all litters at Orleans!
Windsor and Maggie's first black female puppy, AKC Ch. Orleans' Sylvie la Belle Dame (a/k/a Sylvie), finished her championship very quickly and was the first to be handled to her championship by me. AKC Ch. Orleans' Antoinette la Puce (a/k/a "Toni") is also a black champion sired by Windsor. Toni was also only bred twice and was a wonderful mom. Toni's last breeding was to the winningest miniature schnauzer in breed history with 76 Champions to date which produced us an outstanding litter of all boys! I showed the best black and salt/pepper puppies from this litter, both of which finished their AKC championships from the bred-by-exhibitor class (breeder-owner-handler) on one coat.
Our focus for the last several year have been on these two outstanding male dogs and their offspring. AKC Ch. Orleans Fils Noir de Twister is black (a/k/a "Sonny") and AKC Ch. Fils Gris de Twister is salt/pepper (a/k/a "Gris-Gris"). Gris has two champions to date with more growing up for the show ring. Sonny produces three girls to one boy and is a TOP PRODUCING sire with five female champions in all three colors and more on the way!
I occasionally breed in order to produce an outstanding "show dog" for me to show. I pick the best one or two puppies in a litter to hold on to as a potential show dogs, the rest would be available for adoption. Sometimes we will have a older puppy that we decided not to show or a retired adult available. I will try to match puppies or adults and their new families personality together. I enjoy keeping up with our schnauzers and their families through e-mail pictures and stories. Perhaps the greatest reward is hearing the wonderful stories from our schnauzers' new owners. These wonderful little dogs seem to make such a positive impact on everyone they meet, see our "Photo Gallery" !
It has been over 25 years since I purchased Chevy and we have come a long way! Go to the "What's New" and "Our Dogs" sections for some pictures of the above events or "Puppies" for an update on any upcoming litters.
Well, that's my Miniature Schnauzer story and I'm glad that you're visiting our web site. Feel free to "Contact Us".
