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Lois Elaine
Denny was born in 1953 in the city of Cocili, Panama on government land, as her father was enlisted in the military. In 1962
the Denny family moved to California.
During her childhood
years Lois bred and raised many small animals. Along with this, she recorded the many different things she saw and the outcomes
of the breedings. Each baby animal had a name, number and a description along with a photo. She got into rats, mice, turtles,
birds, fish, pigeons, rabbits, guinea pigs and of course the family dog.
Lois started training dogs when her family got their first purebred
Boxer from Central America around 1960. She took him for walks and taught him how to climb up the park slides and then to
slide down the other side.
After 'Devilaire' kept jumping over the fence, her family acquired a small poodle mix that
they called Tiki. Tiki would do anything for food, so the Denny girls taught Tiki the normal everyday stuff like sit, down,
and roll over. Lois remembers that teaching Tiki to roll over was the difficult part but, with food in hand and Tiki’s
nose following right along with the closed fist, Tiki's body just flipped over and that's when the food and hugs followed.
Next Lois taught Tiki to “play dead”. Tiki would lie there waiting for the “ok” command so that she
could get that ultimate treat. Lois was now showing anyone who would watch, all the tricks that Tiki knew. Folks were amazed
and Lois wondered why people thought that Tiki was so smart. Lois also trained her ducks to walk on cat leashes and to swim in the family swimming
pool. One
day Lois's younger sister came home with an absolutely drop dead gorgeous, sable German shepherd pup and she was stoked! Lois
was about fourteen and extremely jealous. Where on earth did she get that dog? And how did she know to get that particular
one? Where did she find it and how did she pay for it? Lois was now determined that she would also get a wonderful dog one
day.
That day came when a shepherd mix puppy followed her home. Lois thought that this was the perfect dog! She
began training that dog and soon Caesar would follow her anywhere. They were pals. Lois didn't know much about the health
of dogs and Caesar proved to have worms so Caesar was not her mother’s best friend. Lois then found a home for Caesar
and got fifty dollars for this eight-month-old trained German shepherd mix. That was the beginning of her quest to find the
ultimate companion dog; she just didn’t know it yet. Lois graduated from Hueneme High in 1972
then went into the Air Force. She left the Air Force before graduating from boot camp because of her strong convictions of
what the military should be and wasn’t. She then went into the electronics field as she tried to find her place in
the world. She never realized that her love and passion could carry her through life with any kind of stability so she continually
sought out her desires with no satisfaction.
After five years in the field of electronics she enrolled in modeling and fashion institutes. Since Lois had
varies experiences in the modeling field in her youth and she had the gift of artistic abilities, it was thought that this
was where she could excel, but because of an unforeseen pregnancy she was declined further enrollment. Lois then acquired a job as a cashier for a neighborhood gas station.
During this time Lois was able to continue her work with canines as she climbed the ranks within the company to become manager
of several gas stations throughout Ventura County. Lois began serious
breeding at the age of twenty-two and chose the American Cocker Spaniel because that breed was a family 'all-around' kind
of breed plus she wanted to try her hand in the show ring. She also started a small business within the Bird Aviary field
raising a variety of colorful birds. She took this time to study more on her passion in genetics. Her business began to thrive
but her relationship with the father of her first-born child was failing.
Lois bred the old fashion cocker with the short, easy to care for coats. “American cockers” that would retrieve
anything a person threw out in front of them. These cockers were great bird dogs and would quarter back and forth in front
of her sniffing the ground and reading all that came into their senses. When walking one of her dogs a persons eyes would
go right to his little tail because it was always wagging and happy.
Lois had a lot of fun with those dogs but she had a problem with the “Cocker Spaniel
Club of America” and the breed standard verses the A.K.C. judging of this breed in the ring. Lois couldn’t accept
the new evolution of the long cottony coats being that they were in complete opposition to the standards for the breed that
stated that the cocker coat was to be short and easy to care for. Trained and groomed for show, her dogs entered in puppy classes and
different show events around central California.
With her
dedication to the breed Lois let one of her new style cockers enter the show ring UNCLIPPED to make a statement to the spectators
that this is the dog that was replacing the 'old style American Cocker Spaniel'. You can just guess at the outcome!
Her Cocker Spaniel Business was thriving and she sold her pups throughout the United States. She
obtained six generations of solid chocolate cocker spaniels of which she is very proud of and all the while she kept the retrieving
instinct in the gene pool. She bred a multitude of different lines and recorded all data.
Lois then moved to Stratford, California and
started up the ‘Bozeman’s Barnyard Kennels’ where she raised, bred and boarded a variety of animals. This
is where her experience in all of God’s creatures went into full bloom as she bought and trained horses, goats, cows
and pigs as well as bred chickens for a variety of colors and recorded the characteristics of the eggs as well as the quantity
produced by the different species. Lois was ready to move on and she wanted to try her hand at protection training and more
serious causes.
Lois started teaching obedience classes at naval
bases and she knew that she needed the ultimate dog to use as a demo, but which breed? Lois then got her first AKC registered
German shepherd. This German Shepherd Dog was given to her from a friend who worked in the Schutzhund sport. She was a mellow
dog but could not be used as a brood bitch or a mom, as she always ate her offspring.
Lois performed part time jobs as a security
officer and the job was now becoming full time as demand for her services was mounting. She took several classes in the baton
and gun handling courses and received a multitude of achievement awards. She also kept up her training in First Aid.
Because of the love of facts and truths, Lois
seriously decided to try her hand at becoming a police officer and enrolled in the College of Sequoia Police Academy's 54th
class in the town of Visalia, California. She was awarded her P.O.S.T. She was now on her way to becoming an officer of
the law. She applied in several different police stations but her need for a job was pressing so she jumped into the truck-driving
field and was soon on the road driving the big rigs.
Lois had a plan to create the best companion
dog ever and her desire inspired her to stay up nights studying every book she could get her hands on that could fill her
cravings for more...This is when the idea of the new breed of dog entered her mind and she began to form the dog in her mind
and on paper. She had always known she was going to do this but it never really presented itself until the opportunity arose.
Lois married first class petty officer Gary Kingsley
of South Dakota and they settled in a cabin in the Los padres National Forest. She continued to teach classes at Navy bases
and colleges around Oxnard and Port Hueneme. Next, she started up the ‘K-9 Emporium’ in Oxnard, California where
she ran Saturday obedience and show classes. She also started up a night class for people interested in learning to groom,
breed or show their animals.
One of her students told her that they were going
to be moving out of California and they couldn’t take this six-month-old malamute pup with them, so Lois said she would
take him. This malamute was a very loving dog and a very smart dog as a pup, but after all that obedience work that she put
into him she found out that malamutes would refuse to work commands as they become very independent as they mature.
Now this malamute knew all the commands and knew
them well for she had been training dogs for over 20 years at that time in her life. While Buddy was a pup he would perform
right on the money for all her attention, but when he got to a certain age and bam! It flew right out the window! The obedience
'recall' wouldn’t work if there was a cat or small dog as a distraction and it only got worse as this dog aged until
he did only what he wanted to do, regardless of any reprimands.
With her spare time Lois took a home study course
in animal sciences and finished it ahead of schedule with scores in the top 90's. Her ‘One Stop Dog Shop’ was
so successful that she opened up a second grooming shop that she called 'Kingsley’s School of Grooming.' Next, she
opened a third shop that she named 'Grooming Plus.'
Lois had always had a bunch of dogs go in and
out of her life so after all the dogs she had been through, she knew that she had to go back to the German shepherds and she
went to find the perfect German Shepherd Dog for Buddy.
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| Alsatian Founder, Lois Schwarz 1998 |
Lois began the new breed of dog that she would call the 'North American
Shepalute' in 1988. She also began the club and, as always, kept records of all the breedings, sales, characters,
temperaments and out-crosses that she bred. She kept charts and genealogies and sold the offspring to those who wanted what
she could provide. Lois
bred the mix cockapoos, terripoos, maltipoos, shihtzapoos, pekapoos, as well as all the registered pure breeds of the small
companion dogs and found that there was a huge demand of these small cute mix breeds. Lois then became a buyer and seller
for many people throughout the state. All the while Lois continued work on her favorite mixed breed the 'Shepalute.' She had
to start a quantity of genetic branches and at one point she had acquired over thirty dogs in her kennels in the mountains.
After she went on to the next generation, homes had to be found for the retiring matrons. She never tired of such work and
people from all over came to her for help with their shepherds as well as to 'trade' their shepherds for hers. Her major concern with these new pups was that
they not only fit her high standards but that their character and temperament far exceeded most other dogs. Somehow she had
to have dogs that had the brains and the want or will to do the work put before them. She didn’t care too much about
how they would look; she just wanted the ultimate companion dog! She wanted a laid back friendly dog that would not
be hyper and that would not whine or bark. Next Lois had to consider what this ultimate companion dog would look like. She figured the wolf
in her mind. She believed that a large Dire “wolf looking” dog would be a good prosperous look. She should then
be able to appeal to the public dog lovers of America with that “wolfy” look. It shouldn’t be too
hard with both the Malamute and the Shepherd. Well, now she had a set of standards and a goal to breed for… Lois thought it would only take 6 generations.
She had it all planned out. Ha… fooled her. She was right on
track with the personality, the intelligence and the trainability of this new breed, but the look was far from where she wanted
to go after the six years of breeding crept by! Lois did not figure that the German shepherd dog would be so dominating
in breeding its 'type' within outcrosses, so she persevered. Lois knew that she needed more bone and mass to achieve her goal for the 'Shepalute' to
resemble a Dire Wolf so Lois then purchased her first English Mastiff and fell in love with the breed. She was given another
mastiff after that family found out that a mastiff just grew too large to be a housedog in the city. Lois entered her English Mastiffs in AKC shows
and enjoyed the time spent running around the state showing off her dogs. She bred one of her mastiffs to a nice stallion
of a Shepalute and within these pups she was given the larger bones to improve the stock. She kept the best pups to rebreed back
into her concentrated lines. There were so many difficult problems to overcome and genetic defaults to get rid of! Lois had
to drop many of her lines because of skin problems, panosteitis, hip displasia, ear sores, bad feet, epilepsy, and then corona
virus struck her puppies! Her dogs had to have the best immunity systems to survive. Generation after generation she hand picked the best pups according
to her tests of what the ultimate companion dog should be. She continued to test for soundness, strength, health, temperament
and lovability. She also had to find homes for the many pups that did not meet her stringent requirements. Year
by year went by and generation after generation until finally all the dogs started to look similar. She had made it!
Eighteen years and fifteen generations had gone by with so many hills that she had to climb. Many families got
some really great dogs and she was proud to sell those wonderful temperaments and those intelligent dogs to the public! Lois figured it to be a good thing that
she did not know how long it would take to get where she was now, for if she had know perhaps she would never have undergone
such a journey. Now the "Shepalute" that had started as a mix between an Alaskan Malamute and a German Shepherd Dog
has evolved into a separate breed, with each generation breeding true to standard in temperament, looks and health. In
order to aid in the recognition of pure breed status, Lois changed the name in the year 2000 from North American Shepalute
to Alsatian Shepalute. The club has now changed the name to American Alsatian™ in 2010, officially dropping the
misnomer Shepalute, as it is no longer a cross breed dog.
What makes these dogs so different from other 'new' breeds? No one knows more about temperament
and character and how to obtain it than she does. Over 45 years of breeding the many different species and then trying
to help the public find the right companion dog. Lois knows what character and temperament is needed to keep her dogs out of the pounds. Easy going, NON HYPER,
NON-Barkers are what Americans want and Lois has bred over 18 generations with this in mind!
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