About Us

Joni L. Freshman, DVM: Joni fell in love with Belgian Tervuren as a 12-year-old girl. At the age of 25, she started her internal medicine residency, finally had a fenced yard and went about searching for her dream dog. "Zephyr" joined Joni in 1986 and the rest is history.

Joni has been active in training and showing Belgian Tervuren ever since, in conformation, obedience, agility, rally, herding and in therapy dog work. Zephyre Belgian Tervuren bred its first litter in 1990. See "Breeding Philosophy" for why and how we plan a breeding.

Joni has been a member of the American Belgian Tervuren Club since 1987 and subscribes to and has signed their Code of Ethics.

Other Dog Club involvement: Profession:

Dr. Joni has two businesses, Canine Consultations, for which she provides services related to canine reproduction and pediatrics (seminars for veterinary organizations and dog clubs, consulting for industry, laboratory and professional organizations, textbook chapters and journal articles) and AcuPets, a mobile veterinary acupuncture practice.


David W. Morris: David met Joni and her dogs in 1997 through friends interested in the breed. They became engaged in 1998 and married in 1999. Zephyr was their flower dog. David initially trained and ran some of the dogs in agility, earning novice titles and open legs. He now places his emphasis on snuggling dogs, helping raise puppies and web design for Zephyre.

David has been a member of the American Belgian Tervuren Club since 2000 and subscribes to and has signed their Code of Ethics.

Dog Club Involvement: Profession:

Senior Software Engineer, Infinity Systems Engineering, Inc.
David has also done work on the space shuttle for NASA and on various other aerospace programs.


BREEDING PHILOSOPHY

"A sound mind in a sound body, bred to the written standard."

The above sentence summarizes our goals in breeding. Our goal is to continually improve our breed, producing dogs who not only embody what the breed is supposed to look like, but have the mind, body, and health to allow them to take part in whatever activities their owners desire.

We only breed bitches that have 1) Finished their breed championship, showing adherence to our breed standard 2) Have a working title (agility, herding, obedience) showing trainability and biddability 3) Have a minimum of a Herding Instinct Certificate (to show they have at least some interest in doing what they were intended to do) 4) ATTS temperament test (to show they have basic soundness of temperament) 5) Health clearances (hip, CERF-eye, and now elbow and thyroid) Not all bitches that meet the above requirements are bred-there are other issues in our breed and we choose only dogs that will improve the breed by their use.

In addition, we only breed when we want to keep something from that pairing. The time and effort we put into our puppy raising is immense-we only do it when we hope to keep a puppy.

Our contracts are designed to protect the dog and the breed-not necessarily to be convenient for us or for the buyers! We always have a lifetime buyback on the dog-if at any time the owner cannot keep or does not want the dog, we will buy it back for purchase price.

We consider ourselves responsible for the puppies we produce as long as they are on this earth. We are available as mentors, advisors, friends-and family-to our puppy people. We take our breeding seriously, and want our puppies to be loved family members for life.


PUPPY RAISING

For the first three weeks, our puppies stay in the whelping box with mom (you can see them via the PupCam!). An awake adult human is always just outside the box, both to watch the puppies, and to ensure all is well. The Biosensor exercises (www.breedingbetterdogs.com) are performed on all litters. As well, a select few people handle them, and the cats come and go from the box. Many toys of different consistency are provided for their interaction.

At three weeks the puppies make the big move into the kitchen (the PupCam moves with them). From here on, things get very interesting for the puppies, as they are exposed to a variety of things-different footing, other dogs, lots of people of all ages and gender, the great outdoors, puppy agility equipment, the grooming table, brushing, baths, nail trims, noise, blowing tarps, blow dryers, leashes, crates, cars, potty training, sheep, etc, etc. Each puppy gets daily alone time with humans, as well as playtime with its littermates and mom.

Puppies are vaccinated at 6 and 9 weeks, dewormed every 2 weeks starting at 2 weeks of age, and microchipped. They have temperament testing done by a fellow DVM at 7 weeks of age and structural evaluations at 8 weeks of age. They typically go to their new homes between 9-10 weeks of age.

A complete notebook goes with each puppy, full of his or her information, recommendations, contacts, photos, copies of parents' certifications, etc. Zephyre maintains a YahooList for Zephyre puppy/stud owners, which many subscribe to and have found great friends on. It is especially helpful to support new owners!

At Zephyre, we take our puppy raising seriously! It is Dr. Joni's prime focus when a litter is on the ground.