My name is Larissa and I am living near Lahr (south western Germany).
Dogs were always part of my life. I grew up with
a lovely irish setter mix bitch "Shiwa". After she passed away at the age of 16, a couple of years went by without a dog in our house.
At the same time the wish to own one increased. During my holidays in 2006 I fell in love with the Australian shepherd and I started to inform myself about herding dogs.
Finally in 2010, my parents decided to give another dog from an animal shelter a home. And so "Damon", a Gordon Setter moved in. However I had to move out soon afterwards for university.
But I could never imagine a life without having dogs again and so my plans of getting one became more concrete. The following months I met different herding dogs and their owners and made my decision. After so many years of waiting and planning, my dream finally came true and in june 2014 a border collie puppy moved in: my perfect chocolate boy "Nucha".
At this time I was not sure which dog sport suits us best, but soon we found our passion in herding and rally obedience.
Nucha turned out to be all I ever wanted and dreamed of. He developed so nicely in the following months and years that I decided to make him a stud dog. I am really excited where our way will lead us and I can not wait to hold the first Nucha puppies in my hands.
Someone said once: "Border Collies are like potato chips, you can not just have one."
That is true. In summer 2015 I totally fell in love with another puppy named "Koda" and earlier than expected I had two border collies. Koda is not an easy-going dog and I learned a lot from him.
2016 my wish of breeding grew stronger. I started to think about having an own kennel and searching for a female puppy out of herding lines.
In january 2017 a third border collie moved in,but again it was a male. "Bumblebee" is out of a friend's litter and fought for 8 weeks to get my love and affection in spite of me being so focused to find a female. Fate dealt me a different hand I fell in love on the quiet and so could not imagine him to go somewhere else than living with me. In the end it might have been the best decision to take him.
He is a perfect match in every way.
In july 2017 I passed my "new breeder's seminar" of the CfBrH (FCI) and since the end of the year, my kennel name "Herding Lunatic's" is protected in the FCI.
2018 I started my way to become an animal psychologist and physiotherapist at the German Institute for animal psychology & animal naturopathy (DIFT) in Dortmund.
Since this summer our pack is completed by the long awaited bitch. I waited really excited since Maybe's litter was published and went all the way up to near the scottish border to pick her up personally. Hopefully now all goes well and she develops fine, so that we can welcome our first puppies in about 3 years.
Since autumn 2018 we have our own sheep -another big dream that came true.
In 2019 my son was born and the dogs are just great with him! I don't think I've ever been more proud of their simplicity. Maybe in particular adopted him right from the start.
Due to our move back to the Ortenau, we also had to make a few changes. The Skudden have moved back to a friend of mine and I was finally able to get back a small group of sheep in 2020 after finding some meadows near by and decided on getting grey-horned Heidschnucken. I love my girls to bits and if everything works out, there will soon be a few more!
In 2021 we were allowed to welcome our first litter. However, with a small change. While it was initially my ambition to breed in the CfBrH/VDH, I had to realize that we are much better off with our work ambitions in the ABCD (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Border Collie Deutschland e.V.).
Thus, my puppies receive ISDS papers and the kennel name "Derrynane".
Derrynane Rava from our first litter - a daughter of Nucha and Maybe - will stay with us and hopefully go into breeding if suitable. And now let's see what the future holds!
I have another big passion: the photography.
My main models are of course my own dogs, but since 2013, I am working part-time as a photographer.
(please click on the logo to come to the photograpy page)
