About Stronghold German Shepherds

Deposits now being taken for Zoe and DK pups!

For more information or If you would like to meet Aundra and Lex please call and make a appointment.

Testimonials

Dear Penny & Will,

There just aren't enough ways to tell you how thankful we are to have our Gunner. I've had German Shepherds
in my life most of my 67 years, but Gunner is in a class by himself. I have never had a puppy at this age with the
level of confidence he has. Totally unflappable-nothing puts him off. He meets other dogs(safe and healthy of
course) with an air of "I'm as big as you in my heart". Noises don't bother him nor do new things. He's met a lot
of people and been to many "safe" places with his Mom as well as his big sister Rachael. After 6 days of going
out in the morning with Mom and sis to get the morning papers, he now gets a paper too! So incredibly smart.
He sleeps in our bedroom in a crate and is content to do so. Sometimes has to go potty during the night but
always lets me know in time. Rachael and Gunner play tug with stuffed toys and knotted ropes. She will let him
win too which is nice to see. Some people question why I would travel 3000 miles to get a dog. When they meet
Gunner they'll understand. I'll send pictures tomorrow or later this evening.

Love, Ruth

Hi Penny:

Just wanted to let you know how very much we are enjoying Max. He is a solid member of the family! Sleeps in our beds and we just love it. We have had many compliments about him. Also many inquires about where we got him.

Marge & Jim Scott

Dear Penny
Here are some comments about Laska for your site. “Laska” means “affection” in Russian and she surely lives
up to her name! Laska joined us when she was three months old and is now a year and a half. She is all black
except for a few tiny light patches on the back of her ankles. We are amazed by Laska’s great personality. Her
intelligence and focus are stunning. She is aware of everything that is going on and has tremendous curiosity.
Her eye-contact is Remarkable since Natasha is a pianist we wondered how Laska would respond. Well, it seems Laska herself has become interested in playing piano! If we say, “play piano” she immediately climbs on the bench and starts to “play” with her paws on the keyboard! She just wants to be with us and do what we do. Right now as I am typing she is trying to “help” me. In addition, we have a 12-year old Shepherd who is part of Laska’s life and they are good buddies. Of course Laska is sometimes more determined to play than Tela. We thank Penny and Will for giving Laska such a great start, and for being so welcoming when we visited them in the fall. We plan to do it more often. We wish you and your family a wonderful New Year!

Love, Natasha and Bil

About Stronghold German Shepherds

The Beginning of Stronghold German Shepherds

Our journey with German shepherds began 23 years ago. I had loved this breed since I was a little girl who didn't love Rin Tin Tin.
As for my husband being brought up on a Dairy farm and his love for working with border collies and teaching them to herd made his desire to work with German Shepherds even stronger. thats when his interest in searching and tracking began. He has always had a compassion to help others now his dream was to work with a Search & Rescue Organization.

Our First German Shepherd

His name was Packer, a beautiful Black & Tan German Shepherd. He was beautiful, loyal, loved children and had a very strong bond with me. Our first summer arrived he was afraid of thunderstorms and other loud noises. He was distructive at times (surely not what we'd expected) but we still loved him so. We decided to try him in tracking, Packer could track me anywhere but his desire to find others was not there. He just didn't have the drive.
Three year's raced by and packer was showing signs of hip desplacaia. We took a trip to our vet only to find out it was worse then we thought. Not only were his hips bad, but his spine was deteriorating also. This information was so devastating. WHY was all I could feel? How can people breed this wonderful noble highly intelligent German shepherd dog and do this to them? Or any kind of dog? Packer lived a short 6 years although his body weakened his mind and spirit did not. I would never want to go through this again.
This lead us to our Mission
Our mission was to find the perfect German shepherd! Our thoughts were HOW? We trusted Packers breeder but we are now aware of the american bred dog. So we started researching German pedigrees and felt to get what we wanted we would have to get a buyer to help us purchase one from Germany. Only the select are bred in Germany. So we prayed. Found a buyer. We shared our concerns and made it clear what we wanted HEALTH & TEMPERMENT! We wanted a dog that had strong solid nerves (no more long nights with thunderstorms) he needed to be self confident, with easy trainability, watchfulness, loyalty, incorruptibility as well as courage. We wanted generations of excellent hips and elbows. We wanted the total perfect dog.
Was it possible.
YES was his reply.
How it all came about
We waited patiently to hear from our buyer and he called to tell us that he had found us a perfect male. He sent photos and we fell in love with Elo before even meeting him. Ten days later he arrived at our buyers home. We, soon got the call from the buyer, telling us that he felt the dog he had gotten was what we wanted but he had such a drive to work that he felt working was what he should do. His next reply was that the state police wanted to purchase him.
We were a bit up set and disappointed. We had chosen him waited and we were so excited. He then gave us the option to purchase Elo his7 month old male pup Harro for the same price. But with much prayer my husband and son set out on a long trip to get Harro.
When they returned home, in walked a 7 month old gorgeous black sable pup. He was so confident he waked into our home like he had lived there all his life. He was perfect. Medically he rated excellent hips and elbows. His grand father was Asko de Lutter. champion of the world in 2002.

A few days went by and Harro was so confident we decided to try him in tracking. He naturally tracked and air scented. He could even find us in the tallest trees. Wow did my husbands dream come true? He made a call to NESR and set up an interview. They were accepted and began the training. What a blessing we could not have asked for more. We felt impressed to share this line with others so our search began for the perfect female. Trixie Lady King is her name and what a sweetie she is. She was 3 years old when she joined our family.

Her love for life is amazing. She always seems to be smiling. She loves kids. water, other dogs, pups and her ball. She also came with pink papers which for those whom don't know what that means, Her parents went through a series of test's for temperament as well as health before they could be bred. In Germany they'd call it the cream of the crop. Trixie has Schutzhund titled parents as well. Her lines are West German whereas Harros are East German, We felt we would get the best from both lines.
They had their first litter a year later. Harro was just as involved in raising their pups as Trixie. Some of the pups went to working homes, Jake works with the State Police tracking and sniffing drugs. Gaige works for New England search rescue. And Michia independently searchs for missing folks. All the other pups are living happily as companions.
We also choose a male pup out of their first litter. Zurich is a lot like his dad. We have enjoyed watching him grow into such a handsome confident male. Just as things seemed perfect we had a tragedy and Harro was Killed. It was a shock and took a long time to function here both Trixie and Zurich were having a hard time with the loss as well.(Who says dogs don't know) 2 years went by and so many people called wanting a pup just like Harro and Trixis pups that they had seen. So we decided to purchase a female for Zurich.
That is how GiGi came into our life. A beautiful solid black with nice lines as well. She was calm and sweet, wanting to please. They had their fist litter and we were quite surprised how many little Harro "look a likes" there were. So perfect in every way just like their parents and grandpa of course.
It was time to find Trixie a new friend. We sought out Lex, he is a beautiful large red and black male. Confident in every thing he does, Tracking, Protection, and his love for small children. Always on the look out.
Trixie and Lex had a small litter. They are what everyone has wanted in the red-blacks. We chose to keep a female whom we named Leika. She is so much like Trixie. Since then we have purchased Oxana, Zena, and little Kellina (our lil fluff ball) for all you long coated lovers.

When you purchase a pup from us a percentage of you'r money goes to Africa were our pastor Daryll and his wife Kristina are providing missionary work. With this money they are able to purchase many thing's for the needs of the people. This money goes so far. Imagine 5 cents for an Avacado or a pair of reading glasses.

All our work is done for the Glory of GOD