Our Founder
Lois Denny-Schwarz, Breed Founder
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 breeding’s. 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 Pure Bred Boxer from Central America around 1960. She use to take him for walks and taught him how to climb up the park slides and then to slide down the other side. After 'Devilare' kept jumping over the fence we got a small poodle mix that we 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 lay 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. On any given Saturday you could see this 8 year old walking her duck 'Henry' to the Bubbling Springs Park so he could swim in the small river and catch the small fish and polliwogs.
One day Lois's younger sister came home with an absolutely drop dead gorgeous, sable German Shepherd pup and Lois 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. Her sisters first AKC German Shepherd got Distemper and Lois witnessed what that virus did. Her sister went to get another pup and this one lived to be a good old age. Best dog her sister ever had!
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 then got 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 person's 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 un-clipped 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? To prove her abilities in training and correctly assessing dogs of any mix, Lois went to the pound and got a mixed German Short coated Pointer/English pointer and trained it as a demo dog.
Lois then got her first AKC registered German Shepherd while living in Stratford California. This German Shepherd Dog was given to her from a friend who worked in the Schutzhund sport. This bitch was a mellow dog but could not be used as a brood bitch or a mom, as she always ate her offspring.
Lois had also gotten 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 had also kept up her training in the First Aid courses.
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 Academies 52ND class in the town of Visalia, Calif. She was awarded her P.O.S.T. and 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...
Lois moved back to Oxnard and started working with Schutzhund dogs. Joined a few of the clubs in the area and watched the club members train their dogs. This is when she decided never to allow anyone to handle her dogs, ever. A bad training incident could ruin a pup.
Lois studied the Schutzhund sport and read all that she could get her hands on and she even became a handler helping others to train their dogs while she suited up. Took a few dogs on to the field and even got judged herself.
Never stopping her Saturday public puppy and dog classes, Lois got tired of trying to explain to her clients that it is very important to get the right breed or pup for your lifestyle. Lois simply knew what each person needed in a dog and she began finding them for people. Lois was a puppy broker helping folks find the right pup for their family. Lois also knew what the majority of people wanted because she asked and listen to the public. The number one issue with dogs was barking! The next thing she could see was that folks could handle a mellow dog but not a hyper dog. Most people did NOT care if a dog had pedigree papers or not, they wanted a dog that fit their world. Lois knew that she was the only one that could take this next step and that was to 'create' the dog that most everyone wanted and needed. She remembers the exact moment that this crossed her mind and she thought that she really did not want to go in that direction because if she did, it would take up her whole entire life. Lois never did anything halfway! It took her all of 15 min to argue with herself to come to the conclusion that it must be done and she was the only one that would or could do it.
So 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 and on the black board. She had always known she was going to do this but it never really presented itself until the opportunity arose. The first thing she did was to write down the standards of the breed.
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 college campus’s 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 mal's would refuse to work commands as they become very independent as they mature.
Now this mal 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, 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.
Lois began the New Breed of dog that she would call the 'North American Shepalute'. She began the club and as always, kept records of all the breeding’s, 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 exceed 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 Mal 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 train-ability 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 out-crosses, 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 (Willow) 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 house dog in the city.
Lois entered her English Mastiffs in AKC shows and enjoyed the time spent running around the state showing off her dogs. One of her Mastiffs got pregnant by 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 re-breed 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 dysplasia, 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 who 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.
What makes these dogs so different from other 'designer' 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 Jane and Joe 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!