...How I came to love the Briard...

May I introduce ourself? My name is Karin Kersten, I have three sons Tommy, Dennis and Niels we got a lot of pets. I am married with Cor Palmen and we live in Belgium. We are the proud owners of 6  Briards(Chiens de Brie) 2 cats, a parot and 3 chickens.Our greatest passion however are our Briards who hang out with us all day. They accompany us everywhere we go. Now and then we stumble over them when there is one just before or behind us. We like to go to show with our briards.

In my parential house I grew up with Bouviers de Flandres, for fun and for guarding my parents’s business. The business was the reason why my parents did not always have time for us. That’s why I was busy with the dogs all the time, which I liked very much. Not long after one of the dogs died I looked for another one. This time I wanted a non-bobtailed Bouvier, but it was not easy to find one. One day I saw an add in the paper offering Briards. I had never heard of Briards before. I looked them up in a book about dogs and as soon as I saw what they look like, I got very interested. At first sight a Briard looks a bit like a Bouvier with long ears and a long tail. When I went to see them for myself I was immediately and completely sold: it was love at first sight!! I picked a beautiful he-dog and named him Lars. That was back in 1984.

Lars was a sweet and loyal dog, never needing a leash. He always followed me calmly trudging, everywhere I went. Later, when the children were born, he sniffed at them, licked them over their head and they were friends for life. Where ever the three Daltons were, Lars was there, too, and participated enthusiastically in the adventures of the kids. To our sorrow Lars only lived to be nine, but it was a dog I will never forget.

Well over a year later the Briard virus was rearing its head again with us so we started looking out for another such loyal quadruped. Via via we ended up with the family De Bock. We could lay our hands on a sweet little bitch, Valuas Jolly Kayleigh, simply Kayleigh, a dog with a fine and great character.

After about four years it seemed nice to us to get a litter of pups by Kayleigh. So we applied for an official kennelsname. Kayleigh’s hips and eyes were tested and as soon as everything was seen and approved we began searching for a he-dog. Nicky de Bock, the lady breeder who also breeded Kayleigh helped me finding the best dog. The future father of the pups was to be Ratko du Monde des Amour, a black Briard. We kept one of the four pups for ourself: a beautiful black one called Odoezy van het Klotzicht.

Unfortunately Kayleigh took seriously ill. Her kidneys gave her trouble. In the end we had no other choice than to put her out of her misery. Because Does (Odoezy) was the only one left, we soon decided to get us a new ‘fauve’ Briard. This way Raya Samantha van den Boksenberg joined our family. We usually call her Sammy. Sammy is a high-spirited, cheerful dog, playing almost all day with Does, the children or her toys. She likes to sleep on the couch or trudges where we go. 

In 2003 Je N’ai Rien Oublié Unique Kadish came with us. Kadish developes to be a beautiful grand lady. She is super social and already achieved good results at shows.  

  Armani India Van Het Klotzicht. We kept Indy from the A-litter.

When I came to live with Cor Zhivago came to our femals and he liked them a lot.

And now we have 6 briard and we are very happy with them!!