Dogs and horses have fascinated me since I was a child!

When I was 7 years old, my parents made my greatest wish come true: my own dog. Kiki - a black poodle bitch.

Whether with friends or in the riding stables, she was almost always by my side until her death. She was run over a few weeks before my confirmation. The silence without a dog was just terrible. Day and night I pestered my mother for a new dog. After six weeks, it felt like an eternity, I had it ready. We picked up our Bessy. Also a black poodle bitch.

My father's sheepdog was always a loyal companion to me. But my aunt's borzoi were simply the most beautiful! This breed still inspires me to this day!

After I moved from home, there were a few dogless years because Bessy stayed with my mother.

After the death of my father-in-law in 1996, my then-mother-in-law no longer wanted to live in her house. Since my ex-husband Henrik had his veterinary practice on the converted farm, it was soon decided that his parents' house should take over the Windeck farm in Granderheide.

Henrik grew up with Hovawarten in his family. After reading it, it quickly became clear that our two boys should also grow up with a Hovawart.

In March 1997, Finnegans Gala, my first Hovawart bitch, moved in with me. Infected by the Hovi virus, the black Velia from the Hanseatic League joined them four years later. After Velia had fulfilled all breeding conditions, I founded my kennel "von den Grander Tannen" in 2003. With Velia, I raised three litters with a total of 23 puppies in the following years. When the A-litter was 6 weeks old, Gala died of a torsion in the stomach. On the spur of the moment I kept the only black-branded bitch from the litter. Aimara gave birth to 26 puppies in the D, E and F litter. I actually said goodbye to my plan to keep a bitch from Mara's last litter with the birth of the E-litter. Little Ella had crept into my heart very quickly. Still, it took some persuasion before she was allowed to stay. She also passed her breeding tests, so that in October 2012 the G-litter saw the light of day.

Since I wanted to get more involved in club life, I started my training as a breed warden in 2007 with great pleasure, which I successfully completed in 2009. Enthusiastic and convinced of the wonderful and healthy breed Hovawart, I am happy to support other breeders as a breeding warden and to accompany their litters!

Today I live with my husband, our little son and my adult sons from my first marriage in an old school east of Hamburg.

My husband had long dreamed of a short-haired dog, until a coincidence in the summer of 2016 made the dream come true. Frieda, a black mixed breed child between the Great Dane x the Ridgeback, came to us. Despite initial skepticism, she quickly wrapped me around her finger.

Even Mara was often ready to play a game with (then still) little Frieda.

On April 26, 2017, I had to let go of my Mara with an extremely heavy heart. A laryngeal paralysis diagnosed two days earlier made it necessary to act very, very quickly.

Born in my hands, died in my arms

For Mara there was only this decision and still it makes me very sad that this great dog personality had to leave under these circumstances!

How nice that Frieda was there and was able to learn a lot from her in the short time together with Mara ...