My family has just joined the ranks of proud BMD owners. We picked up our 8 week old puppy last Friday and have been spending all of our time getting to know him. My name in Jonathan and our dog is Coal (or as my 18 year old son says - a filthy, polluting, non-renewable resource). Coal's father was Diesel so we thought we might as well keep the tradition alive!

Our family consists of a 16 yo daughter, an 18 yo son, my wife, myself, and our 8 week old male baby dog. This is our first puppy and first Berner as a family and boy are we learning a lot. We are fortunate to have a good vet and lots of dog loving and puppy raising experienced friends.

This is our 3rd dog as a family. Our previous dogs were mutts although I suspect that our last dog has some Bernese in him because of his manners and character, his size, and color of his coat. When we decided as a family we were ready for another dog and had decided on a puppy this time, we quickly fell in love with the BMD. In fact, both my wife and I have family heritage from the Berne Canton in Switzerland and believe it or not my wife is from Berne Indiana. Given the size, temperment, and history, there was little question that this would be a breed for us.

We are all looking forward to the joys and challenges of puppy raising. I look forward to training and possibly showing or draft training with Coal.

I wonder if there are other members here from Northern Indiana (we live in Goshen)? Also would members know which regional club (BMDCA) we would be best associated with?

Thanks in advance for all your responses.

Jonathan