New litter of puppies arrived June 8, 2024
PHONE: 250 494-4092
EMAIL: Shelly
Updated photos of our wonderful June 8th litter.
They are getting their first vaccines and deworming on August 2nd and after that they will be ready for their new homes.
We still have one fawn male, 3 fawn females and one two tone female available. Asking $1500.00 obo. Also, we are making a trip to the lower mainland the week of August 5 – 9 so we could bring your puppy at least that far or even meet you at the ferry.
PHONE: 250 494-4092
EMAIL: Shelly
NOTE: Photos of the more mature pups below are from a past litters.
About us and our Bouviers
- Big Top Bouviers is a small family/farm kennel where we have Bouvier dogs as our pets. Our dogs provide us with companionship and are protectors for our livestock in our rural setting. Bouviers are well known to fill these roles beautifully! They can go from keeping large and small predators from our farm to happily walking on a leash down the streets in town meeting other people and pets along the way.
- We take the breeding of our dogs very seriously, they are our family pets! We only breed healthy dogs that great examples of this magnificent breed. Our girl is only bred once per year and only if she is in excellent health. We only wish to have healthy puppies to place who are healthy and sound.
- The well-being of our dogs is always our top priority and as such we always pay attention to their health, housing, diet, exercise, training, play and affection.
- Socializing puppies is essential to their success with their new families. Our puppies are exposed to their parents and litter-mates, to adult and young humans, other animals on the farm (horses and cats). The first few weeks are a special time as they are born and stay in our living room until they are at least a couple of weeks old – puppy cuddle time!
- When you get your new puppy, you, the new owner also takes over all responsibility that goes with being a conscientious dog owner. We hope that you have familiarized yourself of the characteristics that make up this amazing breed and that you will take the best of care of your new family member.
- We have many years of experience raising and handling these dogs and we will be happy to help with any questions or concerns about your puppy.
Welcome to the farm!
On a farm we spend most of our waking hours outside and as such our dogs live outside year round so they can spend their days with us. The dogs that live on our farm are outside nearly all the time we leave their coats natural, we bed their doghouses with deep fresh hay, a great insulator to help keep them warm and comfortable in the winter. If the winters are especially cold our dogs to come into our house for part of the time, but we find with their thick, plush, double coats they are most comfortable outside. In the springtime we clip them right down to give their coats a fresh start for the very warm summers we experience in the Okanagan.
Most people, though, are not on farms and like to keep their Bouviers clipped so the dog can live inside with their families. This works very very well as once they are clipped Bouviers hardly shed at all – a nice feature!
About OUR dogs
We have had Bouviers as part of our family and farm for well over 20 years. In the beginning when we had a young family these dogs were only for family companionship, which they fulfilled the role perfectly! Calm and patient with children (when properly socialized), and big enough to be around kids. Our early Bouvs LOVED the kids and their friends!
As we developed our farm into a working horse breeding operation, the work of the Bouviers changed slightly to be guardians of our farm as well as our companion/pets. This has been an positive and happy transition for all.
We have had many Bouviers throughout the years. Our main male dog was Salty, he lived on our farm his whole life and was a joy to have around. We sadly said our last good-bye to him when he crossed the rainbow bridge at the age of 13.
My son has the big black male dog Buddy – at 101 pounds do not let his size intimidate you! Buddy truly is a gentle giant – he is just such a treat to have around. He is so big that when he walks beside me I can rest my hand on his head very easily! Buddy lives with my adult son down the road on another farm.
My adult daughter’s dog Mocha – and what a LOVELY dog she is. Mocha has retired from breeding now and has become a town dog – living with her human and loving it.
Mocha belongs to my daughter, Danielle – Danielle is a professional dog groomer in Kelowna, BC – check out her business here: Furget Me Knots
It may look like we keep our dogs in fancy condition, but more often they are out and about on our farms or going hiking, camping and to the lake, all of which they do love.
Our current female is Olive – she is also shown at the top of the page above with her puppies:
Our current male is Martini, (aka Marty). Marty is a very happy and very smart young dog!
Olive and Martini currently has had a litter of puppies, born June 8, 2024 – they will be ready for their new homes late July, early August, please contact us for more information Shelly or 250 494-4092.
FAQ
We often get asked a few questions about Bouviers – first of all, “Are they hypoallergenic?”. Well, to answer that, we don’t really know… Hypoallergenic, by definition, means “having little likelihood of having an allergic response”. You may have noticed that our main webpage features hypoallergenic Curly horses – so we DO know about folks with horse allergies, but our family has never had allergies to dogs so we can’t speak about this first hand. What we do know is that many curly coated animals tend to be hypoallergenic, so when people tell us that Bouviers are hypoallergenic for them, we are not surprised! We think the idea of clipping the dogs to minimize shedding may also play a part in causing less reactions for those who might be sensitive to dogs.
“Are Bouviers ‘family’ dogs?” we would answer a resounding yes! to that question. Bouviers are historically a ‘guardian’ dog – so a dog that will work independently to care for a flock. As such, they bond with the flock and take care of it. We have found that these dogs tend to treat their families like their flock and want to stay right with them at all times. This is another very nice feature as it tends to make the dogs want to naturally stay home with their people – so a LOT less wandering than some breeds!
“Will my puppy have a docked tail and cropped ears?” No, the puppies no longer get their tails docked nor their ears cropped. As you will see from the CKC breed standard below, the CKC did require them to have the tails docked – ears were optional. But, times are changing! The College of Veterinarians in both BC and Alberta have now disallowed their members to do this cosmetic surgery on dogs. Since we have never done it ourselves, we are somewhat relieved that we no longer have to get the vets to do it for us. Welcome to the new, gentler world of Bouviers!
Additional Breed Information
Here is a link to the CKC breed standards for Bouviers:
https://www.ckc.ca/CanadianKennelClub/media/Breed-Standards/Group%207/Bouvier-des-Flandres.pdf
Here is a link to the AKC information page: