Showsight - October 2021

DAN NECHEMIAS & LOIS CLAUS DAWA TIBETAN MASTIFFS

BREEDER INTERVIEW BY ALLAN REZNIK

Where did each of you grow up? Lois grew up in Bedford, New York, and Dan in Cincinnati, Ohio. Do you come from doggy families? If not how did the interest in breeding and showing purebred dogs begin? Neither of us came from families that were involved in dogs. Dan’s family had a cockapoo, but Lois had a Golden Retriever that came down from Cum- mings Gold-Rush Charlie, and a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. We are not sure there was a specific epiphany, but the combination of visiting an influential breeding kennel to purchase our first Tibetan Mastiff, “Maya,” and then taking Maya to a National Specialty developed a strong desire to participate in the preservation of this ancient breed. We researched the breed and breeders for a year before acquiring Maya and it would be almost five years before we successfully bred our first litter. Who were your mentors in the sport? Please elaborate on their influence. We tend to be “gatherers,” so we were always trying to acquire tidbits from anyone we could in the early days. From a breed history and type perspective, Richard Eichhorn of Drakyi Tibetan Mastiffs was very influential. There were several other breeders we drew from as well, as we felt it was important to have a diversity of perspectives. There is very little consensus as to what makes a his- torically correct Tibetan Mastiff. We befriended and visited breeders in Europe and China as well. We just wanted to see as many dogs and puppies as possible.

42 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 2021

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