CH Newcastle's Shalimar V Bev's

Shali was entrusted to me by a wonderful and experienced breeder named Patty Smith. Shali was my very first show Berner and she easily finished her AKC championship. She was of extremely lovely breed type and temperament and always enjoyed overall great health.

Shalimar was bred once and whelped her only litter in March 2002. This was Shali's only litter. Shali is pictured at left at about 50 days into pregnancy (March 17, 2002).

I considered most of Shalimar's strengths to be her superb temperament, her excellent health, her established AKC champion's conformation to breed standard and her quality lineage.

Shalimar lived me from the time she was 10 weeks old until she passed over the rainbow bridge at just over age 5 years.

She never needed socialization - she was always a dog easily welcomed into any society. Shali was an indoor-outdoor dog who usually slept on the floor next to my bed (only because she considered my bed 'too hot' for her to sleep on).

My lovely girl was always easy to train, never went through any noticeable chewing phase, was extremely sensitive to vocal commands and got along very well with strange people and dogs. She passed these great traits on to her progeny.

However, like her mother, Shali did exhibit a dominant female attitude over other female dogs that are a part of our family. Yet she was a very benevolent ruler.

There's a great story from Fall, 2001. Shali had been away with handlers winning her AKC Conformation Championship. Shortly before she got back home, a long-time dream came true for me. I found an available Leo puppy from two kennel lineages I really wanted. So when Shali got home, there was a new Leo pup in residence. Although she's known to be a dominant female, Shali took the new pup in stride.

The first time I trusted Shali outdoors alone with the pup, I watched closely from an inside window to monitor their bonding. Shali's first duty was to teach the new pup how to dig a good hole in the backyard. When the pup would try to get involved in the digging, Shali would gently nudge her to the side until the pup got the clue that she was only supposed to watch. When Shali was finished, she lay down to show what the hole was for. Then she got up and the pup took her turn laying in the hole. To this day I wish I had on camera that pup's sweet face looking back at Shali as if to say, "Gee Mom, you dig great holes! This is cool!"

Here's another example of her temperament. We brought a Tibetan Mastiff puppy into our family when Shali was mid-term in this pregnancy (early March 2002). At first, she looked at me as if I had gone insane - WHAT THE HECK IS THIS? ANOTHER FRIGGIN PUPPY?

Like she did with our now 8 month old Leo pup, Penny, Shalimar took instantly to mothering the new TM pup. Unless pregnant, Shali respects other dog's food (while they're eating it). But NOBODY messes with HER food! Our TM puppy often tried to share Shali's food in the spirit of companionship and interest. Shali always moved away and let him have the entire bowl. Then she turned those big soft brown eyes up toward me and silently pleaded for my intervention. Since Shali was such a chow hound, this was pretty good indicator of how sweet her overall temperament was.

As the years rolled by, Shali was always consistent in her easy acceptance of visitors and other family additions. And she was always extremely confident in any situation. Shalimar was a true representative of the better aspects of the Bernese Mountain Dog Breed.

Thank you, Patty, for blessing us - for blessing ME - with this lovely lady, Shalimar.

The best of friends,

the most loving of companions

Shalimar will always be greatly missed.