About Me
Hi I'm Patti Neelans and I'd like to welcome you to Avalon Rottweilers!
I was born with a love for animals. I had so many critters as a kid, that I drove my parent’s crazy! My parent’s used to say that I had a “way” with animals. When I was about 5 yo, I would walk home from school and invariably be followed by at least one dog. Finally around the time I was 6yo my parent’s got my younger brother and I each a dog. They were to Dachshund mixes and we named them Dutchess and Princess. Dutchess was mine. Over time I taught her to run obstacle courses (this was LONG before agility), do some obedience and she and Princess pulled us around in our little red wagon. I did this for the fun of it and because I loved spending time with my dogs. They both lived to be into their teens. I later had a miniature poodle I named Gizmo that I had hand raised from about a day old. He was brought in to a vet clinic that I worked at. He was a total ball freak and everybody loved him. He was my first introduction to "drive".
I can’t remember exactly when I became enamored with the Rottweiler, but I was probably in my early twenties. I was always attracted to the blocky headed breeds, but was particularly drawn to the Rottie and knew that I would have one some day. In 1991 my mother was killed tragically and I was living on my own trying to cope. I was in my 4th term of Chiropractic school at the time. I decided that I needed to get a dog again and that it was time to get a Rottweiler. I soon brought home my beloved Isis. She and I bonded at a micro level. I soon discovered that she had EXTREMELY high drive. I had wanted to do Schutzhund with her, but due to some mistakes I made there was always a question about who was more alpha, me, or her. So I never took up the sport. Instead we got into agility. She was one of the first rottweilers to compete in the sport and was actually beating border collies! She was absolutely amazing to watch! Tragically in 1998 when she was about 6 yo she was struck with a Fibrocartilagenous Emboli (aka spinal stroke). She lost the use of both rear legs and was a paraplegic. She didn’t give up, and neither did I. Thru Chiropractic, acupuncture, and physical therapy she eventually regained some use of her rear legs, but still had to use a wheelchair to be fully mobile. Her agility career was over. Luckily in 1999 I had the opportunity to get a puppy out of Isis’ half sister and whose sire was the great Hark Vom Hause Anin. I brought Chynna home. Isis passed in 2000 from cancer. I was devastated, and miss her every day.
Chynna followed in Isis’ footsteps and has been competing in agility for years. Unfortunately she does not have Isis’ drive, but is a lot easier to work with! Around 2003 I started to toy with the idea of breeding a litter from Chynna to see if I could produce a dog with the drive Isis had. I started looking for a potential stud. Not an easy task for a novice like myself. By chance I happened to be trialing at an agility trial and saw a young male rottie that took my breath away. He was beautiful and had awesome drive! I introduced myself to his owner Tammy and a friendship was born. She was training Tango to compete in agility. I was smitten. And decided that I wanted a boy just like Tango! A breeding was planned for 2004. In June of that year my first litter was born. Avalon Rottweilers was born that day as well. There were 6 males and 3 females. Unfortunately I lost 4 of my males. I fell in love with one of the girls, and even though I wanted a boy decided to keep her. I am so glad I did. Her name is Rogue and she is my princess! I still wanted my boy so I decided to do a back to back repeat breeding due to Chynna’s age and the fact I wanted to get her back into competition. In January of 2005 my second litter was born. 4 boys, 3 girls and they all survived. Out of that litter I got my handsome boy Blade.
I still consider myself a novice breeder and I learn something new every day. I pride myself in producing wonderful temperaments in my dogs. I am striving to get more drive into my dogs with the hopes that some day I will be known for producing good working dogs. My emphasis is on working titles for all of my dogs. I prefer, and plan to continue breeding a smaller, working sized dog. I am picky about structure and strive to keep that strong in my lines. My dogs are not perfect (no dog is) and I will gladly discuss my dogs shortcomings as well as my dogs strengths. You will always know what you are getting, the good and the bad. I health screen all of the dogs I breed. I make myself available to all of my puppy buyers (and even those who don’t buy my puppies) for questions. If I can’t answer a question I will try to find the answer for you. First and foremost I want the animals I produce to go to homes where they will have the ability to become the best that they can be. I am striving to put the rottweiler breed back on the “good” list.