Our Spinone puppies
We’re Dan and Dana Graff, a pediatrician/nurse married couple, based in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, about 22 miles west of Pittsburgh. We’ve been breeding Spinone puppies for 18 years. The modern Spinone breed has ancestral roots in Italian hunting dogs who were skilled pointers in both mountainous and marshland terrain. They are sweet and gentle and make wonderful family companions as well as hunting dogs. They’re great in any outdoor activity and generally quiet and independent when indoors. Our kennel has earned the reputation of delivering puppies with excellent temperaments who have both versatile hunt and show potential. Our family dogs are hunted and shown every year. We are an AKC Breeder of Merit.
Our Versatile and Show Champion Pearl and Baby James (future Westminster Best of Breed winner/Grand Champion)
Our Newest Litter
This year’s litter at 2 weeks old, our 16th and Jinjy’s first. She is CH Sweetbriar’s Moonstone with dad being CH Epithelium Pirandello @ Stella del Nord. You can read more about them on the New Puppies page.
Our Breeding Program started in 2002
We were fortunate to start with “Gracie”-Ch Osage Atalanta Graciella JH from Sue and Jeff Rhodes in Ohio. Gracie was a successful show girl and hunter in her youth. She was also a very fertile breeder who produced 47 pups in four litters. She received the Spinone Club of America’s Award of Recognition at the National Breed Meeting in 2015. Her offspring included a NAVHDA Versatile Champion who was also a VHDF top scorer, a Grand AKC Champion who won at Westminster and many fine hunting, show and therapy dogs. A grandson received the first “nose work” title in our breed. She was quiet power through and through and had become a great-great-grandmother before she passed away at age 16.
We are committed to supporting the breed in America
The Spinone breed was devastated by World War II as the fighting swept through many important Italian breeding kennels and hunting areas. Many animals died in direct use by the various forces. The remaining Spinoni, relatively few, were often mated to parents, offspring, cousins and later to other breeds to keep the breed going, sometimes by breed fanciers but often by those with little concern for quality breeding. Reconstruction eventually came, but with it many difficult genetic and functional challenges had to be met.
We have tried to carefully uphold the goal of strengthening this overall, now somewhat less fragile, breeding program, selecting our mated dogs genetically, physically, temperamentally and by their hunting functions. In that regard, we both have served as Spinone Club Breed Educators to AKC show judges. Dana has judged puppies impressively at a Spinone Club National meeting. Dan has served on the Spinone Club of America (SCOA) Board and Health Committee. He founded the Volunteerism Committee and was a breed column writer for the AKC Gazette.
Pearl, Our NAVHDA Versatile Champion
Enjoy this video of VC Ch Sweetbriar’s Cultured Pearl in training for the invitational with Ed Erickson at Autumn Breeze Kennel in 2012. Ed helped Dan’s Prize 1 NA and Utility/Show dog to become a NAVHDA Versatile Champion and top-scoring VHDF awardee. She is now in the Gun Dog Hall of Fame, National Bird Dog Museum in Grand Junction, Tennessee.