Captain Jack is the sweet boy that started my relationship with the wonderful BMD.  I had been wanting a Berner for a very long time and stumbled across Jack's breeder while online researching the breed.  She had a nice well optamized website with beautiful pictures of her dogs and claimed to do health clearances.  As luck would have it, one of her girls just had a litter.  I promptly contacted her and put my deposit down on the boy who's cuteness got the better of my senses as I had a somewhat uneasy feeling about her breeding practices.  I do not regret my decision because I love Jack and he has taught me so much, but he does come from a poorly bred line of dogs.  Shortly after bringing him home I started researching his pedigree and came across a blog referencing his great grandfather as one of the top producers of puppy mill dogs.  This broke my heart as I despise puppy mills.  I continued to visit his breeder's website periodically to see what she was up to and found that she was selling all of her Berners and wasn't going to breed anymore.  While I was happy she stopped breeding I became concerned about where she was placing all of the dogs and if they would be bred.  Sure enough Jack's father was sold to a breeder and he sired another litter without health clearances. Thanks to bernergarde, I found out that he was then placed in a home where he was tested and diagnosed with both hip and elbow dysplasia.   

It is my mission to do all that I can to help improve these magnificent dogs as well as educate as many people as I can about puppy mills, backyard breeders, the importance of health clearances and conformation evaluation.   

Thank you Jack for all that you have taught me and for tolerating the pups :)