Big Country Kennels has proudly been breeding Bernese Mountain Dogs and Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs since 2005.
Big Country Kennel was originally located in rural Niagara just outside the wine bench of Niagara. The country property boasted 20 acres of land with a beautiful red brick home and large pond. In the past 10 years we have proudly seen many litters born and raised in our kennel, and gone to excellent homes across Canada, and are happy to share these successes on our facebook page — www.facebook.com/BigcountryKennel. To get updates on our breeding program or to follow-up with families that have purchased a Big Country Kennel puppy we invite you to “LIKE” us on Facebook.
As our involvement in breeding and raising dogs led to more in-depth study and research regarding nutrition, growth and development of puppies and long-term health of mature adult dogs, we desired to offer a quality all natural diet to our puppy families. This naturally grew into our current business Big Country Raw — www.bigcountryraw.ca. We now proudly distribute our food through over 750+ retailers, across Canada, coast to coast. We also offer online home delivery to most of Southern Ontario, Ottawa and even Montreal.
With the growing demands of a new business and a growing family as well — We (Geraldine and Rob)are the proud parents of six children ages 19 – 2 years — we asked our sisters Margarita Sterk and Jocelyn Nyenhuis to continue on the business of Big Country Kennels. We do however home BigCountry’s Lewis who is greatly adored by our children.
Big Country Raw still continues to support Big Country Kennels by supplying a premium quality raw diet to each breeding male and female. Big Country Kennel puppies are also weaned and raised onto Big Country Raw!
Meet Margarita
As a young girl Margarita always had a love for animals. Horses and dogs found a very special place in her heart and when she was 15 years old she began breeding dogs. Since then Margarita also discovered a love for babies and all things medical. She has a full time career as a RPN in the maternity ward at our local hospital. With her years of breeding and her knowledge of labour and delivery, it has been a great asset to our breeding program. She is a wife and mom to a beautiful blended family of 4 children. They live in St. Anns Ontario, on a 3 acre hobby farm in a beautiful red brick Victoria styled home.
Meet Jocelyn
Jocelyn has always loved dogs and has never known life without a dog as center of her family home. When offered the opportunity to foster a GSMD for Big Country Kennels, she easily accepted. Jocelyn was surprised when she discovered how much she adored the breed and from there she has loved three of our breeding males and females, (Pandora Sierra and Sam). She is currently raising our newest male sire Goose.
She is also a wife and mom to her sons, Colton and Jaxon. They are located in the heart of farm country, on a 6 acre wooded property in Dunnville, Ontario.
Not only does Jocelyn help run Big Country Kennels, she also works full time for our sister company Big Country Raw. She has been working there for 10 years so her knowledge on health and nutrition for our dogs and our puppy families, is a large asset to the kennel.
Margarita and Jocelyn are still committed to producing quality puppies with excellent health, temperament and conformation. We have moved the kennel to our home locations to whelp and raise our litters there. We also work with each of our breeding males and females that live within our foster families. We truly are and will be forever grateful to both Geraldine and Rob for allowing us to continue on with the Big Country Kennels legacy.
All our breeding male and female dogs are placed in the incredible homes of our foster families. We believe this gives all our dogs the proper socialization, love and family life they so deserve. All our foster families are either friends or relatives and we have a close relationship with each of them. If you are interested in knowing more about our foster program please contact us directly.
We only breed dogs with full health clearances, including Hip and Elbow x-rays (OFA or OVC), as well as Board Certified Cardiac Exams (OFA). We will always strive to breed dogs that will provide the best results in the show ring, but most importantly as loving family companions.
We are further committed to offering our support to all our Big Country puppy owners for the lifetime they own their dog. All our puppies are sold with registration to the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC). They also come microchipped with CANADACHIP, first vaccines, dewormed, and one year health guarentee.
To inquire about the availability of current or upcoming litters or if you have any questions about our kennel, please feel free to contact us.
Big Country Kennels 