Gizmo was with me in the office daily - she brought sunshine to the one or other cloudy working day. In summer 2000 my junior boss all of a sudden told me to crate Gizmo when clients come to the office. I would not do that - so she stayed at home joining the Briards, but I missed this little sunshine very much during office times.

Something fascinating in this small breed is, that they have a heart like a lion (well, it's a Terrier). But we should never forget to think about a fact when these tiny dogs meet huge breeds: to watch the signals of the big ones. If not doing this a tragedy can turn up very fast, especially if it is a dog like Gizmo, being allowed to live the life of a dog and not being banned to be a lap-dog.

On May 18th, 1999, the E-litter was born, a repeat breeding to the C's, which means Samson and Yazoo being the parents. Some of these puppies have also made a trip over the big pond to get to own their new families: El Ninjo Noir and Escada Noire were living with a couple in New Hamshire/USA; the two Briards of them had died within 48 hours (the girl with epilepsy and the boy - as it seems - died with a broken heart). Ecoute-moi chez Bailywick and Ecstasy Noir were each with Briard breeders in Pennsylvania/USA and Elysée Noire made the trio in Canada to be complete. Esprit stepped into the paw prints of Chivas Regal and lived in Carinthia/Austria with a vet, Einstein went to join Arwa B and Batida de Coco, and Excuse-moi Whoopy stayed here in the gang.

With these two dogs the founders of the kennel de la Maison du Garde-Barrière were gone, an episode has ended. Only memories of a most wonderful time remain, and lots of pain. We are grateful that we were given the chance to be owned by these two ...... but the time with them was way too short.

And only some time later, on March 7th, 2001, I had to lead another senior to the last journey: Remo, the Persian, was from one day to the other paralysed in his hind legs and died at the age of 13 years in my arms. He had been attached very much to Sándor and on the day when that boy died he moved to another floor in this house - it seemed as if he retired and prepared himself for his own farewell.

In November 2000 we heard incidentally about a grey (born black) adult female that should be placed. We took the chance immediately since a grey Briard was a long desired wish. On December 10th, 2000, Sél. Oh-Lala des Monts d'en Crauzille entered our lifes. She was selected in France and has had two litters with her former owner. She was a happy and funny dog, and besides that a most interesting addition to this kennel.

On December 24th, 2000, another litter was born: the F-litter. Sire was Ch. Sél. NESCAFE des Pierrailles (grey, born black), dam Yazoo. It was 6 males and 2 females. Out of this litter one boy went to Germany, one to Switzerland, one to Italy and a girl also to Germany. One of the boys, FRIZZANTE FURIOSO GRIS stayed here.

A special event of this kennel: On October 24th, 2001 the NEW member of the Austrian-French-Connection moved to this home. Finally - after 10 years of owning only black and grey Briards - a twany puppy arrived: ALOA ZABOU du Noble Nid from Belgium. She was meant to be the new enrichment for the kennel de la Maison du Garde-Barrière and the Austrian Briard breeding.

On April 8, 2002, the G litter de la Maison du Garde-Barrière was born. The parents of these puppies were Sél. JOLLY JUMPER GRIS des Monts d'en Crauzille (grey, born black) and OH-LALA. This litter was - according to the genders - what lots of breeders wish to have: 1 boy and 5 girls (1/4 black, 0/1 tawny). From the black born one girl has turned to be grey.

Another cat entered our lives on July 3, 2004: Tarzan a Persian. He had been crated all day long in his home and we felt sorry for him. We offered to take this three years young boy and keep him if things went fine with our dogs ...... and of course our dogs loved the new family addition. Even though having been without cat for some years, they accepted Tarzan immediately.

Unfortunately Tarzan decided to attack our hairless dogs, though much later than they had come here. We had to make a decision for the sake of our dogs and found a nice home for the tom cat. As long as we have hairless dogs no other cat will come to this home, we are too scared about serious injuries.

Another big loss was the unexpected death of Samson - this boy had never been sick in all his life. On Feb. 28, 2005, he turned to be 9 years old, on March 15, 2005, he died on the way to the vet - he had a stroke. We always had thought that this boy will live "forever" and all of a sudden we fell into a big hole ...... missing a wonderful friend and a wonderful stud.

14 months we have enhanced this good soul his eve of his life with lots of love, after he had been torn out of a full and marvelous life at his owners at the age of 11 years. He passed away on July 1, 2006.

We hope that we were a good substitute for you, dear Apollo, for the beloved people, for which you had been the focal point of their lives 11 years long.

The last litter of kennel de la Maison du Garde-Barrière was born on July 12, 2006: the K litter out of Zabou and the French stud Ch. Talismanik de la Chaume du Bois Dieu. We had 2 males and 6 girls, unfortunately 2 girls died in the first week - a new experience for us, we had never lost puppies in any of our litters.

Our new kennel name Caipirinha's was registered at FCI in 2006, mainly because the Austrian Kennel Club made a limitation of letters for the registered names, and we could not any longer continue with our favorite names having this long kennel name de la Maison du Garde-Barrière. This name is still registered but we will not continue with it.

This is the history of our breeding under de la Maison du Garde-Barrière. The continuing breeding is found in the homepage, same with the dogs that are here and the ones that we lost since Samson passed.

We called our former kennel also the Austrian-French Connection ...... Where the best of the past is bred to the excellence of the present. Of course we strive to continue this way.