Menges' Canaans


	Kanaan Hunde / Canaan Dogs Kelev Knaani

I learned of the Canaans towards the end of the eighties. At the time I was working as an accredited correspondent in the GDR for the journal DIE ZEIT. During this time, I interviewed an old lady who travelled the world after her emigration (from Germany) to England, and at the end of her life she returned to East-Berlin, where her sister and her family were living. The old lady had brought a Canaan bitch back with her to the GDR. She, her dog and I, became friends and when the old lady had to go to the hospital, where she died a few months, she gave me the bitch, Menora, who was 12 years old at the time. She asked me to let the breeder know that Menora was living with me now. This was my first contact with Myrna Shiboleth, owner of the kennels Shaar Hagai and the highest authority on Canaans as a breed. The ancestors of most of the Canaan dogs living in Europe are from her kennel.




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		It began with Menora ~ she was the first Canaan dog in the GDR and with me.

I was impressed by the old bitch. She was full of dignity and distanced kindness; because of this even my Eurasian bitch accepted her immediately. She lived with us for a long while and died the way I can only wish for every dog to die, and for every owner of a dog: in the afternoon I had taken the dogs out for a walk, later on I had an appointment, and when I came back home, Menora did not welcome me at the door – she was laying on her bed, peacefully passed away.

I wanted a Canaan dog again, this time a puppy. I asked Myrna Shiboleth and when the bitch her daughter owned had puppies, I left for Israel to get Shira Me Shaar Hagai. Some months later my son David and I were getting the male dog Velikayas Aaron from Isabella Zirri in Italy. Now David had a male dog and we planed to breed. But we had made our plan without consulting the Canaans. They had their own ideas. Maybe the bitch knew the dog from their time as puppies and therefore could not accept him; anyhow, she would not let him come close to her. We tried it year after year, without success.

Shira was my first own Canaan dog.

Aaron, called Einstein, was the Canaan dog of my son David. Antonia wrote about him: ”He was six years old when I was born. Einstein was immediately friendly toward and accepting of me. When I was six years old, Einstein unfortunately died. I think of him till this day.”

Only in 1998 – Shira was six years old in the meantime and we had abandoned all hope – did she have puppies. Only two. The male dog is living with the family of a good friend in Berlin, the bitch, Alisha, is living with me.

Shira died in June 2003, when she was 12 years old. She was a real dog-personality and I was closely connected with her. I am thankful fort the twelve years in which she was an important part of my life. It makes me happy that she lives on through her daughter, Alisha, and her granddaughter, Batya.


	Shira with her puppies, Amos and Alisha ~ Alisha stayed with me.

		Amos


	Shira, Aaron and Alisha

Together with my beloved dogs in the rain.

Mose with Alisha and Shira


	On 28.05.2002 Alisha had a litter of four beautiful puppies. Three of them left for their new pack, Batya stayed with me.


	Photos of Batya as a puppy ~ with her mother Alisha and her grandmother Oma Shira.

Baschan, called Janus, is living in Stolzenhagen, near Berlin.

www.baschan-ben-noach.de

Bathseba is living in Hamburg.

www.canaan-bathseba.de

Bilha, is living in Berlin, very near to Batya.


	Uncle Moses ~ died in June 2009, the Collie-mix and a Canaan honoris causa.

DVORA – in the pedigree she is called Faiza Star of Work – was born in August 2009 in Switzerland to the breeder Marlise Germanier. Dvora, meaning “bee,” is called as such due to her honey-like coloring - crème colored with white. She is Alisha’s granddaughter and Batya’s niece – Batya, who unfortunately wasn’t ready to have puppies with the beautiful Pauli.

Janus, from Mr. and Mrs. Taube, is her father. He is the brother of Batya, Bathseba and Bilha. in the family tree Baschan Ben Noach. Therefore Dvora belongs to that family, although in a more distant relation, than if she were Batya’s daughter, who is already too old to whelp. It was a wonderful chance for me to adopt Dvora into our pack. Her mother comes from Marlise Germanier’s kennel, with further ancestors coming from England, Israel Italy.

Marlise Germanier exposes her whelps to a very social environment, which is why Dvora is very confident and entirely lacking in shyness. Especially on our walks she is interested in any and every one and thing. Nira Sorenson-Rosenberg, and Israeli dog trainer and our friend, is helping me train Dvora.

Dvora is a very spirited dog, which sometimes annoys Alisha and Batya. Alisha defends her vigorously and devotedly, raising her very strictly. Because of this, Dvora has more respect for her than for the somewhat younger Batya, who sometimes plays with her and only bares her teeth against her when she isn’t in the mood.


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