Terra Incognita Lagotto Romagnolo About Us

Our Farm:

Sandra Schmidt

Sandra lives in the US for half of the year, the rest she spents in
Europe showing dogs. Right now half of our dogs are with her in
Italy, the other half is here on the farm.

Sandra is showing and handling Lagotti (and other breeds)
professionally in Europe for over 15 years.

She is a dog groomer and trainer and owned her own business
for years before focusing on mainly showing dogs. She is the one
responsible for keeping our Lagotti looking like Lagotti...

Due to her reputation as a handler/breeder we were able to aquire
several very nice dogs to begin our breeding program with. With
those dogs we have been campaigning in multiple countries
almost every weekend for the last two years. We have been very
successful and enjoyed it very much.

Jacki Barbieri

Jacki has been heavily involved in dogs since she was a child.
She is an animal behaviorist, trainer, and worked as a
veterinarian technician for 10 years as a surgical technician.
Jacki is handling and training dogs since she was eight years old
and is breeding for over ten years. She also is visiting Europe for
dog shows about three times a year on average for the last five
years.

A big passion of her is animal rescue and her greatest pride is
that she has rescued as many dogs as she has bred. Jacki is
actively involved with rescue and greatly driven to give back to
the animal community. She believes it is an ethical responsibility
for anyone who is reproducing dogs to do everything they can to
provide for needy animals.
On average we have five to ten animals available for adoption
here on the farm. Often they are sick, injured or behaviorally
challenged. It is a great blessing to be able to do this for animals
that need love, and our valueless by societies standards. All life
has value even if its only valuable to itself.

Jacki is very lucky to have a wonderful husband and two great
children who support and help her with all of her endeavors.

Our kennel is located in the southwest part of Missouri on a 53 acre
farm with about six ponds and lots of beautiful woods to wander
through.
We have 5 acres fenced around the house with a doggie door that the
dogs can go in and out of. We also have about 6 acres fenced in 8 foot
chain link separated into 3 large runs which has its own pond and is
beautifully filled with trees. It attaches to a large out building with 10 x
10 indoor heated and cooled runs.
Our dogs are an active part of our daily life and all of the dogs have
access to the house unless we are gone at a show.

Beside the breeding dogs we also own several rescued dogs, horses,
cats, chicken and other critters.

The Team behind Terra Incognita:

We are very blessed to have many dogs with a 3 generation genotype to go back on.
When we breed a litter, we have a personal knowledge of the genetic and behavioral
background.
We have had the luxury of meeting several generations of parents and siblings of the
dogs in our program and also have many dogs in our program that produced dogs to
adulthood. This is a very, very important thing. No matter how good a pedigree looks or
how good the testing is. You have no idea what problems or positives a dog will produce
until you have seen offspring that have reached the two year mark. It takes three
generations (if your lucky) of solid breeding to have any idea what the genetics of a
bloodline hold. If you don’t have that, putting two dogs together is simply a crap shoot.
Phenotype (physical appearance of a dog) and the testings of a parent dog has nothing
to do with the health or the quality of the puppies it will produce. In other words if the
siblings of the parent had health problems, the parent with perfect health will more than
likely reproduce the problem.
So in our program we focus very heavily to have a deep understanding of the dogs we
use. We are breeding to maintain the health and temperament of the breed as well as we
maintain a strict dedication to the FCI breed standard, in hoped to keep intact all the
things that make this breed so unique.

Our Breeding Program:

So Called Brokering…..

Although many Lagotto breeders are against it in the States, we have no problem with it.

So what is it exactly this terrible service we offer?: If we don’t have it, we will find it for
you!

Although there are only about 70 Lagotti registered with the AKC, and they are very rare
in the US, there are usually 2 or 3 litters within a few hours drive for Sandra while she is
in Italy. If we find a suitable breeding from an ethical breeder with healthy, typical parents
and a solid genotype, we will help you purchase a puppy, arrange the shipping and sell it
with a contract, so we assume liability for the health and temperament of the dog.

We have helped many people acquire puppies this way and have multiple references of
clients who have had great success. We receive about 20 to 50 emails a day and multiple
phone calls. We have talked with people who have been on a waiting list for 2 years for a
puppy only to learn once again nothing was available for them. These are often the best
families you could imagine, waiting patiently. I see no reason why not to help them. We
have the knowledge, we have the access, and we have the willingness. So until people
can adopt puppies without such a lengthy wait we will continue to offer our help in any
way we can, to all suitable families. We hope one day to find the Lagotto in every state
available to all who want to love and care for them.

We are very dedicated to the breed, our dogs and our family’s and we are available 24
hours a day to help you. We have many wonderful families that we have been in touch
with for a decade, watching there children grow and there pets age. We hope if you
choose to use us as your breeder, that you too will allow us to be a part of your life.

Sandra & Jacki

Yours,

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