Skeleton Crew K9

Honorable purveyors and trainers of noble and proven work lines German Shepherds.

We are currently not involved with breeding or training.

Puppies! A repeat breeding of Tusk and Freya happened late January of 2021. 
The "Mischief Managed" litter was born March 25, 2021.  All pups have been placed at this time.
 
The "Star Wars" theme litter pups from the first breeding were born December 17, 2019. 
We have no plans for future breeding at this time.

We are unique, just like everyone else.

The Skeleton Crew Story

We could tell you what year this all started, but we can't remember.  We could bore you with the history, but you wouldn't read it.  What we can tell you is that this is the true story of  a quest to find more people who are our kind of crazy and match them with their own noble, bone-chewing, toy chasing, people rescuing, bad guy catching and endlessly loyal creatures we simply call German Shepherd.

Human Bone Detection

This smelly subject is not for the faint of heart.  A most basic of K9 skills is nosework.  We are training our German Shepherds to locate the specific scent associated with human bone remains.  

Skeleton Crew Puppies

Our current litter arrived on March 25, 2021.
Four males and two females. 
 These puppies were welcomed into the world with much rejoicing, plenty of adoration and
a main street parade. All puppies have been placed.  
Our "Star Wars" litter arrived December 17, 2019. 



Our puppies NIED program

No bones about it!  We breed our dogs on purpose, with a purpose and for a purpose.  The NIED (Native Intellegence Enhancement and Development) program allows our puppies the best chance to become partners to humans in real world capacities.  The litter is raised here at our Happy Place until 8 weeks of age under an active mentally and physically expanding learning environment.   At 8-10 weeks the puppies are evaluated. Once this evaluation is done, the puppies can be matched with their potential life path with a far greater chance of success.  Feel it in your bones?  Think you would like to be a guardian home to one our little ankle biters?  Turn to the puppy page to read about the tremendous opportunities and options available.

Human Bone Detection

Skeletons in the closet?  Or in the ground or just lost?  Our dogs are currently in the training portion of our commitment to this nose work oriented job and we are working our fingers to the bone on this.  Long term goals are to be able to assist with location of human grave sites, both recent and historical.  Once training and certification is complete, the dogs will be available on a call out basis to assist Law Enforcement, Search and Rescue and Archaeological groups on an as needed basis.  Follow the link below to see our current progress.

The Bare Bones

We are located in the beautiful Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada.  We are Chad and Juli and our life with dogs has been very long.  Juli's family was involved with the Vancouver Police K9 unit when she was small, and as adults she and Chad have helped many dog and people clients through classes, workshops and private sessions.  
Together, Chad and Juli have raised puppies for police, assistance, search and rescue and companionship.   
Chad's favorite dog activity?  Helper or decoy work and tracking.
Juli's favorite dog activity?  Watching Chad doing helper work..... and of course puppy raising.

Say hello to a few of the K9's we have trained

Loki 
Karelian Bear Dog and German Shepherd cross.
Certified for K9 Search and Rescue in tracking, article search and cadaver.  
This dog taught us humility and sparked our interest in dog training as a profession.  Adored this dog, but he was not an easy dog to train and certify.  In all our years and all the dogs we have worked with, we never came across another dog anything like Loki.
Obtained from backyard breeder.

Max
German Shepherd cross.
Obedience and tracking titled.  Great nanny to puppies and a constant project in the works.  Taught us much, had a great sense of mischief and was loyal to the ladies.
Obtained from a rescue group at 2 years of age.

Chipsy vom Calculatorhof
West German lines working German Shepherd.
BH, AD, K9 Good Citizen, Therapy Dog.
Our foundation bitch and the reason we chose to breed.
Beautifully crafted, inside and out. Imagine your life with a dog like her, then imagine life without her.  You might chose to breed too.
Obtained from breeder at 3 years of age.  

Avatar
German Shepherd
Raised as a puppy for Search and Rescue, when we were approached to train him as an assistance dog.  He was trained to provide specific tasks to an elderly person to allow them to remain safe and active.
Obtained from breeder after meeting his sire.

Tusk Toa Toiora
German Shepherd
Bred and raised by us.
Raised through our puppy NIED program.
Presented to Vancouver Police K9 unit at 5 months of age, and was taken into their program.

Kya
Long Haired German Shepherd
Kya came to us for puppy training from clients.
She spent three months with us enjoying the puppy NIED program.  Today she is successfully living on a farm with her human family, two cats, chickens and a whole lot of love.
Obtained from breeder of long coat German Shepherds


Ero
Standard Parti Poodle
Ero came to stay with us for his first three months and was a very lucky puppy to spend those crucial months with us learning all he could from the NIED program.
He lives with his very busy human family, his K9 brother in arms Huey and two cats.
Obtained from breeder of Standard Parti Poodles

Fronos z Canczeck - NOS
German Shepherd - Long Coat
Nos is our current Human Bone detection dog in training. He has excellent handler connection, is environmentally stable and loves children. He was originally obtained to raise for Police work, but developed ununited anconeal process at 5 months. We opted for surgery and placed him on 
a more suitable life path.
Obtained from breeder of Czech lines 
German Shepherds

Freya vom Fuchsstein
BH, VT titles.  (so far)
Our newest addition we obtained in Spain.  Her West German Bloodlines made her the best match for Tusk. When we met her in person we knew she was perfect.  
She is now training to obtain her IGP1 title in 2021.
Obtained from trainer in Spain who bought her from a breeder/kennel in Germany as a puppy.