Biography

    Lucas De Campos De Oro was born in Spain January 15, 1992. In May of 1992 Robin Greenslade and I went to the World show in Valencia, Spain to see the show and to enter CH. Skansen's Picture Perfect. We had a great time, especially as we got to visit the well-known kennel of Pichera, which is also located in Valencia, Spain. We met their top Ch. Friper De Pichera while they were busy grooming him for the World show. We also met his mother Maat De Allevamento De Pichera, their house pet, who wandered all over. Maat is a large bitch with the classic American style coat. We also got the chance to see Ch. Cunter De Better Can, Friper's sire, who lives on a farm outside of Valencia. Cunter is, of course, the sire of many champions. He died at 12 not long after our visit.

    Ch. Zarza De Pichera, Friper's sister, was also being prepared for the show. She is an outstanding female and the following day won the World Champion title for the second time. Friper won the male World Champion title and placed 2nd in the Group after a Neapolitan Mastiff, who later won Best in Show over 5000 dogs.

    Later in the day before the World Show, Robin and I were visiting some other Schnauzer breeders. Robin said she would love to buy a pup and bring it back to the States, so they asked the breeder of De Campos De Oro Giant Schnauzers to bring three pups for us to see. The name of the breeder is D. Enrique Garcia Garcia, who brought two females and a male for Robin to look at. One of the females was outstanding, so Robin decided to buy her. However, the price was beyond what we had planned to pay. So, I decided to see if I could help her get the price down. The breeder agreed that if we bought two pups, the price would be lower. That is how I ended up buying the male Lucas.

    He was not as good as his sister, but he did have certain traits which made him attractive to me. He had a magnificent, clean, large head, good bite and pigmentation, a beautiful coat, long legs, and a deep chest. For the rest, he was mostly a gangly, leggy, four month old youngster. They brought Trufa, his mother, for us to see. She was a lovely female, who since has been sold to Italy for, what I understand, was a huge price.

    What I found even more attractive than the two pups, was their outstanding pedigree. Trufa is a daughter of the well-known Ch. Nilo V. Bergherbos. A magnificent male from Holland who has sired some outstanding dogs. Another well-known dog is Trufa's grandsire, Ch. Aslan V. Montecristo, whom I had seen in Germany several years ago and, in my opinion, is one of the best Giants I have ever seen. Then, of course, Lucas' sire was Friper, who won the World Show that following day- Friper's sire, Cunter, is considered by many as one of the best studdogs in Europe and Friper's grandsire is the well-known Ch. Hondo V. Gunterstal. With this pedigree, I thought Robin and I couldn't go wrong.

    Three days later we left for Madrid with our two pups. We spent the night in a hotel and continued to the U.S. the following day. Robin to Boston and I went to San Francisco with Lucas. But tragedy struck. Robin's little girl got sick and had diarrhea as soon as she got her home and, despite all efforts, died from parvo within two days, Lucas also got very sick and hovered between life and death for four days. Luckily, we pulled him through and he grew up to be a healthy, strong dog.

    Getting a dog registered that is imported from Spain is quite a chore. Because of this, Lucas was not registered with AKC until May of 1993. I then decided to start entering him at shows, but I wanted to finish his uncle, Ch Raja De Pichera, a younger brother of Friper who I had imported a year earlier, first.

    So it was that Lucas had never been to a dog show until we took him to the National in Brush Prairie, Oregon in July of 1993. You can imagine the thrill it was to see this youngster win Best of Breed at his very first show and place third in the Group. Perhaps just as thrilling was to see his kennel-mate, Ch Raja De Pichera, be the runner-up. It certainly was a great day for these two Spanish dogs, so closely related, nephew and uncle, to be so honored by Mr. Klaus Droop from Germany.

    Lucas had his hips x-rayed at one year of age and the vet says he will clear excellent. I'm not surprised, he can clear a six foot fence from a standstill. So, the day he arrived home after this exciting weekend, where he won a second 5 point major under Mr. Mayfield, he was bred to two Champion bitches.

    Lucas finished his Championship in 3 shows undefeated. He is producing beautiful pups with excellent temperaments.