Our Lhasa Apsos

 “The journey home is never a direct route.
It is, in fact, always circuitous.
Somewhere along the way we discover
the journey is more significant than the destination.”
From “Up Country” by Nelson De Mille

What a journey! Breeders of some 150+ Champions!. Achieving AKC registration for the Gompa dogs! After one final breeding of Champion Kunza Drin Lan at FFT Melou (Landin) to Grand Champion Kunza Anticipation at FFT (Payton) our journey as breeders and exhibitors and our leg of the Gompas’ journey is over. We’ve finished championships on all our remaining FFT Lhasa Apsos. With Payton’s grand championship we also finished a personal commitment – showing the Lhasa Apso world that the Gompas were worthy of AKC status and contributing diversity to the gene pool It is time to pass our work to the next gatekeepers of this ancient breed.

The history of the FFT lineage began as separate breeding programs, yet with common dogs. Fleetfire – Debby Rothman and Mary Schroeder – had been striving to maintain Tibetan type since 1979. Timbers’ – Julie Timbers – was founded in 1984. Our lines intertwined from the beginning of our relationship.

In 2001 Debby was gifted a unique group of 10 Lhasa Apsos, descendants of a group imported into the western hemisphere in the 1980s. These dogs became known as the Gompa dogs. She chose the name Kunza as a kennel name, Tibetan for fire, poet of fire, it was a tweak from her original kennel name of Fleetfire.

The two lineages were woven together when the Gompas became AKC registered in 2011 after the American Lhasa Apso Club voted allow AKC registration for this lineage.