When we first reached out to Swiss Silhouette in late 2011, we were complete newbies to Bernese Mountain Dogs. As it turned out, we had called the right person. Now eight years in, it’s hard to sum up the totality of Shelly Leary’s investment in our success: as adopters; as owners; as custodians of our dogs and the health of the breed as a whole. Shelly’s generosity with her time, access, personal interest, patience, expert knowledge and her tireless commitment to helping our dogs thrive has been a god-send. In our case, the journey continued into the conformation and breeding world. Shelly has been by our side at every step, many times together at breed competition (both in the ring and at ring-side), other times catching newborns as we whelped our first litters, and always with us in spirit, as our greatest mentor, cheerleader and fan. She’s gone out of her way on our behalf more times than I can count and we are forever grateful. We’re more than friends, we’ve become family.

Jay & Suzanne Lusk