With so much sad news this year we wanted to show the progress we are looking to make for the future of the species here in the UK.

We are delighted to announce we have begun to develop our first stages of a sustainable and managed breeding program in the UK.

As we all know, breeding these animals in a way that protects their interests, that ensures they are homed to good quality, caring and fully prepared owners as well as sustainably breeding for long-term health and genetic diversity would always be a challenge.

Many German breeders and other breeders throughout Europe have set the standard for working together on a shared aim for the health and longevity of these animals and this is something us in the UK must follow if we are to continue to have them around.

This has been one of the biggest challenges for the NPRS. With so many deaths in the community of late its more imperative than ever that we plan for the future and begin to work on solving the problems and not create more.

While we have remained tight-lipped up to now on our plans for the future, purely as an exercise to not get up to many hopes, we are now pleased to announce that our first official pairing geared towards our aim of starting a breeding program has begun and all signs are now good. We are also working with a German breeding to bring in more good quality blood from the continent.

It’s too early to say if our loving couple has mated successfully but time will tell.

We have some provisional guidelines for our program and hope to share with the community at a later date.

While this first litter will likely not be for pet homes and likely placed strategically to set up this program, it begins is a milestone towards our long terms goals.

For those of us that have gone through the heartache of losing their furry friends this year. There will be a future, there be hope.