Thirty-four years in one breed
Divine Maltese is a small Maltese kennel
in the New Orleans area of Louisiana. We whelped our first litter in 1992
and have never bred anything but the Maltese since. There is no second
breed here, no "designer" crosses, and no litter planned for any reason
other than keeping a line we have worked on for three decades moving
forward. Every puppy is born in the house and raised in it, underfoot,
with the television on and the grandchildren through the door, because a
Maltese that has only ever known a kennel building is a Maltese that
frightens easily, and the breed deserves better than that.
Our dogs are bred to the
AKC standard for the Maltese, which is
the only description of the breed that counts. Some of our puppies go on
to the show ring. Most go to families
as pets, and we hold those to exactly
the same breeding decisions, because the health and temperament a show
dog needs are the health and temperament a lap dog needs.
Where the dogs come from
The kennel is built on three old Maltese lines: Marcris, Pashes and
Su-Le. Our foundation dogs came from friends at Marcris Maltese, Rhapsody
Maltese and Pashes Maltese, with help from Hi-Lite Maltese, and the
breeders behind those names taught us most of what we know. Our first
champion was CH Rhapsody's White Pepper ROM. The dog who shaped the
kennel more than any other was CH Marcris Indecent Proposal ROM, "Indy",
who sired fifty-three champions in limited breeding and whose name sits
behind nearly every pedigree on this
site. We have since worked closely with Malt Angel's Maltese, and some of
our best dogs were co-bred with them.
What the show record is for
We have owned or bred more than a hundred AKC
Maltese champions. The American
Maltese Association named Angie Stanberry a top co-breeder five years
running, from 1999 to 2003, and gave the kennel its Platinum Breeder
award in 2004. Dogs bred here were the number one Maltese in the country
in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2005, and
CH Divine's Marc Of Friendship won Best
of Breed at Crufts in England in 2006 and 2007, taking the Toy Group
there in 2007. The full list is on the
awards page, with the years, because
most of it is history now and we would rather you read it as history.
None of that matters to a pet buyer in itself. What it means in practice
is that for thirty-four years outside judges have been checking our dogs
against the standard, and that the structure, coat and temperament in a
pet puppy from us are the same ones that were winning in the ring.
What you get with a puppy
Both parents of every litter are tested for patellar luxation, examined
for heart defects, examined by a veterinary ophthalmologist (CAER), and
bile acid tested for liver shunt. We will show you the certificates.
Pet puppies stay with us until twelve weeks and leave with their AKC
papers on Limited Registration, a written health guarantee, their shot
record, and a week of the food they are eating. Show puppies stay until
six months. A puppy is $600, with travel quoted separately. There
are three ways to get one home: collect in person, a flight nanny in the
aircraft cabin, or ground transport over two to three days. We never ship
a puppy as cargo. The details are on the
available puppies page and the
cost page.
Learning about the breed
Most of this site is not about selling puppies. It is the care library we
have written up over the years for the people who bought one:
tear stains,
feeding,
grooming the coat,
housebreaking, and
the rest. If you came here looking for a
teacup Maltese, that page says what the
word means and what it does not, and the two puppies available now are
exactly that size. There are also
photographs of several generations of
our dogs. If you have a question the pages do not answer, call or email;
one person answers and it is the breeder.
Members of the
American Maltese Association
Angie Stanberry
(856) 394-0451
divinemaltaol.gmail.com@gmail.com
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