BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal Diane Rosengren holds Sugar, her 8-year-old Maltese, while Dallas, 3, plays at her Stagecoach home on Wednesday.
Diane Rosengren spent the last year trying to convince authorities in Lyon County to allow her to keep 20 toy Maltese dogs in her breeding kennel.
On Tuesday, she succeeded.
On a vote of 3-2, the county commission approved her request to keep up to 20 dogs more than six months on her Stagecoach property. The planning commission last month approved only 10 dogs over six months, which she said left her unable to make much of a profit.
"I'm not a puppy mill," she said. "I breed for quality, they breed for quantity. But I can't use a breeder's license for only 10 dogs."
Rosengren said the toy Maltese dogs - which weigh between 2 and 7 pounds and look like tiny white rag mops - only have one to three dogs per litter, not eight to 10, like larger dogs do. "They usually just have two," she said.
She also only breeds females over the age of 14 months.
"You breed them on their second heat, that they get at about 14 months," she said. Rosengren breeds females twice one year, then gives them a year off, so she is only breeding five dogs at one time. And some of those attempts don't work out, she said.
"Some take up to two years before they can be bred," she said. "They might miss their first heat, then you wait for two more heats to breed them. And a lot of times they have to have C-sections."
She has 17 dogs 6 months and older; one spayed pet, three studs, six females of breeding age and seven nonbreeding females. One of the breeding females just delivered three newborns, which are not yet weaned.
Rosengren keeps her smaller and younger dogs in her living room, while the older ones are in breeding kennels built inside her garage, complete with doggy doors leading to outside runs.
Though one of her neighbors complained about barking to the planning commission in December, no one spoke against her at the commission meeting. One neighbor, Michelle Fay, spoke on Rosengren's behalf.
"These are her babies," she said. "I don't see how they can be a problem. I didn't even know she had dogs until my daughter started helping her with them."
Her permit requires her to keep the dogs indoors during the day, but the 18 Maltese aren't quite as noisy as they used to be - she has had them de-barked.
"They cut the vocal cords when I get their teeth cleaned," she said. "They still make some noise, but not the loud barks little dogs can have."
The dogs that have been de-barked sound a little hoarse, like they have sore throats, but Rosengren said it doesn't harm them at all and makes them more attractive to prospective dog owners.
"They're bred for companionship," she said. "They don't have to be walked and they're hypoallergenic - they don't affect people with allergies."
On the Net
www.sugarbabiesmaltese.com
• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.