An Introduction:
Darkstone Kennel is owned by Betty and Byron Osing, and is located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We live on a very private acreage just west of the City. Our home is situated on eight acres, with approximately four acres of lawn, and an acre of lawn fenced in with six foot steel mesh fencing. Our dogs do not lack for room to play and exercise.

First and foremost, we are not "commercial" breeders. We are simply "dog lovers." We are passionate about our dogs, and we consider them to be a part of our family. Our dogs live in our house with us as our "hairy kids," and they are a central part of our daily lives. Dogs that are co-owned by Darkstone Kennel are always placed with friends or close associates that we have come to know and trust to a very high degree.

We do not breed for money. We are "passionates" and "hobbyists." We have been fortunate in business, and certainly do not need any income from the breeding and selling of dogs. In fact, given the amount of time, money, and emotion we spend on our dogs, it can be said that having a "kennel" in the way we operate Darkstone would be a great hedge against accumulating any personal wealth for the average person. We will only undertake a breeding when we believe that the off-spring of that mating will produce phenomenal examples of the breed, and both the breed and future adoptive family of those off-spring will be made better for the same.

In the Beginning:
Byron and I bought our first Rottweiler pup together in 1990. Frankly, we did not have a clue what we were getting in to. Byron had been raised with Samoyeds on the farm where he grew up, but loved the look of the Rottweiler, which at that time, was not yet a highly popular breed in Southern Alberta. Like most first time buyers, we simply answered an ad in the Calgary Herald newspaper, and picked out a male puppy.

"Panzer" was our first male Rottie pup. In many ways, we simply "lucked out" when purchasing him. He was purchased as a pet, and never shown, and received a minimal amount of training and socialization. He was from strong German lines, and had as "hard" of a temperament and as high a degree of pain tolerance as one can imagine. In many ways it made him quite a handful for first time Rottie owners like ourselves. However, in the end, Panzer turned into a wonderful family member, who welcomed a number of new Rotties into our household over the years..both pups and adults. He was with us for eleven years, and it was his fierce love and devotion for us that made us fall in love with the breed.

Darkstone Kennel just grew from there..and we have both purchased and bred a limited number of beautiful Rottweilers over the past fifteen plus years. All of our dogs have been conformation champions, and we have always purchased the finest genetics available, seeking temperament, health, structure, and movement as the pillars of our program.

Introduction to the Cane Corso:
Sometime in the year 2000, Byron was reading through a magazine called "The Robb Report" and saw an advertisement for a stunning looking breed of dog that we had never seen or heard of before..the Cane Corso. Byron was intrigued, and began to research the breed on the internet, and to call up breeders to learn as much about the breed as possible. In all, we researched the breed for nearly a full year, and talked to many breeders prior to purchasing our first male "pick" puppy from Sentinel Cane Corso's in Chicago, Illinois. Dori Vronch, the owner of Sentinel, clearly understood that we had been searching all over North America to make our fist Cane Corso purchase.and we only wanted a puppy that had every chance to be an outstanding example of the breed. She just happened to have on the ground what she felt was the finest male Cane Corso puppy she had ever bred...who's father Bel Monte Grappler was on his was to becoming the #1 ICCF dog that year.

"Roscoe" arrived on an airplane at the age of eight weeks, complete with his ears still intact. He came out of the shipping kennel and wrapped his front paws around my neck so hard he nearly choked me. He clung to his new "Momma" for dear life, and the bonding was nearly instantaneous. Once again, we were incredibly fortunate in receiving "Roscoe" (AKA Sentinel's Blue Chip) as our first Cane Corso. He is everything a first time Cane Corso owner could hope for. His conformation is stunning, his movement is powerful and flowing, and his temperament is beautiful. With the arrival of Roscoe, we fell madly in love with the Cane Corso breed, and decided to take the plunge.

Very recently, we were fortunate enough to acquire two of what we feel are the finest young adult dogs in the entire Cane Corso world: Scandifio's "Caesar" di Carfagna, and Carfagna's "Samba." Caesar is nearly three years old, and is multi-titled, being an ICCF, ARBA, IABCA, and Canadian Champion. He is also the first Cane Corso in North America to become a titled "Iron Dog." Samba is now two years old, and one of the finest young females we have ever seen. She is an ICCF and IABCA champion, and needs only one point to complete her ARBA championship. She is one of the best examples of a cross between Italian and American blood lines that we have seen.

We had observed both dogs at the ICCF National Specialty in two previous years, and both times, considered them, in our opinion, to be in the top handful of Cane Corso in North America. We are grateful to Anthony Carfagna for having entrusted us with the opportunity to raise Caesar and Samba as our "kids," and to have the ability to selectively breed them in the future for the betterment of the Cane Corso breed.

While Darkstone Kennel is relatively young in terms of age, we have been fortunate to have been able to both purchase and breed to some of the finest Rottweiler and Cane Corso genetics available on the North American continent to establish the foundation for our kennel. We hope to showcase both breeds in Canada and the U.S. via the show circuit in the years ahead, and to very selectively produce litters of the finest quality offspring available within each breed. We will only place puppies in the highest quality homes, both show and pet, as we will not breed unless we have a pre-determined list of "qualified" homes waiting for a Darkstone puppy to be part of their family.