We are Amy Garabedian and Nick Brown, a wife and husband breeder team. Our first Leonberger, Home Sweet Home’s Aja Marie, joined our home in 2003 and our life has been forever improved since. Good Life Leonbergers was established in 2006 with the birth of our A litter, with Aja Marie as the dam. Over the years, we have shared our home with breeding females and Leos who were simply the best companions we could have ever hoped for.
Our philosophy has always been to breed for health, temperament, and beautiful structure. We bred seven litters between 2006-2015, many of those puppies being therapy dogs, exceptional companions, and yes, champions. We have fostered enduring friendships with many of our Leonberger puppy owners and consider them to be part of our extended family. A core tenet of our breeding beliefs is to be a resource to the Good Life families for the duration of a puppy’s lifetime. In 2024, we resumed breeding.
Since 2008, we have owned our own dog training business, so when a litter comes, we are able to take an extended break from work to focus entirely on the raising of puppies in our home. There is nothing like spending time teaching these puppies to help grow into confident youngsters ready to take on the wider world. It also means we have helped thousands of dogs of all breeds in our career through various behavior and training challenges and are happy to help our puppy owners for the duration of our puppies’ lives as well.
We don’t tend to show our dogs widely, but to have an eye to the underlying structure which dog shows are supposed to reward. More than that, to not just watch how our dogs move, but also how they tackle mental challenges, and to take the time and effort to do thorough health testing.
Our breeding program paused in 2015 because a female we had brought into our home and hoped to breed was not up to those health standards, through no fault of her breeder. It broke our heart, because in all other respects, she was a beautiful dog who exemplified the Leonberger spirit. But sometimes breeding decisions are not easy.
We have a deep love for therapy work with our dogs, and temperament is a foundational part not only of what makes a Leonberger a Leonberger, but a therapy dog able to do their job. Our breeding decisions and how we raise our puppies are influenced heavily by a desire for a stable, gentle temperament. We have certified many dogs through different therapy organizations, most recently Go Team Therapy Dogs. Amy serves on the therapy dog committee for the International Association of Canine Professionals.
Our commitment to the future of the Leonberger breed can be seen in many ways. We have both served on the board of regional and national level Leonberger club organizations, including the Great Lakes Leonberger Club and Leonberger Club of America. We co-chaired the Leonberger National Specialty in Frankenmuth, Michigan in 2015. We have been recognized multiple times with the Grey Muzzle award, given to breeders whose puppies have reached 12 years of age.
In 2025, Nick was honored to receive the Heinrich Essig award, the highest honor the LCA gives out, in recognition of years of service and volunteerism helping at our national specialty shows in many regards, including being the Master of Ceremonies for our Top 20 and helping coordinate our newbie program, along with set up and tear down among other things.
Amy holds a certification as a Canine Strength and Conditioning Coach (CSCC), is an AKC Canine Ambassador, AKC ATT judge, and a certified Pet Tech Pet First Aid and CPR instructor. Amy is also a registered Breeder of Merit with the AKC and serves on the working dog committee for the LCA.
Both of us are AKC CGC evaluators.
Our lives revolve around our dogs and we want to place our puppies with likeminded people and families.
We believe breeding dogs is a great responsibility, not to be taken lightly. Leos truly are special dogs, as anyone who has shared their home with one knows. We are breeders who strive to make the choices to further the overall health and stability of our breed, whom we love so deeply.