God decided in His infinite wisdom that He wanted the best working dog that ever lived with Him, so Lewis is no longer with us. But he does live on in his progeny, like Andy von der Roderburg, SchH 3, FH, IPO 3. Joyce feels that because Lewis made a significant contribution to the German Shepherd breed, it is very important to keep his legacy and bloodline alive. Lewis has many truly great dogs in his pedigree, like Mink and Ignez. Joyce kept females and males from Lewis to continue his unique abilities.

Lewis was a big boned, powerfully built, very expressive black and tan male. His natural abilities and self generated willingness to work, during each and every performance, are unsurpassed, to this day. He was the prototype of the ideal working dog. Anyone who saw or worked with Lewis will attest to the fact that he was an excellent, highly efficient, and a highly self motivated working dog.

Lewis possessed very steady nerves, he had a quiet and self assured nature and presence. Everything he displayed, epitomized a world class dog. Throughout his illustrious working career, his average score was 293, always pronounced. At the vast majority of his trials he attained high “V”s in all areas of competition. Lewis had an outstanding disposition, he was fast, joyful and correct in his work. He possessed high drive, natural instincts, unquestioned courage, hardness, and pronounced fighting instincts.Lewis was an exceptional dog, although very aggressive, courageous and hard during the protection phase , he was always quiet, sure, correct and confident in his work.

His father, Mink, was regarded as the best consistent producer of high performance, world class dogs. His great-grandfather, Ignaz vom Oberscholvener Weg, also had the proven ability to pass many of his positive performance abilities to his off-spring as many descendants of Ignaz have performed exceedingly well at many world class trials, such as the BSP Prufungen. Lewis possessed many of Ignaz’s and Mink’s attributes; self assurance, even temperament, instinctive working ability, hardness, high drive and determination.

Because Lewis was that special dog, his German family wanted him back. Lewis left us around Christmas, and spent his last days with his beloved family passing on Easter Sunday.