Ben and Litzsinger Kennel
Ben Niven, kennel director and waste manager, is the son of Sue Hawxhurst and grandson of Pete Litzsinger. For more than 40 years, Litzsinger Kennel provided boarding and retriever training near New Melle. When Sue retired, we were in the process of building the Dogwood Farm facility. We have many life-long friends and clients who started as Litzsinger customers. We currently do not offer retriever or obedience training; we prefer to concentrate on the business of boarding dogs. 

Ben works full time at the kennel and is here every day. He schedules all the boarding, drop offs and pickups. He is also the great dispenser of dog food and if the dogs don’t already love him anyway, they sure appreciate him for that. Your shy and scaredy dogs will come around to him as well. He has been known to make some hamburger and rice or scrambled eggs for a few picky eaters.  

Elizabeth
About 30 years ago, I served as the public relations and development director at the Animal Protective Association. When I left the APA, my career went on toward marketing and development, and in my free time, I got to work with dogs as a trainer and behaviorist and eventually started Dogwood Farm Sanctuary in 2005.

By that time, we had built the kennel with the idea that I would use half the building for my rescue and the other half would be for boarding. Of course, I had been doing rescue since leaving the APA and I had a number of horses and dog and cat rescues of my own as well. We built a dedicated cat facility in 2016. For many years, I worked as the “dog lady” on a nationally syndicated radio show and later hosted a weekend radio show “Animal Talk” to educate the public on responsible pet ownership and animal behavior issues.

I continue to serve as the director of Dogwood Farm Sanctuary. I focus on our facilities and bookkeeping. I also write our newsletters and update social media.

The Sanctuary Dogs
Some sanctuary dogs live in the kennel building or reside in buildings near the kennel. We also have dogs in our house. When you visit, our dogs will come out into their yards and bark at you. The dogs let us know there is a stranger or strange car on the property. Normally, our farm is quiet and the dogs are sleeping, unless of course, we are feeding dogs and then everyone is awake.

To that: we allow visits by appointment only. We prefer the quiet and our dogs do too. And your dog will as well. It’s helpful to know when you are arriving so that we can make sure we are not walking a dog or giving a dog a bath when you are ready to drop off or pick up your dog.

We all look forward to seeing you!