These are the younger members of the family, Robyn (12) and Michael (10). We have a happy home where kids, dogs, puppies and the rest of us thrive.
We believe in a hands-on approach to raising youngsters. Our puppies are handled (very gently and very mindfully) from birth. Our children are homeschooled so that we can enjoy their company throughout each day and ensure that they are receiving the best education possible. Both children and puppies are socialized by going out to events - not always the same ones!
Our family moved back home to Barriere, BC, after living in Australia for 6 1/2 years. We brought 4 dogs with us, and they can be seen on these pages. When we landed in Vancouver in January 2005, we had no idea where we were going to live! We searched for a home and found a wonderful place in Barriere, bringing us full circle, as this is where we lived before we moved to Australia.
Then, as fortune would have it, in 2006 Scott was offered work with John Murray Architects in Red Deer, Alberta, so we once again began searching for a new home. We found 70 wonderful acres about an hour's drive from Red Deer where the kids and dogs have plenty of room to run and grow.
We handled two of our dogs to their Australian Championships, have handled three of our dogs to their Canadian Championships and are continuing to show when we can. Our dogs are never sent out to be handled by others, nor do we send our bitches out to studs.
We have had a few litters of Papillons and Cockers, and have added some outstanding individuals to our breeding programs. We are very excited about the direction we're going and the improvement we are seeing.
All our dogs get lots of attention. The boys live at the kennel - a dairy we are converting into luxury appartments for the dogs. Most of the girls 'live' at the house, though they spend a lot of time at the kennel when we are there. We usually have 8 to 10 girls and puppies in the house. The girls that don't sleep on beds sleep in crates in the house at night. We also enjoy practicing obedience with our dogs, and are offering obedience lessons to the local community at almost no cost.
Breeding and showing are not new to us. Before we moved to Australia in '98 we ran a mixed organic horse farm, where we raised sheep, Maremma Livestock Guardian Dogs, cattle, chickens, and hay. Our horses were registered black Percherons, and they did the real work bringing in the hay for everyone else. We also raised Appaloosas, Paints and American Bashkir Curly horses. We have recently stepped back into horse breeding with the purchase of a buckskin AQHA stallion. Here we go again........! |
