HOW AND WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO

When we got our start with Morgan back in 1990, the intention was NOT to immediately breed her.  First, she had to prove she had something good to contribute to the Aussie gene pool.  When she had her first litter in October of 1993 at nearly 4 years of age, she had her Open obedience titles and Started Stock titles and was a therapy dog at San Diego Children's Hospital.  She'd also won 3 Best in Movement classes by then also, along with her first Most Versatile award.  She'd been recognized in Winner's Bitch and had placed well in the classes under structure and movement judges.

After the litter matured, the bitch that Morgan's breeder help me select turned out to be a great girl.  Of that first litter, she is the only one kept as breeding stock.  Not because of anything bad with the rest; but simply because they all went to great pet homes with no desire to breed.  Jazzee has proven herself to be an outstanding performance dam, producing strong, athletic working dogs with good minds, pulling the best from her sire and dam as well as the stud to put into her pups.

Now, we are preparing to continue our quest for the perfect Aussie into the third generation, with the breeding of Jazzee's daughter Catera by Hall of Fame Sire CH. Casa Buena Cadillac Jack DNA-CP OTDsd STDc.  To insure continued movement towards our goal, Catera will be linebred on Jack via her half-brother, Chaps (PCH WTCH CH. Gabrielinos Charlie Chaplin RDc RS-N JS-N GS-N, Jack X WTCH Gabrielinos Gloria RDg).  This will be an outstanding cross, producing superb athletes and strong cattle dogs while retaining the true Aussie temperament, loyalty, intelligence and strong genetics.  Another step forward for us.

There are things we will never do in our breeding programme.  We do not breed to the "Stud of the Month", ie the stud with a lot of championship titles from places and organizations few have ever heard of.  We don't like what we see in the conformation ring; one year, a certain type of dog is the big winner and suddenly everyone wants to breed for that type; the next year, that type will be passé and a new type will have taken over.  There is only ONE type of Aussie, and that is the one that meets the breed standard as set forth by ASCA.  Because certain types of dogs become very well known, advertised and shown to many judges by excellent handlers, those types, no matter how incorrect, become "the Aussie" in the judge's eyes.  If a stud we plan to use is a champion, we want to see that he has actually earned that title by being the closest example of the breed standard he can be.  If he has working titles, let him prove he's earned them not by being well trained and handled, but by having the real instinct and ability to think on his own, to handle problems in the working arena without a ton of help from his handler, that he can handle any kind of stock in any kind of arena under all conditions.  That is a true working Aussie.

Earset seems to be a big thing with the show crowd.  WE DO NOT DO ANY EARSET WORK, and that includes taping, gluing, weighting or using surgery to get the "perfect" earset.  Morgan has that earset naturally; we know this for a fact because not only did she produce it, but Jazzee (who doesn't have it) produces it.  One thing that breeders just don't seem to understand is that genetics is genetics-and all the taping, gluing and weighting in the world will never change that.  It might, if done harshly and religiously, alter the earset eventually, but then, what do you have?  You have a dog with an alteration who looks like he does.  I have first hand knowledge of a novice breeder who bred to a dog with "perfect" but obviously altered earset.  The litter produced almost 100% prick ears or nearly prick ears.  But since the stud had "perfect" ears and earset was a big thing with her, she immediately blamed her bitch and spayed her.  Don't snort; these things do happen.  Earset is of so little importance as compared to the overall Aussie as to make it totally irreverent to the performance people.  So no, we won't ask you to tape or glue your pup's ears, and we won't use stud who have had this done either.  It's a form of fraud, and comes under the heading of altering in the rulebooks, and just because "everyone" does it doesn't make it right.

Our breeding bitches are also our helpmates and buddies.  They live, just like all the other dogs, in the house, sleep on the bed, go everywhere with us; heck, we even bought a motorhome so that we could take them with us more places!  To this end, we NEVER do back-to-back breedings.  EVER.  It is not necessary; there is no excuse except greed to do it.  Our girls are precious to us, and to use them as a puppy factory is distasteful and in my opinion, borders on abuse.  It is wise to ask a breeder how old the dam is and how many litters she's had before you buy.  A bitch should never be bred before two or three years of age, without the proper health clearances, nor should she be bred every time she comes into season.  I have heard breeders say that they breed twice in a row then give the bitch a one cycle break before doing that again.  This doesn't make it right-ever.  The strain of breeding, whelping and raising a litter is not magically cured by the 5-9 month period in between cycles.  This is a medically proven fact.  No ethical breeder or vet would ever recommend that for ANY reason.

We care deeply about our girls.  Their health and happiness is first and foremost in our minds.  This is reflected in our large, strong litters of healthy pups that do not need supplementation.  We have a long line of maternal strength and strong mothering instincts behind our girls.  We cherish and preserve that by not making ridiculous demands on our girls by breeding them continuously.

Our stud dogs are cared for the same way as our girls.  Some think the life of a stud dog and owner are ludicrously easy and profitable.  That would be the case with breeders who simply have dollar signs in their eyes.  It's always amusing to read in a stud dog's ad that he will be stood "only to select bitches".  That would mean, of course, any bitch who's owner has the stud fee.  But when you think about the cost of replacing someone's prize bitch, who, while in your care being bred to your boy, got loose and either got killed by accident or bred by everything with four legs and balls in the neighbourhood, it isn't such a lucrative business after all, unless you simply don't care.  And, in spite of a lot of feeling to the contrary, the stud dog owner is just as responsible for those little lives coming into the world as the bitch owner.  Why stand your boy to a backyard breeder who simply wants to make money and doesn't care about the pups after they leave?

We truly are selective in who our boys are stood to.  We study pedigrees, ancestor blood percentages and observe the bitch first hand.  We know where the genetic problems in our line are; we have no desire to continue to breed on those lines, but rather, to breed away from the problem areas, both with our girls and with our boys.  We understand what "cross faulting" is and how to use that tool.  A poor bitch will not be bred to our boys.  A bitch with a pedigree too close to the problems in our own will not be bred to our boys.  A bitch that is too young, too old, doesn't have the health clearances and who's owner has no deposits or contracts for puppy buyers will not be bred to our boys.  We are not in the business of populating the earth with Aussies.