The boys at Silveraurora are pretty darned special to us. Solid temperament, amenable to handling, tolerant of guests, breed type, and of course herding ability makes our guys so special to us. All of our boys go into the show ring and we feel it's good to help make them comfortable in strange and often noisy situations, as well as getting judge's opinions on structure, movement, and overall adhearance to the breed standard. Unless a dog has been injured to not safely allow participation in the herding venue, our boys also trial on stock and are working on their herding titles too. Their health testing results are listed on each's writeup. Only those that are currently an active part of our breeding program are here for your viewing, our server is having a fit with too many webpages so we're trying to conserve space!
We hope you enjoy visiting our gents here at Silveraurora!
Jake is a super dog, the kind of personality that enjoys people and other dogs who are polite to him. He started and finished his show career in only 6 shows, 5 were majors and one reserve. He became a champion before he turned 9 months old, breeder/owner trained and handled exclusively. His temperment and abilities are being passed on to his get with a number of kids now champions. 3 of our girls, Martha, Ella, and Betty, are all sired by Jake. When he was a year old he crashed pretty badly on the ice and since then has had trouble with his stifle so we really limit his time on stock, even tho he will go forever and has an exceptional gather and fetch. The vet just asks that we don't work him unless needed, much to his chagrin. We love him dearly so he gets to live the life of Riley! Jake competed in the AKC PT herding arena and qualified for his title in 2 runs. His daughter, Betty, has her HSAs herding title too!
Jake is out of Felling Special Readhead, now deceased but was a darned good worker, by Ch Silver Hills Never Give Up.
Jake is OFA Good, Eyes 2007 clear, BAER bilateral, PRCD B, full dentition, perfect scissor bite. Jake has been collected for our future use.
Russell is our young boy out of our Anna (Aggie's granddaughter) by our Jake, above. For the first year and a half, Russell has just enjoyed growing up here on the farm. He got to go out to Terri Jone's place for a few months last year - we kindly say it's our first kid to ever go to college! He got to work with Terri, whom he adores, on all sorts of stock which helps round out his experiences on stock and strange surroundings and people. Terri and Sandy and I think allot alike, so it was no worry to send him away for a little while anyways. He's a talented boy but we take our time with our dogs, only having 4 or even 5 AKC trials in a year up here, and we let them do allot of farm work and ranch type work to round them out as vaild workers, not just a trial dog. Russell has traits he's inherited from his mom, and his dad. He likes to work fast and loves to work, period. There's not a mean bone in his body and he's good with livestock, but he's a thinking dog and highly receptive to my body language, so I need to work on our communication together for arena trial work. He's also a very handsome young dog too, much like his dad Jake at the same age. Russell is from a long line of good hips, so we're hoping for nice results soon. PRCD Normal (Pattern A). Oh, and he has beautiful pearly whites and full dentition too. We're pretty happy with our 4th generation boy!
The above photo, left, was taken in September after his 2nd trial since being home. He took High in Trial! The above photo to the right was his next trial in May of 2009 - and ANOTHER High in Trial to complete his title!
NEWS! Russell entered the first trial of the year held in May 2009, and although he was rusty after 8 months off, he was still able to do a nice enough job to earn his 2nd High in Trial on Sheep A course and finished his HSAs title. He was also entered in his first AHBA ranch trial and qualified too. Way to go, Russell! He's a great dog with a great temperament, so we'll work on fine tuning our team effort and hope to be ready for AKC Intermediate trialing in 2010. Until then, we'll just enjoy being together and working together.
PRCD Normal - ACD-PRA1406/23M-NOPI
BAER tested Bilateral Hearing
CERF Spring 2009 - clear/normal
Hips: Pending
Elbows: Pending
Chuckles came to us from Meaghan Thacker of Quickheels kennel. His sire is the same as our Aggie's sire, and he has the natural herding instinct that we'd hoped for. Slow to mature but fast to grow, it took a while for his brain to catch up with his body. Now that it has tho, and as his body is filling out into maturity, our 'big goofus' has become a dedicated cattledog with a heart of gold. His personality is that of a willing partner with a big heart - he's forgiving, extremely affectionate, and loves his sheep. He's not a suspicious nor edgy cattledog, instead he happens to love all little kids and warms up to kind adults easily. He also has one peculiar habit... he will scale a 6 foot fence in one leap if he thinks I'm in trouble. Chuckles is the kind of dog you just like knowing is there. Always ready to play with a ball or rope or toy, he has a certain relaxed air about him that is refreshing.
His daughters Anna and Rose reside here and he has a son in the UK that quietly gathers cattle over a large area. At 2 years of age Anna already has 3 herding titles to her name and we expect to see her out in the trial arena for some years to come. Several of HER puppies already have their herding titles too. We consider Chuckles to have a good influence on our breeding program.
Chuckles is OFA Good, PRCD Pattern A, eyes clear 2007, bilaterral hearing, and perfect scissor bite.
NEWS FLASH!!!
Ok, so I've been a little slow at posting this but it's worth posting.
Chuckles is the sire of Champion Silveraurora PW Tom Thumb, HIC - also known as Rocky. Rocky was only the 2nd cattledog ever exported from the US into the UK. At his first show handled by myself, he was entered in a class of 107 entries for (male) dogs at the Ladies Kennel Club Show held at the NEC in Birmingham, the same center that Crufts is held at. He took 5th place and an Award of Merit for his huge win!! I was a very proud breeder indeed.
Now - even BETTER news -
Rocky is the sire of the 2008 AND 2009 Crufts Best Of Breed, YARRAMAN DARE TO ROCK AT CORIGHT bred by Norma Digby. Congratulations also to Lesley, and Taz, Rocky's daughter, and grandpa Chuckles!!
Rocky has numerous sons and daughters doing extremely well in the show ring and on livestock too. He himself lives in Ireland and is owned by Daryl who loves him dearly. Rocky has had numerous times working cattle in Ireland and Scotland and is talented on stock, even bringing in cattle on his own as well as taking on a few pasture bulls in different locations that are NOT used to humans being around. Good boy, Rocky! Keep up the good work. As they say, "working dogs rule".
Flyer arrived this summer from Drywood, and we've been waiting for him for some time now. He has a great personality and has been a joy to raise. He completed his AKC STAR puppy program after attending classes where he loved not only the other humans there but also had a riot with the other puppies. Born in April, his first show was in November taking BOB over another single entry. As we get more daylight in the coming months, we'll see what he thinks of the sheep too. The photo above is from his first show. At his second show January 2010, Flyer took BOB for a 5 point major!
Our boys in our breeding program will be collected summer of 2006 for our own use. In the future we will consider AI to an AKC bitch that has qualifying OFA, CERF, and BAER results, and has demonstrated good herding ability. You are welcome to email us!