Here's 3 of our furry kids (two are now Champions, Ella is on the left and Martha is in the middle, and then Teddy who's neutered and on the right who has Zach to love and protect), having a great time playing in the hayfield with mom. This was one of those pics that expresses what a good cattledog pup is all about - TONS of energy and love! (Photo copyright Randi Hirschman.) Ella and Teddy were also pictured on the 2007 Brown Trout calendar!
I've been waiting for the right time to repeat a breeding between Anna and Jake and I am very much ready! Anna and Jake had a litter in 2006 - 10 beautiful puppies, 8 boys and 2 girls. The litter had tremendous herding instinct; they were moderate puppies and turned into moderate adults in size, most with wonderful good bone. The girls were very feminine and around 17.5 inches in height. The boys are not thick cobby blocks but instead good bone and athletic in structure, moderate sized from 19 to 20 inches. Smart, talented, this litter of 4 years ago is also very affectionate to humans - imagine that, cattledogs that like humans and most dogs yet still can kick it in for High in Trial on livestock and low heeling as well as plenty of power. My favorite pick of the litter was a red boy who tested as a Uni, so my 2nd pick was Russell, found on our boys page. What a great dog he is with a beautiful thick head and lots of bone, and a heart of gold. His sister Mimi has been Reserve to the majors in the show ring and is a social butterfly. Anna has creeping tan, but bred to Jake doesn't produce it. None of the puppies got creeping tan, and it's something I wanted to breed away from and did so successfully. We have allot of confidence in this breeding and the two mated the 2nd week of June, so we are expect early August puppies, confirmed pregnant at the vets with 7 puppies, and they will be ready for their new homes in October. If you'd like a boy from this litter, I have reservations open. If a girl, maybe. I have several resrvations for girls already. And just a reminder, neutered boys make the best all around companions for a family, better than the girls do! For those looking for a working pup, I will be evaluating the puppies on both ducks and sheep when they are 7 weeks old, as well as taking them to our Volhard tester. Several of the puppies from the first litter have herding High in Trials and RHIT's. Anna herself has several HIT's and completed her AKC conformation championship after being out of the show ring for 3 years - ha! She's still got it! Puppies will be $750 to $900 depending on quality, with $100 refunded upon proof of spay/neuter. Please email us for a Puppy Questionnaire to fill out.
LOTS OF INFO -
A good read, this is from our years of experiences with cattledogs, cattledog puppies, rescue, and herding training of all breeds.
There is nothing better than understanding the breeder of your puppy and the breeding goals for a litter. As the years go on, I find it's better for you to read my viewpoints and see if you really should want a cattledog, or perhaps another breed might better suit you. Or maybe you want to buy from a breeder that doesn't screen you or one that let's you do whatever you want even if that means it's not in the puppy's best interest. So please do read on, I hope by taking the time to type this out it will help you feel most comfortable with your choice of breeds as well as your potential choice of breeders.
Please note: we do not try to have spring/summer puppies here at Silveraurora, nor do we have a litter very often at all. Unless we are needing something for ourselves we just don't need to produce more puppies, right? We are farmers/ranchers in lifestyle even tho we also are in the show ring with either dogs or livestock, or teaching stockdog classes, it takes time to care for our livestock properly as well as working with our dogs and training, something we LOVE to do! I also have a dairy goat herd and milk twice a day, 365 days a year, by hand, and also provide raw goats milk for the dog breeding community up here. I am Vice President of one of our state's AKC clubs and like to give back to the community, so our time is well-filled. Summers usually find me teaching herding lessons at 5 days a week, and working with my dogs doing ranch work and some trial training here. Don't worry if you email us and don't hear right back - just send the email again, especially since it can often go in the spam box nowadays!
Most people are too busy in the summer for a baby puppy, if they stop and think of their normal schedules. Although it seems like a nice time of year for some folks, we prefer to raise puppies in the winter, IN the house, and have them old enough and trained enough for spring training, going fishing and camping with their families when they have their basic obedience training already well underway. Best is to have a litter born in the late summer so that they are ready for their new homes in the fall, when people often return to their normal home lives and set their puppy up for a successful future - thanks to 'normalcy'. Don't you spend lots of quality time in the house in the fall and winter which would also be a good time to train your new puppy? It's just a thought - much easier to housebreak and leash train a puppy in the winter when we're all not so busy enjoying the summertime outdoors. Also, if you live in a colder climate, cattledog puppies love snow. They want to go outside and play in it, and that sure does make potty training so much easier. In deeper snow they can't run too fast and hurt themselves, and then when they come back in and get warm, they sleep well. It's a very very nice way to raise a puppy!
Please remember - a number of our puppies are reserved in advance of a litter being born. We feel that most people who really want a cattledog from us are willing to wait for the right puppy. We DON'T make our income off our dogs - FAR FROM IT! HA! My other jobs on the farm produce the income to support our dogs and we have a litter when we ourselves would like a puppy, as well as you, the caring cattledog owner, are wanting to add a puppy to your household. This isn't a shopping mall for instant gratification, it's a serious committment to raise an Australian Cattle Dog puppy to maturity successfully, but I sure do understand what it feels like to wait for that next special puppy. So, if you're truly interested in a quality ACD with plenty of my personal support to make sure you and your puppy are happy together for many years to come, then email us and we'll send you our puppy questionnaire and work with you. While waiting for your puppy, we can help you get everything you need ready including yourselves! Our puppies aren't meant to be backyard pets, they are active members of your family and devoted to you. In turn, they look to you for consistant guidance in the form of training, rewards, and challenges both physical and mental. They don't have to herd sheep or cattle to be happy, but they DO need active people who do lots of fun things to exercise and create daily mental stimulation that keeps their ACD happy!
A word of caution - If you can't take 2 years to train a cattledog puppy, perhaps another breed is better suited to your needs. Too many cattledog pups end up in rescue by a year or 2 of age because their owners took them to one set of puppy classes then didn't bother to keep training and working with them in some sort of formal manner. We have done rescue for 11 years now and have seen and heard it all - so be prepared for a working relationship to make your cattle puppy become the best adult ACD possible. In return though for your 2 year committment, you will have an extremely loyal and devoted companion for the work and training that you put in. This is a very smart breed and some times that also means they outsmart their humans too easily, so please do make sure you're ready to make that long-term committment. There is great reading about the breed at www.cattledog.com , including a section titled 'Is a cattledog right for you' as well as the Cattledog FAQ's, definately worth reading!
If you're not sure a cattledog is the right choice for your family, please give us a call in the afternoons when we're most likely around the phone, Alaska Time Zone, and we'll be glad to help answer your questions. 907.373.2687. Thanks! :-)
Our puppies have been placed all around the US, Canada, and Europe. We raise them in our home right under foot, not outdoors or in someone else's home. We know each of our puppies' personalities LONG before we decide which puppy might be best for you. It's really important to us to match the right puppy to you, and you to the right puppy! We're not in a hurrry for our puppies to leave. We and other breeders have found that cattle dog puppies are best socialized with their littermates and mother for as long as possible, and as such, our puppies begin leaving our home at 10 weeks of age. They are fed Blackwood 2000, a premium kibble, as well as goats milk, and raw beef and bones starting around 3 weeks of age for the best nutrition. They've been exposed to lots of visitors by 10 weeks, they've been outdoors with the sheep and ducks to see if they have interests in the stock from a herding point of view, they've also been to the vets for their shots and microchipping, and for rides in the truck and on the 4-wheeler in our lap, or on the seat of the Kawasaki Mule. We also have a very experience apptitude tester go over every individual in each of our litters. We must fly up a BAER hearing tester from UC Davis Veterinary College to test our litter's hearing - cattledog puppies as well as other breeds are born with full hearing but occasionally one goes deaf, and the ONLY way to be sure is to have the testing done around 7 weeks of age. There are few BAER testers in the US, and there are none in Alaska at all, so we go to great expense to ensure the puppy you're getting actually can hear!! Our puppies are ready to go to their new homes with self-confidence and, of course, some good bite-inhibition training already in place.