​My perfect teenager. Vintage has been such an awesome dog to raise and love and train. She's the picture of stability, drive, and just about everything I think the breed should be.

Despite being a teenager and all the typical struggle and qualms that generally comes along with, Vintage has been an exceptionally easy dog for me. A healthy relationship and good strong training can eradicate so many of those "teenage issues." I'm sure it also helps that she was born and raised here! Audacity, my other bred by, has also been very easy to raise.

Vintage doesn't know a thousand tricks yet but she does have a 100% reliable recall under any distraction, a perfect stay with full stimulus control, impeccable loose leash skills no matter who's on the other end of the leash, she has work ethic for days, toy drive and willingness to engage with me despite the world around us, lovely dog social skills, impressive body awareness, and a deep affection for every human she meets. She's my perfect girl and I am so happy she's mine! I really don't think I'd change one single thing about her. It makes me sad that we probably won't get anymore Abbie babies but I'm so glad to have some dogs out of her to carry on her legacy. Vintage here in my own home, Penny as my darling co-own who I have the pleasure of spending lots of time with, Retro as another very hopeful up and coming co-own, and a couple Vintage sisters that I can take pups back from later if they're bred. There's even a slight chance of puppies off Abigail's first daughter, from her first litter, who wasn't purchased as a breeding prospect but has passed all of her health testing with flying colors and is a great dog. I've shared about her some before, her name is Sage and she's from the Spices litter.

All of our eldest dogs fill such important spots in our day to day lives, pack dynamics, and even in our careers and business. But it's so inspiring to see our young dogs stepping into their roles, finding their dignity and becoming such special pieces of our lives! Even though not every dog stays here forever, they all get the same respect, countless hours of work, and endless love.

This has been a long and grueling few days. On Saturday, the puppies became ill. Lace in particular was losing weight fast; she was refusing to nurse and her vitals weren't looking good. I took a leap and started tube feeding her, something I had never done and I'm very glad I did. I was able to stabilize her and now today she is finally gaining some weight. In that time, the rest of the litter is also having symptoms but none have had it as bad as she did. A few others have lost weight so I've done some feedings on them as well. Some have continued to gain the whole time. I've been treating them with herbal remedies, prebiotics, probiotics, healthy gut microorganisms, liver water. I've dosed them for Coccidia twice now and I'll do a third tomorrow. Today I treated them for Giardia and started them on Pyrantel, which I'll continue for three days. I have been cleaning nonstop to keep their area and the rest of my home sanitized, the laundry never ends, and they've needed several baths. Calypso is also being treated with all the same things as the puppies. She's been symptomatic but not nearly as under the weather as the babies, although you can tell she's not feeling 100%.

It's extremely taxing emotionally and physically. I am running on very little sleep and I am so worried for my pups. I'm dedicated to making sure they come out of this so I will keep at it as long as I need to. It is heartbreaking, gut wrenching work. I pour my entire heart and soul into my pups and my dogs. Even through all of this, I've been able to do water therapy today with Audacity and take Lapis, Abigail and Vintage for a good long walk.

I am so thankful to have Connor, my little brother who lives with us, as he has been my constant direct help. Forever grateful to Daniel who continues working tirelessly to feed us all and care for all the other dogs as well as our clients. And grateful to all of you for your kind words, thoughts and support! It doesn't go unnoticed.

And to think, people call breeding dogs easy...

I would like to address recent developments with full transparency. 

As I am sure many of you have already seen, Hermes from the Ace x Calypso Space litter has been diagnosed with Lumbosacral transitional vertebrae (LTV) along with Dynamic Lumbosacral Stenosis (DLSS), which both affect the spine. From the research I have been doing, I found that LTV can lead to a slightly increased predisposition to DLSS. However, there are a higher percentage of dogs even in working and sports with LTV and no issues, who don't end up with DLSS or other spine problems. Additionally to date, LTV remains poorly understood and a diagnostic standard is yet to be established (Gong H et al., 2020). To my knowledge, there are no conclusive peer reviewed studies that definitively state Dynamic Lumbosacral Stenosis' heritability. All of the Space litter owners have been informed directly, and I have made my recommendations and given them my opinions. While Hermes’ diagnosis was terrible and gut-wrenching, that does not mean his littermates will also have this problem. 

As I mentioned previously, I have made the choice to pull the entire Space litter from breeding. This choice wasn't made lightly and wasn't based on just this incident alone, but it's a choice I am comfortable with making. I do not regret the litter, as I have placed many heart dogs into their owners hands through the Space litter and that's something I wouldn't ever wish to undo. 

As far as Calypso herself, I'm not certain yet what the future will hold. Ideally I would love to retain some of her genetics somewhere in my program for the future because I deeply value her and many of her traits. Until just a couple of days ago, all of her offspring were happy, healthy and thriving. They are still so beloved by their owners, with lovely stable temperaments, no neurotic tendencies, no over arousal, no anxiety, no aggression. Which are all traits that many Border Collies have and are still bred upon.

To me, temperament is my first priority and in a perfect world I will achieve dogs of exemplary health, superb temperaments, drive that honors the breed and its heritage, but temperament is the first thing that affects us the most on a day to day basis with our dogs. I will not be aborting Calypso’s pregnancy she is carrying now and to think that would be the most ethical solution is simply abhorrent. She definitely will not be bred again any time soon and possibly not again at all, or possibly not again to another Border Collie. I can't say for sure yet; I want to continue seeing how the Space pups turn out but also the upcoming pups. I will probably keep back a puppy from the upcoming litter myself and place some co-owns to watch but I likely won't be placing any with other breeding programs. If something happens or if I decide to make the call to wash the lines completely, I want that to be on me alone.

DLSS is a hard thing to trace because A: most Border Collie breeders don't get their dog's spines tested and B: even though an LTV will show up on a hip x-ray, it doesn't get listed on the final result for the hips through OFA.

Unfortunately breeding dogs is very experimental and so many things are not fully understood and can't be tested for. I'm breeding to try to create a line of dogs for myself first and foremost and as a new breeder and program, there will be kinks to work through. I'm so sad this happened but right now I just don't have a big enough picture to make any final calls aside from washing the Space litter in its entirety.

​I will continue as I have always done to make the best and most informed choices I can for my breeding program as well as maintaining transparency with my community and offering my guidance and insight where relevant or requested as things develop and progress. Sending my support to Hermes and his owner in this difficult time, feel free to reach out to me directly with any questions you may have.

I went on a quick trip last week to pick up something very special!

Meet "Lucid" - Don't Wake Me SonicWorkaholic. She is our second Whippet and I have been waiting for about 6 months for her. I got on the waitlist for her mother's litter before the stud was even picked out! But I was super happy with the stud choice her breeder made. Lucid comes from @sonic_workaholic_bc and made her way here all the way from Poland. Her dam is a small Whippet from racing lines with a natural retrieve and her sire is a very accomplished flyball dog. I couldn't be happier to add her to my family and hopefully in the future to my breeding program! Her breeder has been such a pleasure to work with, even from so far away, and we also had some great help from a few of the other litter owners who helped with getting importing all figured out.

Lucid flew into Chicago and I flew there from Reno to get her. While I was there, I got to meet @covencollies for the first time although we are already great friends via the internet and I got to meet @puddlemere.k9s who welcomed me to stay in her home while I was there. She is so kind and I appreciate the help a ton! I hope we can reconnect again one day.

So far, Lucid is very driven, she is a big time "people dog" and wants to be with me constantly, she has fantastic toy drive, she's met my pack and is fitting right in. She's a super confident puppy! I am so happy with her. She will get to be a versatile sport dog and maybe even help Lapis catch some jackrabbits.

Lucid will be the demo dog for my puppy raising series which can be followed on my Patreon! 

Welcome baby Lucid!

Audacity had a freak accident on a hike and crashed with another dog. Immediately I knew something was very wrong. I palpated and could feel that her hip was dislocated. We rushed to the emergency vet in Reno, an hour away, and arriving at 8pm we waited 9 hours before she was seen by the doctor. X-ray confirmed a dislocated hip. She was treated with a closed reduction that morning, which presented as effective. She was on crate rest for 2 weeks afterwards. 

08/07/22
My love. My heart. My darling girl.

Audacity, my precious puppy. I've loved you since the moment you were born. I waited with bated breath to meet you. I meticulously planned your bringing into this world. And you have rewarded me so. With your heart of gold, your personality, your silliest and your sweetest moments, watching you grow up and creating this bond we have has been one of my greatest pleasures. To know you is to love you and everywhere you go, everyone you meet falls for you. You are my treasure and to see you in pain breaks me. The moment it happened I immediately knew something was very wrong because you cried out... you never cry. You're so tough and so strong. But you cried and you hobbled to me and you couldn't put your leg down. We carried you back to the van and rushed you to the emergency, waiting all night wide awake to hear what was wrong. To hear that you were going to be okay. You're home now and the procedure is done and I am hoping against hope that you will still get to live the life you were meant to. You are such a superstar, you're brilliant and you're fast and you're capable and I know we can go so far together. But even without all of that, I am just happy you're okay. The road to recovery will be long but I am right here with you, and we will make it through this.

08/11/22
My darling girl Audacity has been really spirited these past 2 days. She's so happy and loving. She loves being carried outside to the puppy patio to potty and she happily greets the cat and sniffs all over and stands for affection. She's still not putting any weight on the leg that was injured but she's getting around okay on the three legs, the brief moments I do let her walk around. Still keeping her strictly crated and making sure she has plenty of down time to heal. She has a crate set up in the living room, the media room aka her "uncle"/ my brother's room where we watch TV and hang out, and a crate in my bedroom. So I alternate her around in the different ones so she doesn't feel lonely and can stay where her people are.

Yesterday a good friend and client came by to drop off their dog, who was a veterinary technician for a very long time so I had her look Audacity over and she was happy with how everything was feeling, so that was reassuring. I'm still worrying over her constantly and regularly on the verge of tears or throwing up from the stress and worry but I am doing my best to keep it together and not dwell on it too much.

Audacity and I both love ice time when I put a cooling pack on her hip and she lays with me and we cuddle and I pet her and kiss her and tell her how lovely she is. She's been quite peaceful despite all the crate time and I don't know if there was ever a better reminder for why I crate train and normalize using the crate on a daily basis. She doesn't think it's super abnormal to be crated and it doesn't stress her out at all. She doesn't like being left out when the other dogs get walks or work but I always make sure she's got a good lasting treat and doesn't have to directly watch. She always knows anyway but we are doing the best we can.

08/19/22
It's been almost 2 weeks now since Audacity's injury. She's been on plenty of medications to sedate her but I only give her the low end of how much is prescribed because she's truly an angel and she's taking all of this down time in stride.

It is so hard to think about the future for her now and have to consider the facts that she may not get to have the future we had planned. She may never get to do agility again, even though she was so quickly picking everything up and steadily approaching surpassing her mother in speed. She may never get to catch a disc again, one of her favorite things of all time. I don’t know if she will get to be a mama. I don't even know if she will be able to do off leash hikes with the pack anymore. It's all so uncertain right now until we know how she's healing and if she will need further corrective surgery. It's so insanely hard to think about weighing the pros and cons and quality of life.

My first bred by, my Calypso baby, my up and coming sport dog, my treasure may never be the same and that's incredibly difficult to come to grips with.

I hate going out and doing things she should be a part of without her. I hate that she's missing out on showing off all her amazing skills and her darling personality while we have friends here. Today I am going to agility class with Calypso and I hate that Audacity isn't coming. It hurts seeing her limping anytime she walks, it hurts wracking my brain and hovering over her and constantly tensing about if she's going to hurt herself further or if she's even healing correctly. I feel over her with my hands every day and that hip still feels different to me than the other one and I worry about it constantly. But there's nothing I can do, nothing I'll know until we get into the vet who couldn't see us until September 1st, so until then I just hope and worry.

Fortunately Audacity is still her good natured sweet self and she's thrilled every time she gets to come out for a little bit. She doesn't worry, she doesn't stress, and her cheerfulness does help me.

It's been busy but I wanted to make this post because it's a lot of things that have been on my mind. We're all okay and I'll be posting more soon.

09/02/22
Yesterday I went into the vet with Audacity and Calypso, confirmed Calypso's pregnancy via ultrasound and also got the news that Audacity's hip has dislocated again.

It's been almost three weeks since the injury and because we don't know exactly when it came back out (although I suspect it's been since day 1, because it never felt quite right to me) she isn't a candidate for an open reduction or toggle surgery. Now my options for her are either total hip replacement or femoral head ostectomy. I'm not sure yet which route we'll go and I'm gathering more information regarding both and speaking with more doctors and people who have experienced these procedures with their dogs.

It feels like such an impossible position to be in with my 1.5 year old dog. She was so promising and showed so much potential. While I know no matter which option I choose, she will be happy and cherished and she will live a good life, it's hard to consider that we won't be able to do agility together, we won't be able to do disc, she will never be back to her full pre-injury athleticism. It's also really unfortunate to think about the fact that she'll likely never get to be a mother. While every dog kept in a breeding program is only a prospect for breeding until proven otherwise, I still put a lot of hopes and dreams and money and effort into my dogs, praying that it will work out. Audacity has even already been nearly fully health tested. OFA eyes, patellas, shoulders, thyroid, spine, hip prelims, Optimal Selection DNA testing. I don't normally do much of any health testing prior to 2 years old but with her I did. I'm glad I got a peek at those hips before this injury occurred.

So while this has been a devastating blow, I am still very eager and excited for Calypso's upcoming litter and I know Audacity will enjoy being a big sister. Sometimes the good and bad news come together and I'm thankful for the good to balance out this bad.

09/08/22
Today is the day. Audacity is in surgery.

Please keep her in your thoughts and send good healing energy our way. I'm not comfortable speaking about what procedure I chose or anything else surrounding the situation at this time so please don't ask. I'm sick to my stomach with worry but mostly I am just eager to have my dog back to herself. Leaving her wasting away in the crate as her muscles atrophied further with each passing day, leading to a harder recovery... I'm just glad that part is over. Now we can get on the road to actually recovering and Audacity can have her life back.

I'll have the link for the GoFundMe up in my bio, if you'd like to donate. It's greatly appreciated! Thank you everyone for all of your support and thoughtfulness for my sweet little Daci girl.