Our first Aussies
Our very first Australian Shepherd was a Black Tri male rescue that was named Prince. He was very high energy dog who sparked our love for the breed. At the time my family (Skinners) were more into English Labrador Retrievers for pets and hunting dogs. Prince is the reason we transition out of labs and into aussies.
Mom and Dad wanted to add another aussie to the mix so went looking for one and found Blue. Blue is a blue merle registered with the national stock dog registry. Dad picked him because of how he looked, Mom was a little wary because he was very skittish. He was tolerant of Mom and us kids but he was really a one man dog. The older he got the more obvious his anxiety was. When dad would leave the house Blue would leave to find him. He knew my Grandmother’s house was a good option and would often run the 5 miles there to try to find him. At the time my parents were only interested in pet dogs and were worried that if they ever bred Blue his anxiety would pass to his offspring. We now know that a lot of that anxiety can be worked out as a puppy. In the first 8 weeks that we have our puppies we do desensitization training and introduce them to lots of different stimulus to help them be even tempered adults. In 2009 our house was hit by a tornado and the aftermath of that and the move to the new house was especially stressful on Blue. Not long after he found his forever family and is happily working cows everyday on a farm in West Georgia.
Our next aussie was a female blue merle named Ziggy. She was my high school graduation gift. She was dual registered with the national stock dog registry and the Continental Kennel Club. (CKC) In my totally biased opinion she is the best dog we have ever had.
Sometime after all us kids started college the house felt a little empty during the week so my parents got another Aussie. This one was a Blue merle male named Quigley. He was registered with CKC like Ziggy.
After I started dating my now husband I talked him into getting an aussie so that when we moved and brought Ziggy with us she wouldn’t be lonely. So we got another CKC female, Cora. Cora is a black bi and Nick’s favorite. She is the dog who helped launch us out of regular old pet dogs into working/show dogs.
Each one of these dogs has helped us grow as people and as dog trainers and helped open up a whole new world of life with dogs.
Nick and I have combined our dogs and training knowledge with my parents dogs and general dog know how in order to create the best kennel possible.
On our journey to working and showing we found the Australian Shepherd club of America.(ASCA) We are in the process of moving our kennel into a mostly ASCA registered kennel.
-Rachel Evans