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Almost all of the babies are gone! 🥹Bliss is here, obviously, keeper puppy privileges, and her brother Bruce will be han...
10/20/2026

Almost all of the babies are gone! 🥹

Bliss is here, obviously, keeper puppy privileges, and her brother Bruce will be hanging out with us until early December. The house is definitely quieter without nine puppies running around, and we are slowly getting things back in order and finding some version of our normal again.
We’ve been getting back into training, working on some show training and herding, and doing scent work with Vidock and Tally. It’s been nice to shift gears a little and have time to focus on the dogs individually again.

We’ve also made a pretty big decision.
We will be returning to our home in Oregon for a while.
There are a few reasons behind the move, including Sean’s job and finally getting the Oregon house ready to sell. That was supposed to happen quite a while ago, but… LIFE. Between puppies, dogs, work, travel, vehicles deciding to self destruct and everything else that seems to happen around here, getting the house ready has continually been pushed to the back burner.

The decision to go back has been something we’ve gone back and forth on for quite a while. There are some people here who have made the decision much easier to make, and there are others who make leaving incredibly difficult.
One thing I’ve realized is that the friendships that are REAL friendships aren’t dependent on living down the road from each other. Those people will still be part of our lives whether we live 10 minutes away or 800 miles away. Those friendships are worth their weight in gold, and I’m incredibly grateful for them.

As for the others…
I genuinely wish you the best of luck.
I believe people eventually receive the same energy they put into the world, and karma has a funny way of sorting things out without any help from me.
So I’ll leave it at that, and hope our paths never cross again. ✌️

For now, it’s time to enjoy the babies we still have here, get back to training, and start preparing for the next chapter.
Thankfully, the move itself is going to be somewhat gradual. Some of the animals will head north ahead of the main group, which should make moving an absolutely unreasonable number of dogs, the horses, goats, a pig, and a couple of tortoises slightly less insane. 😂
We’ll probably still be here until January, so we aren’t disappearing quite yet! That means we’ll get one last Palm Springs showing in before we head north for a while, which feels like a pretty fitting way to wrap up this chapter.
Then it’s Oregon for a while, getting the house handled, figuring out what comes next, and, as usual, probably doing all of it with significantly more animals than any reasonable person would attempt to move.
Because apparently simply packing some boxes into a moving truck would be far too easy for us.

Stitches are out and a couple breath right strips are giving a good idea of what her ears will look like when they are f...
10/15/2026

Stitches are out and a couple breath right strips are giving a good idea of what her ears will look like when they are fully standing!
Thank you Alice Wang, Dr. Heidi Buehner and Mariah Whitman for the beautiful crops

Short break in the rain is the perfect time to let the dogs out to run! Especially with Alice getting ready to drive bac...
10/12/2026

Short break in the rain is the perfect time to let the dogs out to run! Especially with Alice getting ready to drive back to AZ today, hopefully her boys sleep the whole way.
Ada and Vidock didn’t get to come run, Ada’s in season and 3 intact boys was already enough to supervise with adding an extra pushy Vid to the mix!

The dogs are enjoying the cooler weather and their friends Ozy and Laz! Left to right: Lane (1yr), Tally (4.5yrs), Kora ...
10/12/2026

The dogs are enjoying the cooler weather and their friends Ozy and Laz!
Left to right: Lane (1yr), Tally (4.5yrs), Kora (3 yrs), Ozy (2.5 yrs) Laz (1 yr & Lane’s littermate)

Laz and Lane have not seen each other since Laz moved to AZ to live with Alice.

10/11/2026

Vidock has passed his CAER (eyes) and has a normal echocardiogram!
Kora also passed her second echocardiogram!

No we are just waiting for the ofa results for Vidocks hips, elbows, shoulders, spine and thyroid. I also need to stop order his AKC DNA + health kit which I’ll do when I find out what is going on with a “pending transaction” when I went to register him.

A more serious topic and one I think every dog owner needs to consider.What happens to your dogs if something happens to...
10/10/2026

A more serious topic and one I think every dog owner needs to consider.

What happens to your dogs if something happens to you?
It’s not a fun subject. Nobody wants to think about becoming seriously ill, being injured, dying unexpectedly, or having a financial emergency that suddenly makes it impossible to care for their animals.

But especially as someone who owns more dogs than the average person, it’s something I’ve had to think about a lot especially with my own recent health scare. Partly because it’s important, and partly because with my husband’s work schedule, it would be incredibly difficult for him to suddenly be left trying to figure out where every dog goes, who needs to be contacted, what contracts say, and what decisions I would have wanted made.

Do you have a plan?

If something happened tomorrow and you could no longer care for your dog(s) who would take them?

Would their breeder take them back, no matter their age or circumstances?

Do you have family who genuinely could take them? Not just someone who loves them, but someone who has the space, finances, experience, and lifestyle to actually care for them?
Do you have trusted friends?
And does that person know they’re your plan?
Because saying, “Oh, my sister would take them,” is very different from having actually sat down with your sister and hearing, “Yes. If something happens, I will take them.”

My own situation gets complicated. It’s not even just the dogs, we have horses, goats, sheep, chickens, and a couple of tortoises! The dogs though are the most complicated.
Most of my dogs have breeders who would take them back if necessary, but several of my dogs were imported. Three of the five came from overseas.
Tally’s breeder has sadly passed away. Halo and Hazer’s breeder isn’t in a position to take them if something happened to me. Eva was adopted, although the program she originally came from would take her back if necessary.

So what happens to them?
Thankfully, I have some amazing friends who know my dogs, know what I would want, and know exactly what to do if something happened to me.
I’m also planning to make things easier by adding trusted people as co-owners on AKC paperwork where appropriate so they have the ability to handle transfers if that ever becomes necessary. Normally, I am not someone who wants additional co-owners on my dogs unless it’s the breeder. Experiences I’ve had in the past, especially surrounding Tally’s first litter, made me extremely cautious about co-ownership.
But this is different.
This isn’t about breeding decisions or control over my dogs while I’m here. It’s about making sure there isn’t a legal and logistical nightmare for the people trying to protect them if I’m suddenly not here to make those decisions myself.
I also have my wishes for my animals addressed in my living will.

And with the number of animals I own, I don’t expect one person to suddenly absorb my entire household. The goal is to have people identified for individual dogs or groups of dogs based on who they know, what they can realistically handle, and where each dog would be happiest.

Because having a plan isn’t simply writing down:

“My friend will take my dogs.”

It’s making sure that friend knows.
It’s having backup people.
It’s making sure someone knows where veterinary records, registrations, microchip information and contracts are.
It’s knowing which dogs have breeder return clauses.
It’s documenting medications, feeding, behavioral quirks and special needs.
It’s making sure the people left behind aren’t trying to figure all of this out while they’re also dealing with an emergency or grieving.

And I think breeders need to consider this from the other direction, too.
If your puppy contracts say your dogs must come back to you, what happens if something happens to YOU?
Who takes over that responsibility?
Who has access to your records?
Who knows your puppy owners?
Who knows which dogs you bred and what obligations you made to those families?

We spend so much time planning breedings, training, health testing, shows, trials, veterinary care, vacations and everyday life with our dogs.
We should probably spend a little time planning for the one situation none of us wants to think about.
If something happened to you tomorrow, would the people left behind know exactly what you wanted done with your dogs?
If the answer is no, maybe it’s time to have that uncomfortable conversation.
Your dogs can’t explain your wishes for you.

Apparently we have upgraded to a MONSOON.Remember how we thought the suburban had a bad water pump?Honestly, that seemed...
10/10/2026

Apparently we have upgraded to a MONSOON.

Remember how we thought the suburban had a bad water pump?
Honestly, that seemed like good news. Not ideal, obviously, but relatively straightforward to fix… other than the minor detail of my poor husband having to drive 520 miles to come rescue me out 12 dogs, and our little Sheba hitchhiker.

Sean made it up by about 8am, poor guy drove all night! He immediately got to work, and by 9:30–10 the new water pump was installed.

Fantastic time to refill the coolant and we should be back on the road!

He poured the coolant in and it started POURING OUT OF THE TAILPIPE as fast as it went in

Well s**t
Blown head gasket? Cracked engine block? Something equally expensive and terrible it’s just my luck! I think j could literally write a book on my travel “adventures”
All we knew for sure was that the suburban was absolutely NOT driving anywhere now.

Which left one small logistical problem…

I still had a trailer and 12 dogs + 1 Sheba hitchhiker that needed to get back to Southern California and because it was anticipated to be a quick fix Sean had driven up with Kora and HarleyQuinn
So now there were 15 DOGS involved in this evacuation operation.And it was getting HOT.

Time to call in the family for help
So called them and my dad, being the absolutely amazing human that he is, went and got a car trailer, hooked it to his F450 flatbed and headed out to retrieve the very DOA suburban and Sean. Making what would be almost a 600 mile round trip for him to help us out of this s**tty situation

Meanwhile, Sean and I switched vehicles so I could start heading south with the dogs.
Here’s the big problem with this…
The vehicle I was taking has NO AIR CONDITIONING.
At this point there were no good options, just options that would eventually get everyone home.

Because of the heat, we stopped roughly every 100 miles so I could make sure everyone had water and ice and was staying as comfortable as possibly. I basically avoided drinking or eating anything myself because I didn’t want to add any unnecessary or extended stops.

Thankfully, despite my vehicle feeling like a rolling sauna, the trailer stayed considerably cooler than the Tahoe and all of the dogs traveled incredibly well.

Eventually we made it to Burbank, where we dropped off our little Sheba hitchhiker with his amazing new family! Good luck Mateo on your new journey!

Now to get the rest of us home! We started the final stretch and we finally pulled in around 10pm.

Everyone got unloaded and settled. Puppies got out to run around, stretch their legs and play for a while. The adult dogs got fed, watered and had time to stretch and decompress.
A couple hours later, everyone was finally tucked away for the night.

We got to go to bed knowing we would be getting up early the next morning and starting all over again.

So to recap this trip:

Sick humans.
8 puppy ear crops.
New tires.
A 14 hour drive we only made 5 hours of before disaster
A broken suburban.
A 520-mile rescue mission by my husband.
A water pump that wasn’t actually the problem.
Coolant pouring out of the tailpipe.
A potentially catastrophically broken engine.
A nearly 600 mile rescue mission by my dad.
Fifteen dogs.
A horse trailer.
No AC.
A Southern California heat wave.
And one successfully delivered Sheba hitchhiker.

At this point, “when it rains, it pours” is no longer accurate.
We are officially in a monsoon.

But all of the dogs are safe.
The puppies are home.
Our hitchhiker made it to his new family.
We made it

And the suburban ?

Well… a new motor is on the way

When it rains, it POURS. And when sitting on the side of the freeway waiting might as well share my past week story! Thi...
10/08/2026

When it rains, it POURS. And when sitting on the side of the freeway waiting might as well share my past week story!

This trip has officially turned into one of those adventures where you start wondering what next… and then immediately regret asking.

We had a rough start to puppy crop weekend when Dr. Alice Wang, DVM, got sick on her way back from a wedding. But because she’s amazing she still toughed it out and came up to Oregon to work with Dr. Heidi Buehner, DVM, on the Beauceron crop and share some of the techniques she uses to promote safer surgery and faster healing.

Thankfully, the cropping went incredibly well! Eight of the nine puppies are now running around with their new fancy ears, and everyone is healing beautifully.

Sunday morning was actually pretty uneventful. Antibiotics and anti-inflammatories were given, puppy pens were cleaned, and the hoard was fed. You know… normal, relaxing Sunday morning activities when you have nine puppies.

We even took Lane and Vidock out together off-leash for the first time, and the boys did GREAT! We had one brief grumble fest where they needed to discuss their feelings with each other, but it was quickly settled, and they went right back to being happy boys.

Alice flew home Sunday, and Monday I got to spend a wonderful day with my mom for her birthday.

That’s when…

I started to feel like s**t.

Tuesday was BAD.

And because apparently getting sick wasn’t enough, I also realized that I desperately needed new tires before driving more than 800 miles back to California.

So Wednesday morning started with new tires, buying basically every decongestant Target had to offer, packing puppies and supplies, cleaning up puppy messes, and trying to get this traveling circus back on the road.

We got a late start, but things were actually going okay! I was on track to make it to the halfway point around 9:30, which honestly wasn’t terrible.

And then…

3.7 miles north of Williams, the Suburban

What the actual F*€k

Apparently, the NEW water pump isn’t working?

So I can’t just call AAA! Nobody wants to tow me with 13 dogs, I’m miles away from anyone I know, I’m sick, it’s late, and I’m sitting on the side of the road with what is essentially a mobile kennel attached to a broken Suburban.

So my only option was to let it cool down, drive a little, stop, let it cool down again, and slowly limp our way into Williams.

We made it…barely

To what may be one of the most ghetto hotels I’ve ever stayed in. 😂

Let’s just say I have never been more appreciative of having several VERY LARGE dogs with VERY LARGE barks sleeping with me tonight.

And I almost forgot this fun tidbit! Tally decided to break out of her kennel and eat an entire rotisserie chicken carcass. Of course she didn’t chew it well because I’m sure she knew she was going to be in trouble! But this act of stupidity almost resulted in emergency obstruction surgery.

Thank goodness for brilliant veterinarians, IV fluids, and God’s grace, we were able to avoid adding that to the list of disasters.

Meanwhile, my poor husband is now driving all the way up from Southern California so he can change the water pump in the hotel parking lot tomorrow.

Because apparently, roadside mechanic has now been added to his list of husband duties. Although sadly this isn’t the first time he’s had to come fix a vehicle hence the reason we now have AAA

Now we just need prayers that the water pump is the only problem so I can get back on the road and still get my little Sheba hitchhiker to his new family tomorrow as planned.

So, to recap:

Sick veterinarian.
Puppy ear crops.
Nine puppies.
Three adult dogs
One hitchhiker =
Thirteen dogs traveling home.
I get sick.
New tires.
800+ mile drive.
Tally ate my rotisserie chicken
Potential emergency obstruction surgery.
IV fluids and a veterinary miracle.
Brand-new water pump decides it no longer wants to water pump.
Stranded on the side of I-5.
Can’t get towed because… THIRTEEN DOGS.
Questionable hotel.
Husband making an emergency 500-ish-mile rescue mission with tools in hand.

Needless to say, this trip has been an ADVENTURE.

At this point, I would really appreciate it if everyone could refrain from saying, “Well, at least it can’t get any worse!”

DO NOT CHALLENGE THE UNIVERSE

Happy late birthday to Tally’s first litter! I can’t believe it’s been 2 years already! There are 2 more Doom and Veloci...
10/06/2026

Happy late birthday to Tally’s first litter! I can’t believe it’s been 2 years already!
There are 2 more Doom and Velocity but I didn’t have pictures of them to share

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