We are expecting a superb litter of working English shepherd puppies from the long-anticipated cross of Proctor's Good Shepherd Sidney and Brandywine Charlotte. Pups are expected in mid-August, ready for homes in mid-to-late October.
Update: Seven lovely pups were born on August 14. We have two sable males that will each be the image of their Dad, two seal males, a black and tan female, a seal female, and a seal or black and white female. Six out of seven have dark faces, as we expected. We are still taking applications. It is likely that the males are spoken for unless we fail to make a match, but one or two females are still up for consideration.
We anticipate pups who are suitable for owners looking for a stockdog, general farm dog, SAR partner, non-AKC dog sports competition, trainer's assistant, conservation scentwork, service work, and active companionship.
Both parents are strong-minded working dogs with solid drives and serious partnership orientation. These dogs need to do things with their people. Both parents have good judgment and classic ES off-switches. Both live on small diversified farms and work a variety of stock. Both have the ES kid-loving alleles.Both are very outgoing, bold, and friendly with human beings while remaining devoted to their own people.
Sidney is an accomplished competitive stockdog who works sheep and poultry at home. This will be his first litter.
His owner Margaret Proctor's "bullet points" on Sid:
Very outgoing & friendly. Gentle w children and (invited) animals. Easy
to live with. Good traveling companion. Adjustable.
Has good sense and a cool head, a thinker, quiet confidence
Tends to be somewhat handler soft, biddable and careful
After he knows the job, will work independently
Excellent work ethic
Earned CGC at 15 months old at a loud & crowded AKC fair
Farm dog:
Hunts squirrels, moles, and other rodents. Keeps predators, including
hawks, away from the free-range chicken flock. Deer away from gardens.
Stays home.
Can find missing animal companions on request when needed. Also can find
lost personal objects.
With stock:
Equally good gathering and driving.
Works calmly, usually keeping the stock relaxed and cooperative. Tough
when needed but not aggressive. Normally works quietly but will
force-bark occasionally. Will bite when necessary.
Works sheep, cattle, ducks, chickens, turkeys. Instinctively understands
the difference in the amount of force needed.
Earned many AHBA herding titles working sheep, ducks, cattle and
turkeys. Some in arena classes. Some in large fields. Some are Ranch
classes where the trial mimics the daily work of a farm dog.
Earned his HTCH (Herding Trial Champion) a month after his 4th birthday.
(Bwaaa haaa haaa haaa. She showed me a wall of ribbons that increased the R-value by 200%.)
(Bwaaa haaa haaa haaa. She showed me a wall of ribbons that increased the R-value by 200%.)
Chuck is a general small farm dog who works sheep, goats, poultry, and sometimes pigs at home. She's a third-generation search and rescue dog, operational in wilderness airscent, and with versatile skills for cave search, disaster response, and human remains detection. Five pups from her 2017 litter with Jasper are operational or in training for SAR, while two are working as ranch dogs. Like her mother and grandmother, training Chuck for SAR was more a matter of getting out of her way than teaching her anything she wasn't born knowing; unlike both of her ancestresses, she's pretty forgiving of handler foibles, and somewhat less sarcastic than the family average. She's chill with other animals and easy to live with.
Size: I expect pups to be in the 45-55# range, with medium builds.
Colors: Who can say? Sid is a very unusual dark and mysterious almost solid sable. Chuck is seal and white with a watch eye. So, mostly some kind of brown puppies? All The Colors are in the recent pedigree, so, potluck. They are unlikely to be very flashy. But maybe some will be? If you wish to select your dog based on color and markings, you should probably look elsewhere.
Coat: Both parents have very correct coats, not overly profuse, teflon texture.
Charlie has all normal alleles for MDR1, all currently tested eye disorders, and degenerative myelopathy. Her hips are OFA Excellent.
Sidney is a carrier for CEA, tested clear of other mutant alleles, and is OFA Good.
Both parents have a minimum of three generations of documented sound hips for every individual in their pedigrees.
Puppies will be DNA typed for CEA prior to placement. Any identified as carriers will have an additional contract clause that will require potential breeding partners to be non-carriers of CEA. There is no possibility of a puppy being affected by CEA, which is a simple recessive.
Charlie's pedigree here
Sidney's pedigree here
Information about our breeding ethics and puppy-raising practices can be found in these pages:
If you are interested in a puppy from this litter:
1) Review our contract. (The 2017 document shown will be revised and updated shortly) It is a strong contract that protects the interests of the puppy, the breed, the buyer, and the breeder, in roughly that order. It is our goal to never have to enforce any part of it because we are simpatico with our puppy owners. We are always happy to answer questions about the contract, but most provisions are not negotiable. We put a lot of knowledge, work, and love into every puppy we bring into the world, and in return we expect their owners to value them as we do.If you are looking for a no-strings-attached dog, there are many breeders who will sell them without commitments -- and without thought, care, expertise, accountability and due diligence. NESR is kept quite adequately busy salvaging them, so consider a donation of at least a thousand dollars to them if you choose to patronize an "NSA" puppy-seller.
2) If the contract provisions are satisfactory to you, email me, Heather Houlahan, for an application. We will accept applications at any time. (If link is not working for you, email is hhoulahan@yahoo.com)
3) Once puppies are born, we will begin sorting applications and checking references, and will continue our conversations about the kind of dog that may be a suitable match for your home.
4) If your application is accepted, we will ask for a $200 deposit. If it turns out that we do not have a puppy match for you after we begin assessing temperaments, we will return your deposit. If you ghost us, the deposit will not be returned. We collaborate with our puppy buyers on which puppy goes to which home. The ultimate decision is ours, however. Local applicants are welcome to visit the puppies subject to our biosecurity practices.
5) Make plans to pick up your puppy. ES pups are typically small enough to fly in-cabin at eight weeks, but by nine weeks they are getting big for carry-on, so plan accordingly. We may ship puppies by air or by select ground transport services at 11 weeks of age, at our discretion, typically only to people we already know fairly well. It's far better to drive to pick up your pup if that's at all feasible. We can accommodate overnight guests here, so long as everyone doesn't come at once.
6) Keep in touch, because if you don't, we come looking for you or send our goons. I am not even kidding. Just ask anyone.
Gimme 2-3 more years.
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