My life with the dogs . . .

My interests in dogs began as a young child.  I purchased my first dog, Peanuts, a little beagle, in 1963.  My next dog  was a small tan and white mutt named Bootsie. 

In 1966, living in California, and in the 7th grade, I was allowed to get Lady, a beautiful collie mix.  She  was a devoted companion until her death at 14 years of age.  I persuaded my parents to let me breed Lady to magnificent local farm collie named Laddie.  I could hardly bear to sell the puppies.  I kept a male, Rusty.  Rusty was a great dog (puppy far right in picture at top).  I trained him to the Open Obedience level showed him at AKC matches.  He earned the equivalent of a CD, scoring high and placing in the ribbons at each show.  At one match I even got an offer of $150.00 for him!  He was a beautiful, biddable little guy.   (Pictured at left)

During high school I worked for local vet and learned how to be a vet tech.  Ginny Alexander of von Reiteralm Weima-raners took me under her wing and taught me how to show a dog.  She took me to the 1969 Westminster show as her "gofer".  We had the time of our lives, as this was the year of a HUGE snowstorm.  We slept in the lobby of the Hotel Pennsylvania, across from Madison Square Garden until other stranded travelers vacated our rooms.  What an adventure!

My first love was Collies.  I had hoped to get myself a purebred collie and begin showing, but life events conspired against dog ownership for many years.

Fast forward to 1996.   While on break from grand jury duty in Prescott, Arizona, I saw a red merle Aussie pup on the courthouse square.  I decided I had to find myself one of those dogs.....soon after, I purchased JD's Jazzy Blue, JHD, CGC.   The rest is history, well, actually, all of this is history!

Today I live in Northern Arizona on a small ranchette with my chickens, ducks, token cat and Aussies.   Buster Bob of Windridge from Sharon Herbert of Ironwood was my next Aussie purchase .  Buster and Jazzy, our foundation dogs,  produced our first litter of puppies in 1999.