It all began when we got our dog Dodge from a well known breeder. She’s a beautiful blue merle with an adorable and loyal personality. Dodge had her first litter of pups in the winter of 2009, and they were all healthy and strong. At this time, we decided to get our own male dog “Sprint,” who came from Saskatchewan. It was our intention to skip this breeding period, and produce a litter of puppies in the winter of 2010. However; Sprint the Sire had other ideas! So our family of miniature aussie’s grew quicker than at first anticipated! The puppies arrived on September 21, 2009, and are so strong and healthy, and thriving! This is where the Red Twist comes into play!
Little did we know that breeding them together would give us a rarity in color that few breeders have seen, in fact some doubted the ability to get red dogs from black dogs. Black being the primary color of our dogs. Amazingly we have two red merles “Penny and Pants,” out of a litter of 5. Through our research, and quest for the truth in this matter, and in conjuction with the national stock dog registry (NSDR) they confirmed that although rare, certainly possible. Possible because unkowingly both of our dogs have what is known as a recessive red gene. When two dogs are coupled for breeding purposes with this gene, there is a 25% chance of having red dogs, either red tri’s or red merles. Our sire is a black tri, and mom is a blue merle. To learn more about the genetics of the australian shepherds, we found Mendel’s genetic chart on the Internet.
Now more about Sprint, the Sire. Sprint weighs in at a hefty 14 lbs! Stands 15″ at the withers, and is said to have excellent conformation! Coincidentally Dodge the mom, is a lightweight at 26 lbs! Stands 17″ at the withers. You see where I’m going with this? Let me continue. We expect our puppies to be on the smaller range of the scale between 15″ - 17″ and averaging around 20 lbs. We feel this is a wonderful size of dog, with all the abundance of energy and joyfulness as their larger counterparts.
Our puppies are family raised, and handled by us and the children, everyone in the family has a responsiblity to raise these puppies to ensure their maximum health so that we can deliver them to their new homes, knowing that we have done our absolute best to ensure their health, socialization and welfare. We do not enter into this lightly, as these little lives are in our hands and do not expect to have another litter until 2011.
To reserve your puppy today, we are now taking deposits. Puppies will be ready to go to their new homes on November 18, 2009. Click here to contact us!
