Legato Australian Shepherds

Never let those who doubt you write your story. Never let someone else’s approval, given or withdrawn, dictate the direction of your story.

Embrace every hard climb as an enrichment to each chapter along the way. You are not the sum of your struggles, but the story of how you persevered through them.

And one day, the chapters that nearly broke you will become the pages that inspire someone else to keep going.

This is one of my favorite things to train. Scent articles/scent discrimination is such a fun challenge. While the finished exercise eventually looks the same at a trial, there are so many different paths that different trainers take to get there. I’m always curious how other approach scent discrimination. What method did use to train scent articles? Or, if you’ve never trained articles before, what’s something you’ve always wanted to ask about it?

Wins and titles are worth celebrating, but the goal was never to produce ribbon winners. I am most proud that these puppies are deeply loved companions.

Eons ago, showing for the first time in AKC, I had a puppy that was charted for going oversize (sheltie), but I thought I would bring him out to play before he went over. He was gangly, an obvious pet, and couldn’t keep 4 feet on the ground, but his breeder pointed him out to everyone ringside, “isn’t he just darling?” That moment will always stick with me.

As a breeder, are you proud of your “pet” puppies? As a “pet” puppy owner, do you feel like your dog is valued just as much as their show/performance counterparts by your breeder? (“Pet” is in quotations because aren’t all these dogs supposed to be pets first?)

It always saddens me to see that some breeders seem to think ribbons, wins, and titles are the tickets to a brag. Heck, sometimes different achievements are even ranked differently and the accolades have to be “good enough” to be noticed.

Most puppies are meant to become someone’s adventure buddy, couch cuddler, devoted shadow, their heart, and their best friend. And that matters just as much.

The goal should never be just to produce dogs that can win. It should be to produce dogs that people adore living life with. I am so proud of my puppies for being exactly that and it fills my heart whenever I get an update or an anecdote from their families ❤️.