In the early 90's I used to breed and train Border Collies. I was taking lessons at Three J Dog Training School in Winter Garden, FL. The school was owned and run by longtime Flat Coat person Clair Koshar. One night she brought her "Will" to class and it was love at first sight! I loved the happy soul and beautiful appearance. He gave me lots of kisses and wags and my husband and I were sucked right in to the Flat Coat world. Within a few months, Will and Claire's female, Kara had puppies. I was lucky enough to get one of those puppies. Nicholas was yellow, a color that is not acknowledged in the AKC breed standard. It comes from a recessive gene that both parents must carry. There is DNA color testing available now, so it is getting even more rare to have yellow puppies born. I did some training with Nicholas but I really wanted to get into the dog show scene, so a couple of years later, I got my first Black dog from Pam Hind when she was using Savvy kennel name. James was a gorgeous dog and finished his championship so quickly. I had a lot of fun showing him and being at dog shows...one thing led to another. Now I have 7 Flat Coats 4 of them are champions and one is being shown now. I happen to have another yellow boy, Duncan was born shortly after Nicholas died of Malignant Hystiocytosis. Buying Duncan was one of those things that seemed meant to be.
I have been very active in the Southern Skies Flat Coated Retriever Club since it's inception. I am a member in good standing of the Flat Coated Retriever Society of America and I served 5 years on the board for the Flat Coated Retriever Foundation. The FCRF is a philanthropic organization that raises money to fund research into various diseases and health issues affecting Flat Coated Retrievers. I also held the position of Rescue Chair for the southeast for more than 10 years, only recently retiring and placing the position in the very good hands of Tiffany Hogan.
Excellent temperament, long life and good health is the goal of our breeding program. We feed a diet of highest quality kibbles along with raw food and fresh fruits, vegetables, yogurt, etc. We are very holistic in our approach to vaccines. Puppy vaccines are necessary and very important to protect dogs from devastating diseases Parvo and Distemper. After that we do titer testing which is a blood test that looks for the antibodies for those diseases. If the antibodies are present, there is no need to "boost" them with another vaccine. We also do a rabies vaccine, as that is required by law, but we do it on a three year protocol.
Temperament is very important to us. No matter what dog sport you choose to do with your dog, the most important job he can have is to be a good dog at home and bring you years of joy.
I have lived in Florida all my life. Bill moved here when we met, back in 1978, he is originally from New York state. We have a home we love on 5 acres in north central Florida. Besides all the dogs, we have Nubian Goat which we breed and milk, we have a couple of cats, some pet birds and I keep bees. I also like to garden a lot. I am a veterinary technician/clinic manager at a holistic, one doctor practice. I have worked there for 9 years. Before that I taught puppy classes and good manners classes at Three J Dog training school for about 8 years. Bill is a professional musician and has been his entire life.
In the future, once I get my website problems solved, I will use this blog to post my news and updates. It is much easier to post on the blog. I will be loading pictures of our dogs and sharing some of our accomplishments of the past with you over time.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you have any questions about us, our breeding or our philosophy on Flat Coats in general, please contact us. We love to talk about dogs!
This says it's Django's pedigree (Kippenhill Frozen Assets), but he is her full brother, so it's exactly the same.
