Years ago, as I was working as a Wildlife Biologist for the Bureau of Land Management in Idaho Falls, Idaho, I attended a predator conference in Twin Falls, Idaho.  I thought it would be scientific papers presented on life histories of various predators, but I forgot, I was in sheep country, and it was all on how to control coyotes. Still, it was very interesting, especially the presentation on Livestock Guardian dogs by the Idaho Sheep Experiment Station.

I came to Alaska in 1985 to work on Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where I met my future husband Ken. As I concentrated on my career, I found myself spending more and more time in town, and Ken was getting increasingly popular for his animal radiotagging skills in the helicopter, so his season in the field was nearly year round. I decided a dog would be a perfect companion for getting out and seeing Alaska.  I remembered the dogs I had fallen in love with so many years before in Idaho, and knew they'd be perfect for the ruggedness of Alaska, so I called at least 20 breeders and grilled them intensively.  This was the first purebred I had ever purchased and I wanted to make sure I had no regrets.  I found Jan and Olga Schmidt at Brantwood, and we hit it right off. They were one of the few that really understood about kuvasz temperament, and several of the other breeders I had contacted,  also recommended them for their temperaments.

When Shiner arrived in March of 1990, I knew I had made the right decision. He had the most twinkly eyes, and now 8 1/2 years later, they are still twinkling.  I started showing him to make friends in the dog world, since Ken was gone so much.  It mushroomed and now we have nine dogs, several of them winners in their own right. I'm just as proud of the fact, though, that Shiner has produced not only Winners at Specialties, but livestock guardians and children's therapy dogs.

We had ranchers approach us at the San Antonio shows in 1993 to breed their working girl, Peachtree's Ava Gabor, to Shiner so that they could get some dependable livestock guardians. They had several pastures of sheep down in Uvalde, Texas, and the coyotes were killing the sheep right and left.  So Shiner sired a litter of nine.  Three of the girls became livestock guardians, four came up here to Alaska, (Tara, Chena, Michael and Chance) one stayed with the breeders of Ava (Rajah) and one went to live with the owners of great-grandpa Willie.  The three girls were incredibly successful, they had absolutely no losses to coyotes, and the girls are very easy to work with, which was a critical trait, since the girls had to move with the sheep from pasture to pasture, which required a lot of handling from the ranch hands.

We whelped our first official litter in August, 1996.  Tara and Maci had a lovely litter of nine,
seven boys (Fang, Chris, Curly, Louie, Hudson, Inde, Sampson) and two girls (Noel and Windy).  Our next litter came in January, 1997.  Shiner and Kizzy had three girls, (Sonia, Tanya, Powder) and four boys (Cory, Demon, Nanook, Magnum).  Maci also sired a litter of 5 with Chena, four boys (Dozier, Roscoe, Pecs and George) and one girl (Alaska).  All four litters have or will have multiple champions from them.

Ken works just as hard as I do at making a home for our guys, he hand-built them a beautiful whelping box, which he sits in for hours at a time playing with the pups.  He drives my friend's daughters over for playtime with the pups, to make sure they are well socialized with big men and children, two of the things that kuvasz can be leery of. Ours never have been.  He falls in love with every puppy, and always takes the time to talk to potential and existing owners.  He was born and raised on a ranch with many working dogs, so he has an insight few do.  He also appreciates the Alaskan way of life, and gave the dogs their own racing dog sled. They love it, and we have a great time at our cabin, running up and down the lake with the wind in their hair. The dogs have really enjoyed his time off from work, he's been working exclusively on the house for the past couple of years, and may end up flying only occasionally so he  can spend more time with us, sailing and his other interests.