BRR Aussies

Q. & A. with Sarrah

• Why did you start breeding?

  Both Sarrah and Jordan grew up deeply loving and caring for a wide assortment of animals. Some of Sarrah's family were also breeders of dogs. Before marriage, Sarrah and Jordan discussed the animals that they wanted to raise together and of those the Australian Shepherd dog stood out in their dreams. About a year into marriage they decided they were ready to start their pack and adopted all-American mutt Ember and Australian Shepherd Rocky into their home. They dreamed of expanding their pack so that they could breed Australian Shepherds (if their dogs were suitable breeding prospects), but their living situation for a couple years only permitted two dogs. When Rocky turned 2 years old, they moved onto their current property with 3 acres and feeling that they now had enough room (and without a restriction on the number of dogs) they adopted Australian Shepherd Ray Ray. Sarrah and Jordan patiently waited for Ray Ray to turn 2 so that they could perform OFA X-rays on her to determine if she was a suitable candidate for breeding. In the meantime, Rocky became stud-dog father to a few litters with Tender-Mercies Ranch. About 5 years after their dream of breeding Australian Shepherds began, BRR had their first litter of puppies!

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• What makes your program special?

  We strive to be an 'ethical breeder' of Australian Shepherds. Ethical breeder can be difficult to define so we adopt this definition by Laura Sharkey: "Ethical breeders provide breeding dogs with a great life, take lifetime responsibility for every puppy, are knowledgeable about current best practices and are always learning, prioritize health and quality of life and temperament above appearance, have clear goals and make adjustments based on their results, are honest and transparent and communicate in good faith in all areas." Our goals are to produce quality dogs that will thrive as working dogs or pet companions. By "quality dogs" we mean dogs that are healthy and less likely to develop health related illnesses in their lifetime, dogs that have excellent temperament (striving to please their owners and lacking aggression towards people), and dogs with an appearance that their owners can brag about. ​ Some of the ways we go above and beyond the average breeder are providing homemade (less processed and more nutrient rich) food to our dogs, performing Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) on the puppies to improve their stress responses when they older, brushing our dogs teeth regularly to prevent periodontal disease, playing instrumental music in the whelping area at night to minimize stress levels, providing a free detailed guide with our preferred products to our customers, and writing in our puppy contract that if the owner is ever considering surrendering their dog to a shelter that they will return the dog to our home to prevent overloading of shelters.

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• What are the different breed coat colors in your program?

  Our puppies include red merle and red tri-color. Colors will vary depending on the parent dogs.

• Where do your breeding dogs live?

  They live in my home.