When we bred our litter in 2024, we had planned on keeping the pick puppy to continue developing our breeding program. At 8 weeks, Ryder was pick puppy, but Ella was too nice a package to place in a home that wouldn’t allow her to be available for our breeding program in the future (IF she developed as we hoped and IF she got her Grand Championship and IF she passed all her health tests. The road to actually being used in a breeding program is long.). We decided to hold Ella back and continue to look for a home for her, as having more than one puppy at a time can be challenging. Unfortunately for others, and fortunately for us, the right home did not come along, and that was fine as Ella easily worked her way into our family and we could not now imagine rehoming her. She is especially Paul’s girl.

Ella has enjoyed a great puppyhood playing in the water at the lake in the summer, and exploring the trails around our cottage, primarily with Paul and the rest of the crew. Once Ella and brother Ryder reached 4 months, both were entered in baby puppy classes at shows and she won a few Best Baby Puppy in Group awards. At 6 months, Ella graduated to official CKC classes to compete for points towards her championship, winning points her first show and weekend out, and finishing her championship at only 6 1/2 months at her second show weekend. Since then, we’ve continued to show Ella, and she’s placed well, achieving her Grand Championship, and Grand Champion Bronze before 18 months of age. She also placed in her class at her first US National Specialty – always with Paul at the end of her lead.

Ella is Paul’s girl. She has a soft and suuuuper sweet personality and is very cuddly. She is talkative – there is a whole conversation that happens as she plays with Ryder – it’s quite funny. There are also a wide range of noises when she’s snuggling. She likes quietly swimming behind the ducks at the lake, following them all over the place.

We look forward to seeing Ella continue to mature, and also start in performance activities in addition to  conformation shows.