Program

Who we are

We are family. We enjoy our time together. Our dogs aren't just dogs, our livestock aren't just animals. We are friends and family.

Katie has a master's in Equine Business Management. She has taken classes in animal body language.

Our Training and Working Program

• We believe that the shepherd and the dog are partners. 

  • In the old days, the shepherd and the dog spent a lot of time together. Today, the shepherd can live inside the house more often - but that doesn't take away from the vital partnership that the dog and the shepherd should have with each other.

• We believe that our dogs are our family and friends. "Obitelj" (oh-bee-tell) means family in Croatian. 

  • We trust our dogs, and they trust us.

• We believe in understanding the actions of the dog before reacting.

  • A dog isn't doing something for no reason, especially a dog as smart as a Tornjak.

  • For example, Pluto decided that the miniature horses should not be allowed in the barn. Before telling Pluto that he was wrong in keeping the minis out, I tried to understand his reasoning. I realized that I had accidentally taught him this! When I gave the goats their grain, I did not let the minis come into the barn. Pluto continued that thought even when I was not in the barn. Pluto and I will work together to see that the minis can come in the barn, and it is just the goat food that the minis cannot eat. 

• We believe in kindness and understanding.

  • This builds trust, which makes training and working together much easier when you want to work well with each other. 

• We believe in keeping the breed traits and behaviors.

  • Tornjaks use their front feet as we do hands, and touch things (or people) a lot. You will never find me telling a Tornjak not to touch me with their paws - that would be like yelling at a human for shaking someone's hand.

  • Livestock guardian dogs, in this situation Tornjaks, like to stand up on their back feet a lot. While it is rude to jump on a stranger, I would never tell a Tornjak that we cannot hug and look eye to eye while having a serious conversation.

  • We believe in not using aversive methods. 

    • You will never find us using a shock collar (shock or vibrate) on our dogs.

    • We do not tie our dogs out for outside time - we may at times hook a leash to a post to ground the dog for a moment, but the dog would not be left alone.

    • We do not spray our dogs with water bottles or any other spray to get them to stop barking or any other unwanted behavior.

    • We do not use prong collars, etc.

      • Show dogs do use martingale or slip collars, but by then, they are walking calmly at your side, and the collar is not used in an aversive method.

    • Our livestock have electric (hot) fencing, so the dogs are trained to that fencing. If the tiny five-pound baby goats (and us humans!!) can handle it, our massive Tornjaks can handle it as well. 

  • We believe in positive and trust training.

    • We treat our dogs kindly and encourage good behavior.

  • We believe in safety training. If a dog needs to be taken to the vet, an animal hospital, a boarding facility, etc, it is vital that the dog is able to do so without stress and difficulties. 

    • All our dogs are crate/kennel trained.

    • All our dogs are collar, harness, and muzzle trained.

    • All our dogs are vehicle-trained.

  • We believe in good fencing.

    • Livestock guardian dogs have a huge protection "bubble". If they can hear the coyote, they are going to try to protect their livestock. All livestock guardian dogs need fencing, all of them. Many can also jump and climb very well - I just saw a video of a Tornjak hopping over a four-foot fence as if it was nothing. I've seen a video of a Great Pyrenees climbing out of a six-foot kennel wall. If a livestock guardian dog thinks they need to get over the fence to take care of a threat, they will try.

Our Breeding Program

Tornjaks are relatively rare in the USA. There is not a standard list of testing for the breed.

All of our testing results are public - we do not hide results on OFA or other websites. Please check each dog's page for links to their results.

• The testing that we do:

  • OFA hip testing

  • PennHip hip testing

  • OFA elbow testing

  • OFA eye testing

  • OFA heart testing

  • WisdomPanel Premium DNA testing