At this time I.A.R. Catahoulas is not an NALC Certified Breeder.

Despite not being registered, we did follow all the best breeding practices recommended by the NALC.

This includes:

• Parents must be at least one year of age for breeding. (Our Dam was 3 years at first breeding, and our Sire was 1.5 years at first breeding.)

• Parents should be health tested. (Both Hermit and Nula received full health exams from our liscenced veterinarian before breeding.)

Our additional precautions:

• Parents were brucellas tested. (Hermit and Nula were both cleared of brucellas via a blood test performed by our liscenced veterinarian before breeding.)

• Parents were isolated during conception. (The parents were confined during the breeding period to ensure the of the lineage of the litter.)

• Our breeding pair has no overlapping bloodlines. (Our NALC certified records for Sire and Dam show no overlap going back 3 generations.)

Our puppies begin training at 6 weeks for basic obedience and good manners. We begin by socializing them and teaching their environment.

Daily activity focuses on acclimating them to the homestead and teaching basic farm etiquette like no chasing farm animals and be aware of equipment and vehicles, as well as respecting the other animals' pens/spaces/coops.

Basic obedience includes but is not limited to: good manners around food, potty training, no aggression to other farm animals, no jumping and avoiding feet, leash training, and recall.

Puppies are socialized daily with chickens, guineas, turkey, and cats, as well as our other dogs.

The hounds spend the day outside, puppies contained to a kennel, so they are acclimated to the outdoor environment. They sleep indoors at night, and are cage trained and potty trained as early as possible.

Everyone eats together, and no food aggression is tolerated.

The dogs are also encouraged to accompany us on daily tasks such as pen checks and feeding, so they are accustomed to excited activity where they learn to be respectful of the other animals.