Hello! Welcome to Crystal Winds Australian Shepherds. I stumbled upon the breed while attending an Arabian horse show in 1997. I knew nothing about the breed and went about this the absolute wrong way but got VERY lucky!!! I saw a whole litter of Blue merle puppies playing in the aisle of the barn and talked to the gal and ending up plunking down the money to buy one. She was the perfect dog. Not in structure, but in temperament and biddability. This puppy NEVER made a mistake or a wrong move. We were enamoured with the breed. And that was it.... the begininng of our endeavor to own and breed and show these wonderful dogs. That first dog was Maybel. Her full name was Maybe It's Maybelline and she is still will us today and herds the horses and keeps everyone in line. She has a wide front and close rear, a silly c shaped body that is always wiggling, a prettish head full dentition and herding instinct and ability and biddability second to none. She was our original ambassador of the breed as we went to horse shows toting several youth riders and a few adult amateur riders. I then decided it was time to find a "show dog" Maybel it turned out could not be registered ( they were never reachable afterwards to get the papers from them). I purchased another dog which proved to be not the direction I wanted to go in and so I set out to find a foundation bitch. After much research...
I stumbled upon Lily - Shawnkara's P.S. I Love You and made arrangements with her breeder in Utah to purchase her and fly her here to Minnesota. I showed her to several Best of Breed puppy wins in both ASCA and AKC. I showed her awhile and she was pointed in AKC but the conformation ring was not to be her forte. She was a lovely bitch with a less than stellar rear and after her first heat cycle - she decided that conformation showing was very boring and I decided that it was not worth dragging her around if it was not her cup of tea. I purchased Gunner shortly after Lily and showed him in both ASCA and AKC with success and he was my first ASCA Champion. I went on to finish his CKC, Int'l , and UKC Championships as well. A year and a half after Gunner's arrival - Cleo arrived- Shawnkara's Crystal Winds which we showed to a CKC, Int'l and UKC championship and pointed in AKC. Thus began the foundation of Crystal Winds. Being an Avid student of structure and movement from my horse judging days, I set out to find the best compliments for the animals I had , taking into account the faults they had with a strong eye on retaining the wonderful temperaments I had and minimizing the risks of genetic afflictions.
In 2007 Lily was named Top producing Australian Shepherd bitch in AKC. She has outproduced herself, and done me proud.
Her influence in my program is unmistakeable. Her wonderful temperament, great foot timing , big sidegait, pretty head and nice front, and performance ability in agilty and herding instinct are present in all of them. And we are now seeing her influence in some wonderful grandkids both here and in other breeders programs.
AKC/UKC CH Crystal Winds Ready Aim Fire DNA-VP lives here
AKC/UKC CH Crystal Winds Love Child DNA-VP lives here
ASCA/UKC CH Crystal Winds Designed By Love now lives with his 1/2 sister
AKC/UKC CH Crystal Winds All Eyes On Me! DNA-VP lives here
Crystal Winds Ava Gardner major pointed CKC, pointed AKC major reserves ( just a youngster beginning her career) lives here
And the few that I placed in show homes
AKC/UKC CH Crystal Winds Kickin Bootie DNA-VP the foundation of Boondocks Australian Shepherds
And so the story goes on and this endeavor that we take so seriously, because we know how these animals affect peoples lives, is a work in progress.
