Dan and I began our life together 32 years ago after a life long friendship and a whirl wind courtship and marriage. (We dated 6 weeks and got married the 7th. LOL!) Our family was complete with the arrival of our beautiful daughter, Sarah. She's our only child and our pride and joy. Sarah gets her love of animals from us both. Dan and I belong to families that have always taken in strays, both animal and human. I raised and trained competition and performance horses in my youth. When we got married we switched our love of being in the ring from horses to dogs. We started with American Cocker Spaniels, then showed Tibetan Spaniels and finally found our favorite breed on earth, the Shih Tzu.
In our 29 years raising and showing dogs, we have had the joy of either showing or owning as pets eight different breeds of dogs. Other than Shih Tzu we have shown and/or finished Cocker Spaniels, Tibetan Spaniels, Border Collies, Pekingese, Great Danes, Poodles and a Yorkie. We love our dogs and only want what is best for them. Our dogs are our beloved companions. We keep them happy with toys, TV and our devotion to their health and well-being. Our dogs live in our home, side by side with us every day, just like everyone else's pets.
We have been showing Shih Tzu for 12 years. We got our first pet Shih Tzu in 1996. It just happened that he was nice enough to show and finish. Gavin quickly became CH Falling Star Fyr DeOhGe SrJn, owner-handled in a handler's breed. A few months after we brought Gavin home we got Constance, SarJan's Rose Serenade and Rebecca. Becca became CH Falling Star's Power Blaze SarJan at 14 months of age. She finished with all majors. After finishing CH Ista's Wicked Fame 'N Fortune and CH Jai-Dei's Sugar Cookie SrJn we finished our first homebred champions. They were out of Becca and Bad, BIS BISS CH Ista's Wicked Fantasy ROM, the 1995 Best of Breed Winner at Westminster. Noochi and Queen were CH SarJan's What A Girl Wants and CH SarJan's Step Aside by the time they were 15 months old. Noochi finished owner-handled with 4 majors and Queen was finished by Greg Larson of Ista Shih Tzu.
In the time we have owned, shown and bred Shih Tzu we have finished a total of 49 Shih Tzu, 38 of which we bred ourselves. One of our proudest achievements thus far has been CH SarJan's Point Break. Like his mother and grandmother, Brody finished with 4 majors.
He accomplished this a 9 months, 9 days of age. Following in the SarJan's tradition
Luke, CH SarJan's This Is How A Heart Breaks, finished at 9 months, 3 weeks of age with four 4 point majors from the Bred-by Exhibitor class. Noah, CH SarJan's More Than U R,
also finished with four 4 pt majors and a Group 4 from the Bred-by Exhibitor class on the day he finished.
The purpose of showing our Shih Tzu is to have an evaluating judge give their opinion on how close our dog fits the breed standard. The breed standard is written by the national parent club and presented to the American Kennel Club as the ideal to strive for in the breed. The parent club is charged with protecting the integrity and well-being of the breed. The American Shih Tzu Club is our breed's parent club.
Our dogs have been evaluated in the show ring by knowledgeable judges for the purpose of helping us decide if the dog closely enough fits the standard to be bred. This enables us to continue producing top-quality dogs that are sound, correct representations of the breed in the show ring and as loving companions in pet homes as well.
We breed several litters several times a year. We breed for ourselves first and the pet buying public second. Puppies we do not keep to show or for our breeding program are offered as companions to loving homes on spay/neuter agreements. We do not knowingly sell our pet puppies to breeding homes.
We are active members of our regional Shih Tzu club and in good standing with the American Kennel Club. We support our local kennel clubs by volunteering at their events and with our entries. We are vet inspected and state licensed.
