Please scroll down and read about our family! Love Bindi & Addie
A little about ourselves:

Bill and I have been married 25 years and have had 6 children. Our oldest daughter is a nurse at Loma Linda Medical Center, our next daughter is a Sophmore in College, and we have two boys ages 9 and 6. We are active members in our local church, and want to first give thanks to God for the blessings of family, and for being with us in every hobby, and project we undertake. As we begin this kennel we ask that God will be known through our honesty, integrity, and quality.

About 11 years ago we purchased a 5 acre piece of land, and built our dream at the base of the Eagle cap wilderness in Cove, OR. We began our small farm. We started with our horses and dogs, and have expanded to chickens, goats, a mini donkey, but our main focus is on our dogs. Although we love dogs in general and have had many different breeds, the Bernese Mountain Dog has captured our hearts like none preceding. The Australian Shepard taught us that we could never own a dog again that wasn't loyal...Our Meghan was the epitome of loyalty. The Golden Retriever taught us that we loved his tolerance of children...Timber loved everyone including the strangers. Next we had our two German Shepards, Donder and Blitzen. They taught us that family loyalty again was what we wanted and admired in them. These two watched over our children like they were their own...but unfortunately they wanted the kids to themselves...every other pet that our children had was looked upon as prey or competition. We also learned that we never again wanted to own such wonderful dogs just to have them taken from us because of health problems that could have been prevented if they had been bred correctly.

In 1998, two of our children were killed in an automobile accident. We mention this not to ask for sympathy, but to mention two beautiful people that have influenced our lives and still live on in our hearts. Both of these children loved animals as much as we do, and being part of a breeding program, and showing dogs, would have completed a dream for the daughter we lost, Alicia. Because of her, we named our first born Bernese "Adalicia" in memory of her. After the accident, we all had to deal with our grief in various ways. Although God was and is our true healing, he used a very special pet to help. Although we had our out door dogs, one of my daughters felt that if she could just have a dog of her own to hold and cuddle in her bed (we had never had anything but large, outside dogs) and tell her sorrows to...well she would be better. It was as if a miracle had happened in our daughter after Hannah came to live with us; her Jack Russell Terrier! Hannah wormed her way into all of our hearts. She taught us that sometimes big dogs live in small packages. She had the energy to keep up with our busy lifestyle and became our daughter's best friend.

Because we loved Hannah (wrong reason to breed. And we don't claim to say we started the best way....just that this is HOW we started), we decided to breed her so that we could keep another. Hannah was slightly built and we looked for a male that would hopefully add a bigger build to her puppies. We bred, had a wonderful experience, and bred nicer pups than what we started with. Wow, I (Shelly) was bit! After that litter, we bred 2 other litters of JRT's with each litter improving upon the last. We began looking into genetics and how things worked. We had kept a pup from the first litter, and when she was old enough, we bred her twice as well, and have produced even nicer JRT's than Hannah and Mia! We worked closely with our veterinarian and took great care to keep our dogs health primary. So thus started our education in breeding. The only problem was that this was not the dog of my dreams...this was my husbands and daughters breed. I still wanted to stay with the larger breeds. But what I was hooked on was the improving of a breed, and finding quality homes for quality pets. I learned that I don't just enjoy the dogs...I enjoy the people I meet and develop relationships with.  We no longer breed JRT's, but enjoy their companionship. 

After our last German Shepherd died, we began to look for the "perfect" dog. He had to be smart, big, and protective, but not aggressive and unpredictable. He had to be able to withstand the weather of Eastern Oregon, go with me on horse trails, camping, and in the car. He had to be able to join the family in the house with out totally disrupting the family and all of its belongings. He had to be gentle with all my farm animals and at the same time keep the unwanted ones away. He had to be 100% trustworthy around all children. And if he could be beautiful...well who wouldn't want that! Well, what should we find but the Bernese Mountain Dog. The first time I had even seen a BMD, was in a parade pulling a cart with two children in it a few years earlier. At that time, I purposely sought out the owner and asked about her dog. Every time we talked about "our next dog" the BMD kept coming into the conversation. We studied the breed, and decided we were going to start our search. The only area in our search not met was the "he" part. In 2004, we met Ray and Pat Burgett with Eaglecap Bernese. We bought the most beautiful little girl...in our opinion! Shyla has met and exceeded every expectation we wanted in our next dog. Don't get us wrong..we are not saying she is perfect, but to us, at this time, she was. We loved (and still continue to love her) her to pieces and have decided that we love this breed like no other. This time God used a much bigger package to help in the healing of our family. She has brought us into the world of dog showing, competition sports, therapy dogs (because of our location we do not have a title in this area, but we do visit nursing homes, schools, and churches), breeding (the correct way this time), and many new friends. Being that I am a stay at home mom, I have the time to invest in becoming a breeder and have had the desire to do so for years. We are both committed to educating ourselves in this area on a full time basis, and realize that we will never be finished learning. But, this is an education we love.

Our goal as breeders is to keep all of the valuable assets that the Berner has brought to people through out the centuries, while attempting to maintain their longevity, beauty, and temperament. Because showing is a new hobby, and a valuable asset in breeding quality dogs, we will be breeding for prospective show quality dogs as well as companion dogs, but our primary concern is to ensure that our puppies are placed in homes that will nurture and develop these dogs to their full potential. We hope to provide other dog lovers the opportunity to own such a special dog and experience what a unique opportunity it is to enter into a lifelong relationship with a Berner. As breeders, we are committed to providing you with support for the entire life of your Berner, and if we don't know the answer, we will work together with you to find the answer as a team!

Thank you for allowing us to introduce ourselves!

Bill, Shelly, Addie, Bindi, Zea, Harmony & Freja