Kyrie/Piston Puppies!

On May 29, 2012, Kyrie gave birth to six healthy, rambunctious puppies! As of this week they have all gone to their forever homes except for one--Blazie, the little sable girl, who we kept. :) You can see Blazie's blog here:

Blazie the ISSR Shiloh Shepherd!

You can see all the photos we took over the first eight weeks and beyond here, on the Kyrie/Piston litter blog:

The Kyrie/Piston Litter!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to compliment us on this wonderful litter! These pups had fantastic temperaments, gorgeous looks, and we're hoping for awesome size and health down the road!

Kyrie's Second Litter!

Yes, it's true! Kyrie has a new boyfriend: Champion and Grand Victor PISTON of Victory Shilohs! We are expecting pups any day now!

Margaret and David at Victory generously shared photos of Piston for us to post, such as the one below. Piston is a gorgeous black and grey sable boy with a rock-solid temperament, tons of confidence and an impressive presence! Combined with Kyrie's easy-to-train intelligence and sweetness we expect some really wonderful pups!

If you would like to follow the growth and development of this litter, you can check out our new litter blog at http://kyriepistonlitter.blogspot.com . Once pups are on the ground, we will be putting up plenty of pictures!

Thanks for reading, everyone! Stay tuned for puppy news!

Summertime Kyrie!

Kyrie loved her puppies, but she's happy not to have to share time with her humans with the little ones any more! She recovered very quickly from her whelping and nursing and is very fit and energetic, with a beautiful coat. Here are some photos of Kyrie outside, enjoying the cooler morning hours before the heat sets in. :)

Below, she demonstrates her lovely flying trot! Tina, our Breed Founder, always liked to see the photos of Kyrie in her trot. She's really a smooth mover!


Kyrie loves to do what we call "the flouncy-pounce". Done correctly, Kyrie explodes from a standstill into a giant BOUNCE which then comes down in a play-bow, after which there is much running around the yard. :) Below, we see the BOUNCE part of the maneuver!


Kyrie expresses her disdain for my camera work, below.


Below is an awesome, and completely accidental photo! It was taken in the evening and the light was kind of funky. Somehow the camera managed to mostly focus on Kyrie running (look at that reach!), but everything else in the photo went rather psychedelic!


My pretty girl, holding a nice sit for me. :)


Thanks for looking, everyone! I do love my Kyrie-girl, and I love sharing her with y'all. :) Have a great summer!

Kyrie's Puppies!

Well it's been a long time since we had our last update! Kyrie did have her puppies, on Saturday the 26th of March. There were three: a white, a bi-color, and a dark sable. We named them Astra, Andros, and Ajax. Above you can see them at six weeks of age.

If you would like to see ALL the photos we took from day one through ten weeks and beyond, please take a look at our Kyrie/Leo litter blog here:

Sparta's First Kyrie/Leo Litter Blog!

At ten weeks, Astra went to friends of ours here in Denton. She kept her name, and we are hoping she will make herself a reputation in the show ring as she gets older!


At ten weeks, Ajax, now named Jax, went to Lewisville TX, just south of us. He shares his new home with another Shiloh Shepherd, a rescue German Shepherd, and a Shepherd mix--lots of new playmates!


At ten weeks, the last pup to leave was Andros, now called Saber. He lives with his new family in Flagstaff, AZ, and has three kids of his own now to play with!


Thanks for checking in! Up next: Kyrie summertime photos!

Preggers Kyrie!

For those not on Facebook with us, I've been asked to post the preggers Kyrie photo I took the other day. Here you are, folks!

Cross fingers and pray that we'll get pups tonight!

We're Getting Close!!

We are getting close to "puppy time"! Kyrie went in for her x-rays yesterday, to make sure the pups were still in there, and we saw the little skeletons! This will be a smaller litter, so it will be easier on Kyrie (and also on Zak and I!). Above you can see Kyrie in her brand-new whelping box. She loves to go in there for treats. When it's almost time for pups, we will put x-pens around the box to keep her close to it.

Stay tuned for puppies, everyone! Due sometime between March 18th and the 27th! :) If you missed our litter announcement banner and our collage of Leo and Kyrie's ancestors and close relatives (who the pups may resemble), take a look at the last post from 2010. :)

Future Kyrie Puppies??

Could it be? Yes, it's true! This January we will be breeding Kyrie with our Champion sire, Leo, for the first time! Cross fingers with us that we will have a happy and healthy dam and litter of pupsters in March, everyone!


This, our first litter, will be a co-own with Tina and Lisa Barber of New Zion Shilohs. This means that if you would like to get on the list for a Kyrie/Leo pup, you will need to fill out the New Zion puppy application, which you can find here on the NZS site.


Above you'll see the collage of littermates and ancestors of Kyrie and Leo. We put together these collages because often pups will resemble their ancestors more than their parents! From left to right and top to bottom, you can see:

Row One: Acer, Leo's sire; Tucker, Kyrie's twin brother
Row Two: Chester, Kyrie's younger brother; Granddam Tang; Grandsire Grizz
Row Three: Scout, Kyrie's sire; Leo's littermate MC and littermate Nana
Row Four: Leo; Leo's dam Holly
Row Five: Kyrie; Grandsire Storm

Because Holly looks quite a bit like Kyrie, we expect quite a few brown sables with cream in this litter. Because Leo has reddish coloring and so does Kyrie's grandpa Storm, we may get some reddish pups in this litter, too! We have the chance for white/buff pups, and a small chance for solid blacks. We may even get a "Hobo" pup with markings like Kyrie...I am crossing my fingers!

We hope you're just as excited about this litter as we are!! Please join us in wishing luck to the happy couple on their upcoming "wedding" day! :)