74 Ranch Mini History!
74 Ranch started breeding Mini Aussies in 2005. Before that time we bred a few litters of border collies and border collie/Aussie crosses. We had a rough start getting quality registered Mini Aussies in the beginning, but looking back what we did has highly contributed to our program. Our first few smaller dogs were toys. While we loved the size we didn't love the issues that came with these particular dogs and wanted the larger size so we spayed and sold them all and started over. We had 3 foundation lines then, basically: 1) HOF, HOFX Dam Heartland's Whispering Brooke and the line we kept from her. 2) CH Sagonige's Turn N Heads at 74 Ranch mHIC, CGC, SCT-I, CD-M, RO-N, A-I, NTD, V-2 and 3) GR CH Top 10 Ridgestar Bareback Jack at 74 Ranch CACIB UCI CH, UCI Ehren CH, SCT-I, mHIC, M-I, RO-N, V-2.
We purchased Brooke (1) from Nebraska. She had 4 litters for us. The second litter was sired by CH Wigglebutt Light Up My Life (Lucas - above right) and had an AWESOME litter, our first TRULY awesome litter. We started showing Brooke and decided we liked it! We kept HOF GR CH Top 10 74 Ranch Wigglebutt Echo In Time CGC, SCT-I, A-N, ND-M, RO-A, AS-N, NTD, DIS-I, SDA-I, OAC, HD-L2D, HD-L3S, F/R-L1S, V-4+ (Echo) and CH 74 Ranch Wigglebutt Black Label CGC, mHIC, N-O, RO-A, V3 (Cooper) from that litter (who went to a wonderful partner home) and had 2 more pups we should have kept in our program :( Echo and Cooper have gone to get their championships and/or grand championships from MASCA, IABCA, etc. and both have lots of performance titles. Echo went on to become our Foundation Dam and was in MASCA's Top 10 conformation for 2 years and the #2 Top herding dog. From Brooke's last litter with CH Sagonige's Shoot N the Brees we placed CH 74 Ranch Everything's Just Ducky CD RN NAJ THD CGCA TKI to Cindy Germain in Cheyenne. She got his MASCA Championship then his AKC Championship as well as Therapy dog and agility titles. Echo got the herding titles that Brooke needed in her progeny to achieve MASCA Hall of Fame X Dam in 2016 along with the help of Cooper with Kristy Allison and Ducky with Cindy Germain in conformation.
EnV - CH Sagonige's Turn N Heads at 74 Ranch (below right) was purchased at the same time as her full brother CH Sagonige's Shoot N The Brees at 74 Ranch CGC,mHIC, SCT-I, M-I, V1 (Drew-pictured below left) in March 2010 from Hall of Fame Kennel, Sagonige Mini Aussies in South Dakota. Drew was tragically killed in an accident while he was young but before that time he got his MASCA championship as well as his CGC,mHIC, SCT-I, M-I, V1! He only sired the one litter for us with Brooke. EnV was a joy to have. She got her MASCA championship as well as many titles and produced several males we have in our program - 74 Ranch HeadN To Vegas and GR CH 74 Ranch Shoot N for the Stars (who went on to be in the MASCA Top 10) as well as several grandbabies!
GR CH Top 10 Ridgestar Bareback Jack at 74 Ranch CACIB UCI CH, UCI Ehren CH, SCT-I, mHIC, M-I, RO-N, V-2 (below left) was purchased from Mona Cooper in Washington as a pup. We fell in love with him when he saw him in a picture (something we don't usually allow ourselves to do). As soon as I got him home we did a personality test and he was everything we were told he was. He went oan to get his Grand Championship at a young age and became part of the MASCA Top 10 Conformation Dogs. He also got several performance titles while living with Vivian Beard, our partner home, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Since, he was placed with Laurie and John in Wellington and he's retired from the show/performance rings to live on a dairy farm. We have some awesome babies of his in our program including 74 Ranch HeadN To Vegas and MASCA GR CH #2 AKC ROM-1 CH 74 Ranch Tell N It Like It Is RO-O, CGC, mHIC, V-2 (shown below right) and her brother Crooz who is owned by Randy and Shelly Evans in Sundance, Wyoming, all shown below. We also now co-own a daughter of his, ASA CH Quail Ridge Malibu Babe RO-I seen on our female page.
We bred Echo to CH Boldheart A King's Castle I'm Your Huckleberry mhic and produced Meaka and Chatter - CH 74 Ranch Talk N Up A Storm CGC, RO-N, I-M, HCTg, HD-L2D, HD-L2S, mHIC, JHD, V-3+ (shown herding below) . Meaka went on to produce Candor in her first and only litter and Chatter produced GR CH #1 MAJC 74 Ranch Union Jack and 74 Ranch Majc Springtime Snowstorm NA NAJ (Spring) (both seen further below
Other dogs we added to our programs or produced:
We achieved great structure and success in the show ring and decided we needed to work a bit more on personality so we added CH RKC's Sagonige's Go N Full Throttle (below left) to our program. Indy is 16 1/2" so he was on the smaller side and had a SUPER outgoing personality, easy going. He produced it too. His offspring that we have added to our program include: CH 74 Ranch Savannah Spice (below middle) who got Superdog with WOWMASC and 74 Ranch It's Bristol Baby. Everyone in the family loved Indy so much he stayed here and lived in our kids home.
We purchased Grand Champion Top 10 Sagonige's Lucy in the Sky at Hot House mHIC, SCT-I, RO-N, I-M, CGC, V-2 (above) and had a super nice litter out of her then placed her in a partner home, MAJC Aussies, in Cheyenne. Lucy continued to win in the show ring and was in MASCA's Top 10 Conformation for several years.
We ended up purchasing two pups sired by GR CH Top 10 74 Ranch Shoot N For the Stars out of Gr CH Top 10 Sagonige's Gigage Ada in May 2015. I personality tested that litter and it was a fabulous litter. MASCA CH Top 10 Sagonige's King Cowboy at 74 Ranch and ICE Top 10 MASCA CH Sagonige's Amber Brandy at 74 Ranch. Both are pictured below and live in partner homes - Roy with Petersons in Torrington WY and Brandy with Taylors in Ault CO. We also kept a red merle male in our co-own program, 74 Ranch Private Nvestigator in 2019 sired by Sling Shot out of MASCA CH Sagonige's SingN Jazz at 74 Ranch. He lives in Casper with the Spiva family.
In September 2017, 74 Ranch Mini Aussies became MASCA HALL OF FAME BREEDER/KENNEL! We thought we had met our goals but then in 2019 we went AKC and have started over on goals
We kept a few pups from our program that have just gone on to do fabulous things! THE NEXT GENERATION: MAJC 74 Ranch Union Jack became a Grand Champion and the #1 MASCA dog in 2017. He's got a SUPER personality, great size, bone, looks, he's the 'full package'... He lives with partners, David and Ellen Otto in Hawk Springs, WY. 74 Ranch Tell N It Like It Is (very related to Union Jack) got her Open Rally title and Grand championship and was awarded the #1 FEMALE in MASCA 2017. Both of them win a lot of Head Type classes and Candor won several brace classes with her grandma Echo. We are excited about what our future holds out for us with these two.
In 2018 we decided we did all we could in the world of MASCA (Mini Aussies) so we took Candor AKC Miniature American. We loved it so much we took more, now we are showing all summer with AKC conformation. We plan to start performance events in 2020 (guess not, COVID happened). Our first Mini American purchase is GCH Kadels-N-MJ's Blue Ain't Your Color (Urban) the red merle shown below. He will be used on a few co-own females such as GCH Quail Ridge Malibu Babe (the black tri shown below) that we co-own with Jerry and Theresa Leroy. Urban lives with our partner family, my dad in Fort Collins CO.
We had a co-own litter in Idaho and ended up keeping Buckles (BELOW) here at the ranch. She is tiny, 14 1/4". She got her AKC Championship, BCAT title (fastcat), CGC (Canine Good Citizen) and TKN (Trick Dog Novice) so now her name is CH 74 Ranch Taste N Victory CGC TKN BCAT. We hope to keep something back from her in the future. We also kept 2 brothers of hers in our program, Wink and Peri
Candor and her daughter Lexus who lived with us but went over-size (74 Ranch Pursue N Perfection CGC RN TKI BCAT) were both spayed in 2021 and placed in pet homes. But we have 2 daughters of Candor sired by Union Jack that will be our new 'foundation'. Rumor, below left (GCH 74 Ranch Tell N Stories CGC TKN BCAT) and Ember, below right (74 Ranch Watch N Her Glow CGC) just started having their own progency which excites us greatly! Ember now lives with a Junior handler, with a partner family in Utah.
In early 2023 we purchased a super little prospect from Kim Gardner at Treasure's Minis. (CH Treasure's Dig N Fur Bones at 74 Ranch CGC) will be siring future puppies here at 74 Ranch. We also have an upcoming male we will announce soon.
In early 2024 we purchased a gorgeous little girl, Smudge below, so we could use her on our studs Blitz, Union Jack and Wink in the future from Kathy Munson at Destiny Aussies and Theresa LeRoy from Quail Ridge Minis (Destiny's Blur N Lines with KickinAuss) has made her way into our home and hearts. Be sure to watch for her in the future.
What is in the future of 74 Ranch? We are only keeping the 'full package' dogs in our program for future breedings and we are wanting to slow down to spend more time with family which means we will keep very FEW dogs in the future. Most of these dogs will be placed in partner/guardian homes so we can stay small, or show/breed homes to small breeders. We got AKC Breeder of Merit in April 2023 and are working on MASCUSA Hall of Fame and ROM sires and dams. Please let us know if you would like to get involved in our journey by becoming a partner with us.
