It all started with a dog.

I have always had dogs. My whole life. I was born into a family with two brothers. One was my biological brother, while the other was Gus: my furbrother. It had begun. From then on I always had dogs. I have had breeds from shih tzus and toy poodles, to newfouldlands and labradors. And I adored them all. I would buy dog-breed books, read to my dogs like they were my classroom students, enrolled in puppy classes and daycares (“doggie camp”), and even watched everything I could on dog breeds and training. I even saw a dog behaviorist once. What a great learning experience.

I grew up in both the city and the country. But when I married a small-town countryman, we knew one day we would want to go back to our roots, and have a farm of our own. After four kids and living in the city and suburbs for nearly 20 years, we finally decided it was time. It took us what seemed like an eternity, because of course we couldn’t just find a cute little farm in the Rocky Mountains. We are artists! We had to build from scratch! We already had chickens in our backyard, “protected” by our German Shorthair Pointer/Labrador mix, Lola, but really she just chased the squirrels and barked just enough to keep predators away. We knew that we would need a livestock guardian dog on the farm, and I could NOT wait. I had already been researching what breed I wanted to start with, and I found the Colorado Mountain Dog. I read every post and every comment about the breed. (Ahem, breed in development). I was hooked. I couldn’t wait another second. We had already bought our land in December of 2017, and I wanted to start with a CMD in the suburbs to get her used to the chickens and our family, so that when we moved she was trained and ready to go. In January 2018, we welcomed Royalty from a farm named Painted Canvas Farm in Missouri. Right away I knew she would change our lives for the better. Everything about her spoke to me. She was perfection.

While breeding was a childhood dream of mine, it really didn’t come to mind again until I got to know Royalty more. After moving to the farm, Royalty’s Farm (RLT) was born. Royalty is the best mascot anyone could ever imagine. As are all of my LGDs. They are my joy. We now raise AKC Anatolian Shepherds, Colorado Mountain Dogs, and Grand Korumak LGDs.

Welcome.