Flightsong Minis

05/11/2026

05/01/2026

We had our beautiful Nimh spay on 4/28. As soon as she is healed, she will be available for a great home. There is a caveat that there will be an expense and I will only discuss it with serious inquiries only. She is CH Coal Dust’s The Secret on NIMH. She is sweet dog that wants to be a part of you. No really. She wants to be in your skin. She would do well in a place with maybe one or two dogs. She is retired from showing and she’s had 3 beautiful litters for us. It’s time she had a break from the chaos and got some more attention. She’ll be 7 in June, but if you love sports, she’s intelligent and biddable and could use a little job and/or a lot of attention. DM me with any serious interest.

03/30/2026

Happy 10th birthday to our first-born Flightsong dog, Rhiannon! (Flightsong’s Taken by the Wind). Jim and I took Rhia, her daughter, Marla, and our papillon, Winx camping and hiking this past weekend. It was a fun time all around!

03/07/2026

Why can’t I have my puppy at 6 weeks?

If you’re looking for your first well bred dog, you might notice that breeders are a lot more strict about puppies not leaving until at minimum 8 weeks and often longer…

When you’re excited about bringing home your new puppy, that can feel like a long time. But those final weeks with the breeder are some of the most important weeks in a puppy’s life.

During those last few weeks, puppies are still learning critical social skills from their mom and their littermates. This is where they learn things like bite inhibition, how to communicate with other dogs, and how to handle frustration during play. Puppies that leave too early miss out on a lot of those natural lessons.

Those weeks are also when responsible breeders are doing a lot of early development work. Puppies are being handled daily, introduced to grooming tools, bathing, car rides, crate training, being exposed to new surfaces and sounds, and gently prepared for the world they’re about to enter. This early exposure helps create confident, adaptable dogs.

For show breeders, 8 weeks is also evaluation time for most breeds. This is when we assess each puppy’s structure, movement, and temperament so we can decide which puppies may stay in the breeding program or go on to be show prospects. As well as which homes will be the best fit for each individual puppy.

But, this timeline isn’t just a breeder preference. In many states it is actually illegal to sell a puppy younger than 8 weeks old because animal welfare laws recognize how important that developmental period is.

Some puppies stay even longer. Toy breed puppies are often kept until around 12 weeks of age, because their tiny bodies can be more prone to blood sugar crashes. Keeping them a little longer helps ensure they are stable, eating well, and ready for the transition to a new home… as well as have an educated eye on their every move to recognize early signs of a crash.

When you see a breeder waiting until 8 weeks or longer, it isn’t about making buyers wait. It’s about giving each puppy the time they need to develop properly so they can grow into confident, amazing adult dogs.

How old was your dog when you brought them home? Do you have a “go home day” picture? Let’s see it ⬇️🫶🏼

03/07/2026

The breeder I’m talking to says the puppies are “Embark Health Tested.” What does that mean?

While having genetic testing done on your breeding stock is important, being “Embark tested” by itself is simply not enough. Unfortunately it has become a phrase backyard breeders often use to make their program sound more legitimate than it actually is.

Embark is a DNA test that screens for certain inherited diseases and traits. It can tell you if a dog is clear, a carrier, or affected for specific genetic conditions. That information can be useful when making responsible breeding decisions.

However, Embark also tests for a very large number of conditions and traits that are not relevant to many breeds. That’s one reason several other genetic testing companies offer breed-specific panels, focusing only on the conditions that actually matter for that breed.

Another common misunderstanding is the idea that a dog must be completely “clear” of every genetic condition in order to be bred. Ethical preservation breeders understand that genetics don’t work that way. If we removed every carrier of every condition from the gene pool, we would quickly lose valuable genetics and shrink the diversity of the breed.

Instead, responsible breeders use genetic testing as a tool for planning breedings. Carriers can absolutely remain in a breeding program. The goal is simply to never breed a carrier to another carrier for the same condition.

In Australian Shepherds there is even a commonly understood exception. Some breeders will occasionally breed two MDR1 carriers together in a carefully planned breeding if the pairing is otherwise extremely valuable for the breed.

Genetic testing is about informed decision making, not eliminating dogs from the gene pool.

Health testing for many breeds also includes things like OFA or PennHIP evaluations for hips and elbows, eye exams performed by a veterinary ophthalmologist, cardiac evaluations, and other breed-specific screenings recommended by the parent club.

Responsible breeders are also evaluating structure, movement, temperament, and long-term soundness before deciding whether a dog should be bred.

So when someone says their dogs are “Embark tested,” it’s worth asking a few follow-up questions:

• What other health testing has been completed?
• Are the results publicly available through OFA?
• Are the parents proven through work, sport, or showing?

It’s important to remember that genetic testing is a tool, but the project of breeding requires multiple tools 🫶🏼

What is the most exciting tip you’ve learned about finding an ethical breeder by following our series?

01/23/2026

Also, Pissfingers requires a special diet that can only be purchased from a specialty vet and costs $80 for a 1 pound bag.

Be mad all you want, but it’s true. 🫩

12/12/2025

You do not have to “meet the parents” to verify quality.

This one trips a lot of people up because it sounds logical on paper. People think, “I should meet the mom and dad to know what I am getting.” But in reality, it is not always possible.

If you can meet the dam ahead of time at a dog show or otherwise, that is great. Im always happy to meet up with potential puppy families at shows and let them spend the afternoon getting to know me and my dogs! I’m sure many other breeders are as well! Once she is pregnant or nursing, her body and hormones are changing and she may be protective, overwhelmed, tired, or simply not interested in meeting strangers. If youve ever been pregnant, I’m sure you can relate lol. It is not fair to her to force those interactions and it definitely does not give you a true picture of her actual temperament.

Do you need to visit the breeders home? I don’t think so. Most of us are breeding in our private homes. Many of us whelp puppies in our bedrooms or private areas that are not appropriate for visitors. I personally whelp litters right next to my bed. Honestly, I do not want strangers or friends even walking into that space and neither do my dams, my bedroom is private and comfortable for them. It is a boundary that protects safety and sanity for everyone. Another risk is that visitors can unknowingly bring illness into a home full of babies with developing immune systems. Parvo, giardia, coccidia, kennel cough, and viruses can come in on shoes, clothing, or hands. A well-meaning visit can put an entire litter at risk without anyone realizing it.

This is not to say that transparency isn’t still important. Breeders should find alternate ways to share the full picture if they’re uncomfortable with home visits. For example, I run private Facebook groups for each litter where families get access to regular photos, videos, live streams, and updates of the puppies growing and learning in their real environment. You end up seeing far more of the day to day life of the puppies than you ever would during a quick home visit.

As for meeting the sire. He probably lives across the country, at least all of the sires I’ve used so far do. Ethical breeders pick the right dog for their female, not the closest male in the area. Meeting him in person will be a geographical change in many situations.

Instead of focusing on meeting the parents in person, here are some other things I’d recommend holding to a high standard:

• Health testing such as OFA hips, elbows, eyes, DNA, and CHIC requirements
• Titles and accomplishments
• Pedigree and what the dogs behind them produced
• Temperament and what the breeder says the dogs are like to live with.. Ask LOTS of questions! I’m sure your breeder wants to tell you all about mama!
• Structure and movement through photos and videos
• The reason the breeder chose this specific pairing

These things tell you far more about your future puppy than standing in someone’s living room ever will.

10/12/2025

I have major FOMO not being at CanAm this year, but have been so very thrilled to see so many Flightsong dogs doing it and doing it well! Congratulations to all our amazing pups this year! We have at LEAST 6 dogs there rocking it!!!!