Interview with Ezri Silverberg on Breeding Windsprites

Oct 25

Interview conducted by: Stephanie Keesey-Phelan, Ph.D., BCBA-D, CSAT, CCUI, FFCT

At DBI we believe that no person, no family, and certainly no dog trainer or behaviorist is an island. If you read our blog regularly, you already know that we believe that if you are a behavior analyst by profession, you are not your dog’s behavior analyst. But you may not know that we often collaborate with other dog training professionals to increase our knowledge and skills, and when we are working with a client whose behavioral presentation falls beyond our scope or expertise. Collaboration with other qualified professionals is a huge part of our work. It allows us to provide the most ethical and effective treatment for the dogs we work with, and also helps us build a wonderful community committed to making lives better for dogs and their people.

To that end, each year we include interviews with some of the amazing professionals who we collaborate with and who work with dogs across a variety of settings and locations. Our goal in doing this is to introduce you, our readers, to people who work in a variety of areas in the dog world but who share a common mission of increasing your dog’s welfare.

Hi all! Stephanie here. Earlier this year I had the delightful opportunity to interview Ezri Silverberg, KPA-CTP, CBCC-KA of Aspara Windsprites. I first met Ezri when Kerby was a baby puppy and I was looking for playdates with friendly dogs and puppies nearby. Ran introduced us and Ezri happened to have a puppy playgroup with some recent puppies and other friends’ puppies that we were able to join a few times. It was a joy to see Kerby get to romp and play and to learn about Ezri’s process as a breeder. Fast forward to last year when Ezri started offering a mentorship program that Ran joined to learn more about raising puppies with science. Ran raved about how much they learned and what a valuable experience it was. Given how much we have both learned about breeding and raising puppies from Ezri, we knew we had to interview her for the blog this year.

There are strong opinions out there on everything, but particularly on where to get a dog or puppy from. At DBI we consider this to be a personal choice and encourage our readers to consider both dog adoption from responsible, thoughtful shelters and rescue groups (and in fact, see our interview with Erika Shields of Brown Dog Coalition earlier this year) and dog adoption from responsible, thoughtful breeders like Ezri. Read on to learn more about how much planning and care goes into all the litters from Aspara Windsprites.

Tell our readers a bit about yourself. How did you decide that you wanted to work with animals (and dogs in particular)?

I don't know that there was a particular moment in my life where I was like “I want to work with animals,” because as far as I can remember, I have wanted to work with animals. I was always going to work with animals, it was just the thing that I was going to do. And I insanely, really wanted a dog. I used to watch Westminster and Crufts on TV every year. Both agility and the dog shows. I was hyper focused, like I need a dog, and of course I was not allowed to have one.

So I have just always been dog obsessed. When I went to vet tech school and moved out on my own, I got my first dog: a beagle who had separation anxiety. That was more than what I was prepared for from my first dog. So that kind of started opening some doors into training. I had gone through a divorce and she stayed with my ex, so I decided I was going to get a puppy - the cutest puppy! I got my puppy and I named her Shayna. I raised my puppy and did all the things right: the socialization, the classes, the training, the exercise. She was such a fun dog. We moved to the northeast when she was a year old and I found a position as a tech assistant.

It was about 6 months after we moved that Shayna attacked another dog. Seemingly, to me at that time, out of nowhere. And that really started opening a door into behavior for me. And I consumed so much information and did my best with this dog, and this was how I actually ended up working with a veterinary behaviorist as a behavior technician. We had gotten to a point where she was relatively manageable, but by the time she was at full maturity she was dog aggressive, human aggressive, she would resource guard and redirect her aggression. We tried medications and I exhausted myself with her behavior modification plans. I tried everything. We had gotten to the point where she was managed enough, but every now and again she would have an episode. It was not safe because of the redirection, she would redirect on me, on a cat, it didn’t matter. In the end I had to make the difficult decision to euthanize her. She was living in a muzzle and that was just not any way for her to live. Both hers and my quality of life were suffering. My experience with Shayna is what eventually pushed me in the direction of pet dog breeding and strongly fueled my interest in behavior.

How did you end up with your first Windsprite?

Shayna was the dog that led me to get my Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) certification. She was the dog that made me a dog trainer, and I really wish we were talking about the dog who was a little shy and needed help warming up to people, but here I’m talking about my very challenging behavior case dog. One of the instructors at KPA, Donna, had Windsprites and she brought one to do demos and I was like, I love this dog. She is so adorable, so cute, just the perfect size. Her temperament was lovely, she was handling everything so well. Shortly after I had graduated from KPA, Donna had announced that one of her Windsprites would have a litter. I had said goodbye to Shayna about 3-4 months prior and I was at that point where I was asking myself, am I going to get another dog? Am I going to get a puppy? Because I did get the puppy before, and I did everything right and this very out-of-my-control thing happened and it was awful and I was traumatized and afraid to get another dog.

And so, Donna had announced she was breeding her Windsprite and I was like, well, okay, I want one and I was kind of half-kidding. (Windsprites are a combination of Whippet, Shetland Sheepdog, and a bit of Borzoi). It was one of those things where you’re like “I want one, but obviously these puppies are probably all spoken for.” So I jokingly said, “I want one.” And then Donna sent me a message and said, “well if there are enough, then sure you can! I would be delighted for you to have one of these puppies.” And I was like oh! This is happening! And then Wally was born. He came home while I was 6 months pregnant and everyone told me I was crazy. But my schedule was already in shambles, and I couldn’t sleep to save my life because I needed to pee every 3 hours. It seemed like a perfect time to be getting a puppy. And honestly, I am so glad that I had that little buddy with me for all those late night wake-ups.

And the thing about Windsprites is that they’re like potato chips. You can’t have just one. They just multiply. So I got Wally and I just kind of fell in love. He has always been such a goofball and so easy. I can’t count the number of times that I left the house and was like “oh we had to leave the puppy for a few hours, oh this is so hard!” and I came home and he escaped his little confinement zone and I thought, “Oh no, what did he get into?” And the answer was absolutely nothing. He just wanted to be on the couch. They’re very low maintenance in the sense that they don’t really ask for a lot. They just want to be included. Like sure, they’ll try agility with you, or do obedience and training. They probably won’t swim, though some people have gotten their Windsprites to swim. You often hear people talk about dogs having an off-switch, but for these guys I describe them as having an on-switch. Because the default mode is off, but once you’re like “Hey, I would like to go hiking,” they’re like: “That’s the best idea I’ve ever heard, let’s go!” They’re very fun and very silly and just very, very easy to live with.

How did you go from Windsprite guardian to Windsprite breeder?

So when I got Wally, his breeder asked if I would be willing to keep him intact for breeding later. At the time I was still in the realm of feeling weird about getting a puppy from a breeder because I was very, very “adopt don’t shop” you know? There are so many dogs in shelters who need homes. Of course that’s still true. But once I spent time with Wally and I got to know this breed community, there’s something about being able to have some knowledge of the dog you’re getting and the lines that they come from. I agreed to keep him intact for breeding, but he developed allergies and we decided to pull him from breeding and he was neutered once he was two years old.

A year later we are in the middle of moving and I went to the Windsprite Specialty Show in New York. And again, if your life is already in shambles, get a puppy! So I went to the dog show and I went to the puppy pen and that was my first mistake. I got in the pen with the puppies and one of them jumped up and stole my beanie. She started doing zoomies with it and then just crawled back into my lap with it and lay down. And her breeders looked at me and said “We’re looking for a home for that one, but we’re looking for a breeding home.” And I was like, “Sure, where do I sign?” And that kind of started that.

So Mirage came home on what we could call a co-own contract. That means whatever amount you’re paying for that dog, when you bring them home is probably less than what other puppies are selling for under the agreement that you will breed a litter from this dog. That is how you will later pay the breeder for this dog that you’re taking home.

Now Aura, 2 years later, was a dog who was returned to her breeder because it was just a mismatch. I had met her at a couple of shows and so I was familiar with her. Unfortunately Wally had been attacked by dogs twice and so he was very skeptical of new dogs - not to the point that he was biting everybody, just that he would want to crawl up my skin like “oh gosh this is scary!” But Wally really liked Aura and I thought if Wally thinks she’s special…

At the time I was thinking of my son, too. Both Wally and Mirage liked him and Wally liked to bring him toys, but their default was always to come to me. I thought it would be nice if my son had more of a buddy. Her breeder had agreed to a foster-to-adopt situation depending on how she felt about our son. I brought Aura with me to pick him up from daycare on the day we brought her home. He was just 3 at the time and hadn’t even started pre-K yet. She was buckled in the backseat with a harness next to his carseat. He got into the car and she crawled right into his lap and laid down and I was like, well this is our dog now. This is no longer a foster-to-potentially-adopt situation. Aura was the first dog we bred in 2021 and Mirage had her litter in 2022.

What do you wish the general public knew about getting dogs from breeders?

Oh there are hundreds of things! There are so many misconceptions. I remember a time I saw the Windsprite community do something that kind of struck me. Someone shared a picture to an online group of a dog that looked like a Windsprite in a shelter somewhere. We didn’t know that the dog was a Windsprite, but within an hour and a half we had a person in the shelter adopting the dog. They were an hour and a half away but the community paid the gas to get them down there and had the adoption application paid. There was no argument at all, the community said “no, this is our breed, we need this dog.” The dog was adopted and embarked and didn’t come back as full Windsprite, but the dog was placed in a home and loved to bits anyways. Not all breeders are like that, you know? Sometimes we think of the person who lives out in the middle of nowhere and they have kennels in their backyard and too many dogs, right?

But most of us are just producing a low number of litters and we know where our puppies are. I talk to those puppy people all the time - I think I probably drive some of them crazy sometimes with checking in. But these are the things that keep me up at night when I’m not getting updates on how my babies are doing in the world. We are not all that breeder that you saw on the news. That being said, not all breeders are following the same practices or are working toward the same goals. If you’re thinking about getting a dog from a breeder or you’re looking at breeders, it helps to know their goals. Some breeders are going to be breeding for physical structure, so conformation, they’re more interested in how their dogs are going to perform in a show ring. Others are breeding for performance and are more interested in how their lines are going to perform in agility and herding and sports. Some are breeding for temperament, so they might be more interested in getting that pet dog temperament. Some breeders are breeding for health, and some are breeding for a combination of those things.

And some breeders don’t have a goal at all, and that for me is a red flag. There should be some goal the breeder is working toward. And as someone considering getting a puppy from a breeder, you should know what you want from a dog. Are you interested in trying the show ring? Sports? A hiking buddy? It helps to know what you want from a dog and then find a breeder who is successfully producing that in their lines.

It’s also important to make sure that the breeder you are looking at is performing the health testing that is recommended for the breed(s) they are producing. Compare what different breeders within a breed are doing for health testing to get a sense of who is going above and beyond what is required.

I know that there is also a lot of emphasis put on titles. You’ll often hear or read on social media that titles are very important before a dog is bred. I’ve always found that mindset to be a little troubling because as a trainer I met plenty of dogs with plenty of titles and also behavior disorders. Titles aren’t everything, learn what you can about the dogs they are breeding and the dogs they have previously produced.

What goes into planning a litter?

Every breeder works differently but I can tell you what my process is. You could ask a different breeder and they’ll give a different answer and it doesn’t mean that I’m right or they’re wrong or that I’m wrong and they’re right. It just means that what I’m doing works for my program and what they’re doing works for theirs.

So first I look at my dam (female dog). I will literally sit down with a piece of paper and I will list out all of her best qualities. And then I force myself to pick 3 things that could use improving. What are her worst qualities? What are the most obnoxious things that she does? And then I start shopping for boys and looking at stud dogs (male dogs) and what I’m looking for is a dog who has the opposite of those less desirable traits.

So, if you look at our girl Poki, when I was looking for her the two biggest things we wanted to improve were her excitability and sociability. She’s really easily excitable which is fine if you want a performance dog. But my program aims to produce the ideal pet dog temperament and high excitability doesn’t make the list of temperament traits for that. So I wanted a dog who is very level-headed. I also want to find a boy who’s more social with strangers. Poki treats strangers like they are trees, she just doesn’t acknowledge them. And while I enjoy that because it makes training for sports and off-leash hiking easier, I do find that people generally like it when their dogs want to say hi to strangers.

So we’re looking for a stud that complements her strengths and then brings to the table what she’s lacking in terms of her weaknesses. And then when I find him, I sit down and I ask what are his weaknesses, if you could wave a magic wand what are the three things I really wish I could change about this dog. It can be hard because you can’t always get people to talk about their dogs like that. So it’s actually turned into a little sit down. I’ll have a conversation with the stud’s guardian about “what does he do if…?”

Then I sit down with my two lists and I look at their weaknesses and ask myself: what happens if a puppy comes out with just those weaknesses? What is our worst case scenario puppy like? Would I give that puppy to my neighbors? I use my neighbors as a baseline because they don’t have a dog and this puppy would be the first puppy they ever had. If the answer is yes, I would give the puppy to my neighbors, then I move on to the next step. If the answer is no, we go back to the drawing board and I ask myself what I need to look for that’s different.

Then we consider health. So now I look at my dogs and I know the health of their litter mates and because I’m an active member of the breed comunity, I know their pedigrees. I know who has the parents and I can talk to them about the parents and how they have been. Have they had allergies? Autoimmune disorders? What genetically are they testing for? I like to get littermates and then parents of littermates, I really want to go back as far as I can. I do the same thing for the stud dog to figure out what might be going on in that lineage and make sure that I’m not bringing anything we wouldn’t want - no genetic diseases or illnesses. In Windsprites we have something called Collie Eye Anomaly (CEA) which is from the sheltie ancestry. Poki has one recessive copy of that gene so she’s not affected by it but she does carry it, so we have to be careful that when we pick our stud dog he definitely cannot carry it because then the anomaly could be passed onto offspring who would be affected.

So you check out all of that, make sure our health testing is good to go. And then, if all of that is good and set, you start talking to the stud dog guardian and determine, for the breeding, are we doing this naturally? Are we doing this via artificial insemination? If we’re doing artificial insemination is it vaginal? Are we going transcervical? Are we doing fresh semen or frozen semen or are we close enough that we want to do a side-by-side? It doesn’t seem like it should be so complicated but it really is. And once you have your plan A figured out, now you need to figure out plan B. Just in case plan A doesn’t work, it’s always a good idea to have a backup stud. It never hurts to have a plan C either.

Do you have preferences around things like how the breeding happens?

I prefer to breed naturally both because it is less stressful for the dam and because it allows me to keep the cost of the puppies down. Artificial insemination (AI) is more expensive. Just to ship semen from three states over - one sample is around $150 to overnight it and that doesn’t even include your collection costs. Additionally AI requires frequent blood draws, usually 3-5, on the dam once she goes into heat so that you can time the insemination for when she is ovulating. Depending on how she feels about going to the vet, this can be very stressful.Each progesterone check is about $100. Then there’s the insemination itself. In the end you’re talking a good $1000-$2000 in expenses for artificial insemination.

When we bred Mirage, Zippy (the stud dog) was only an hour away. Once Mirage was in season and showing signs of being ready for breeding we went over to Zippy’s house. When the stud is local you have much more freedom on allowing the dogs to meet first, before she even goes into season. Mirage knew Zippy from agility trials so I was not worried about that. We were able to visit Zippy several times and it was not at all stressful for Mirage. We didn’t have numbers for the exact date ovulation occurred, so things were not timed “perfectly”, but breeding naturally gives you a much larger window around ovulation for mating. Overall, natural breeding is less stressful, less expensive, and easier for everyone. It’s just not always possible depending on where everyone is located.

When you breed, are you typically breeding to other Windsprites? Are you pulling in any other breeds?

I produce both Windsprites and Lurchers. Lurcher is a general term for a sighthound mix. Because the Windsprite is a rare breed, they have a smaller gene pool and that presents its own challenges, the largest being health concerns due to inbreeding. There are already several breeding programs focused on preserving type and structure, so I have chosen to focus on temperament and health. For me, and because of my past experiences, temperament will always come over type. I am a member of the Companion Dog Project and I find that a lot of their outlined goals for producing stable, healthy companion dogs align with my own desires for my program.

I have also observed over the last several years, as the Windsprite breeding community continues to use Whippets for backcrossing and increasing genetic diversity, that the Windsprite is slowly losing the Sheltie traits that make them so very special. Their handler focus, desire to train, and that herding dog sense of humor. I’m not the only breeder who is concerned that we are losing the Sheltie traits behind the Windsprite, and so there are several who are including Shelties and other herding breeds into their programs.

There’s a lot more politics in breeding than you could ever imagine. Outcrossing and breeding strictly for temperament is really a thing that is looked down upon in a lot of breeding circles. I just want to make nice puppies that are healthy, have an ideal temperament for a pet dog, and are behaviorally sound.

How do you vet potential guardians for your puppies, and decide who would be a good fit?

I would give everyone a puppy if I could, I just want everyone to have nice dogs! I know a lot of breeders keep a waitlist and then go in order of that list. I don’t strictly do that. I have a mailing list that literally anyone can join. I will then let people know about the breedings that are planned. I try to be as transparent as I can and provide all the information about the dogs we’re planning on breeding. Then when a pregnancy is confirmed I accept applications. I always tell people that the application is literally not a test. I might have questions, we might need to talk about something for a second, but it’s never a hard no for me. Then we interview and that’s my chance to ask those questions. I will talk to everyone who sends me an application. I give them a chance to set up an interview and it gives me a chance to figure out a little more about what they want from a puppy. What does your dream dog look like? If you close your eyes and think about three years from now: Here’s me and my dog, what are the two of you doing?

Then based on the application and interview I determine whether they are looking for a family companion home, a versatile companion (primarily a buddy dog but might like to dabble in dog sports or be more active like hiking or running), a performance prospect (someone who is just interested in sports), a therapy dog prospect, or a service or assistance dog prospect. There may also be those who are interested in breeding program participation who will keep the dog intact for breeding later on. I don’t favor everyone who wants to keep a dog in tact, though it is important at least a couple of them are so we can continue our lineage, because I can’t keep a puppy from every litter!

We don’t assign puppies to homes until they are about 5-7 weeks old, when we have a good idea of their temperament and which homes they would match best to. We’re usually able to have most homes selected before the litter is 7 weeks old, but no one knows which puppies they are getting until we have determined the best fit for everyone.

How do you evaluate the litter as they’re growing?

This is one of those things where everyone does it differently. We start at two weeks old. From the time they are mobile and able to move their bodies, we’re starting to assess how they’re solving problems. We look at little things like after you weigh them and put them back in the whelping box, we don’t put them all in a pile of puppies, we put one in a corner by itself and look at what they do. It’s actually really interesting to watch because most of them will just follow the wall, scooting along until mom reaches out and touches them and then they’ll crawl up her arm. Some of the Poki gremlins would just pick a random direction and go, as though they’re thinking: this must be the way! Others are roombas and will just spin in circles. We never let puppies get distressed though. At the first sign of upset they are rescued and the dam is always there and we trust in mama. If mama says we’re not doing this today, we don’t do it.

From the time they are potatoes, all the way up to 7 weeks we’re just performing little tests in their everyday lives that are giving us insights into them and helping us match them to families or individuals. We’re looking at things like: Do they get frustrated? What happens when they get frustrated? Are they really vocal about it? Do they work through it? How social are they with strangers, with kids, with dogs? How do they feel about wearing things on their bodies? How handler oriented are they when they run into a problem they can’t solve? Do they leave it? Do they look to a littermate for help? Do they come to a person for help? Do they move away and find a new activity? Or do they just keep at it with increasing frustration?

There’s really a lot that we’re looking at, and the reason I’m only looking until about 7 weeks, and it’s not that anything after that doesn’t matter, but it's that they hit the critical fear period at 8 weeks. During this time, things that were not scary to them all of the sudden can become scary. So including that period can throw off your results. What we’re finding from my three litters and litters that my friends have had is that actually the temperament results we’re getting around the 6 to 7 week mark are far more accurate than anything we’re getting between 8 and 9 weeks in terms of predicting how the adult dog will be.

So it’s around that 7 week mark that we select puppies are assigned to their homes and we plan the rest of their time based on what their new family will be like. For example, we often send the puppies out for sleepovers and one of my friends who had kids volunteered. So I sent her the puppies that I was considering for the family with young children. And I want to know how these puppies felt about her kids in her home. One of the puppies was insanely smitten: I love tea parties, I love family, I love story time, I let them paint my toenails, do you see how beautiful I am? And I was like, “Yep, I know where you’re going!” The general vibe was that this dog liked kid shenanigans, because there are puppies that will actively seek out kid shenanigans. Dogs that love children and seek them out and want to be doing things with them. So we want to make sure when we’re placing puppies in homes with kids that they’re getting those puppies that are excited about children.

This is so interesting! What sorts of other things do you do to prepare your puppies to go home?

We do lots of things! We introduce puppies to the concept of walking on a leash. They all practice in groups and then we work up to individual outings, like this is the thing that you put on your body when we go out into the world and here is how your leash works. I’m not saying anybody’s walking perfectly on a leash, but they have foundations. We also do crate training. We get them used to the idea that sometimes it’s not your turn and you have to be in a crate. This is a slow process, I could easily dive into all the things I’m doing with getting puppies used to crates but that would be another hour-long discussion!

I get them used to wearing gear, not just collars and harnesses but we also do tiny little muzzles and Elizabethan recovery collars, and booties, and shoes, and costumes. If PETCO ever had it in a discount bin in a cat size or smaller, I own it and I put it on the puppies.

We practice random behaviors like sit, touch, down, settle. Again, none of them are perfect but they’ve been lured into it a few times so they have a general idea that “oh, this is a thing I could do for a reward.”

Of course we work on socialization and exposure to the general things, people, animals, places, and then depending on where the puppy is going some tailored socialization. One of my puppies went to someone who is a whale trainer and I couldn’t take the puppy to the aquarium, unfortunately. I did try! They would not allow it. But instead I took the puppy to two different Cabella’s locations to look at the giant fish in the tank and we listened to whale sounds at home. I was like, this is as close as we’re going to get. So we try as much as possible to get them ready for their new homes and introduce them to as much as possible.

The puppies also get individual outings. I think that’s one thing a lot of people miss. Puppies are generally very social learners and they like to look to each other for information. And when you take those other role models away and there’s no one to look for for information, you start to see different traits that you might not have seen before, because they were leaning on a littermate and doing what they were doing. So getting them out individually and helping them to navigate the world on their own.

We work on potty training. We get them used to the idea of the outside bathroom is the best bathroom, but we also use a litter box and potty patch and some puppies do have a preference for one over the other. We let people know what their puppy had a preference for so when they go home they can set up the appropriate transition if they want to.

Do you have any go-to recommendations for folks who are bringing a new puppy home? Things you might recommend they do in the first days and weeks?

I typically send my puppies home at 9-10 weeks and I tell people that if the puppy they’re assigned is having a more difficult fear period, I may want to keep them a little longer for that reason. Because it can be really impactful for them to travel to a whole new house and go through all those new things in the middle of a fear period.

When they bring their puppy home, I recommend they set up puppy zones and get all their supplies together. Then I’ve narrowed it down to three pieces of advice (I’m sorry I couldn’t get it down to less than three!):

Everyone, especially on the internet, is going to have an opinion. Especially when they learn you have a puppy, you’re going to learn that your friends are puppy experts and they are going to have so many opinions for you. None of them are necessarily wrong, but their idea might not be what’s right for you and your puppy. So having a relationship with your breeder that you can ask them is great. Don’t just ask your friends! Sure, you could ask your friends, but don’t take their advice as the be all. Maybe it worked for them and their shepherd, but it’s not necessarily going to work for you and your retriever. Because you’re a different person in a different environment with a different puppy. That doesn’t mean they’re wrong, but it might not be right for you. Having professionals you can lean on when you need that extra bit of advice is always helpful.
Overtired puppies are hyperactive puppies. This is one we get confused a lot. Puppies tend to hit that second wind and if your puppy is throwing their body around through space and time without seemingly any rhyme or reason, and you’re wondering like, wow are they drunk? What are they doing? That puppy is too tired. They need help falling asleep and taking a nap. Kids do the same thing. It’s really magical how similar puppies and toddlers are. I tell my puppy people, if you’re ready to rip your hair out and throw your puppy into the woods because they haven’t stopped moving in the last 30 minutes they are too tired. They need a tether and a really yummy treat and just sit with them and help them and if you can’t sit with them because they are land-sharking you, just sit away but be close because they are literally babies. They do need your help. Be there and give them something to chew on and they will pass out in ten minutes or less, I promise.
Puppies are hard! I know on the internet it’s all sunshine and rainbows but it’s not easy. You are losing sleep. Your schedule has just been flipped upside down and all of your needs just hit a side burner to this tiny little literal baby animal that you are now responsible for. If you are feeling depressed or resentful or guilty or anxious, these are all very normal things to be feeling. We call them the puppy blues and they can come up at any point in time between puppyhood and adulthood. I have known many people don’t have puppy blues for their baby puppy but slam face first into a wall of puppy blues at adolescence. This is a time when the puppy is not really a baby anymore but is not an adult either. They’re teenagers and that raises its whole own set of challenges. Just know you’re not alone in that really rough feeling.

Is there something you wish everyone knew about Windsprites or breeding dogs?

I was mulling this question over earlier and asked my husband and he said “well, people should know that Windsprites just multiply!”

About breeding, I think if you’re looking at it and you think it looks so fun and it’s so much work but it’s rewarding, that is true. But it’s not for everyone. Breeding is hard. There are a lot of hard things that breeders often do not share, because nobody wants to hear about the sad stuff that happens, we only want to hear about the great stuff. And it is so insanely emotionally tolling, not just when things are hard but also when everything is great. There are days when I’m just like “everything has been so cute today, but I’m really tired and there’s 37 loads of laundry.” I do encourage those who are interested in breeding to find a mentor they look up to and respect and help or follow them as they raise a litter so that you can understand what you’re getting into before you commit.

Are there any resources that you might recommend or want to share with people who might be bringing home a dog from a breeder?

Again I’ve narrowed it down to three! I really like Sophia Yin’s book: A Perfect Puppy in 7 Days. I really like how it’s all broken down and is really easy to follow. I like Social, Civil, and Savvy: Training and Socializing Puppies to Become the Best Possible Dogs by Laura VanArendonk Baugh. I really like how it’s broken down in socialization and exposure for puppies and different training things. It’s short and easy to read and digest. The third book I like is Meet your Dog by Kim Brophey. I like how she breaks down that different breeds do have different needs and understanding the history of the breed that you have can help adjust your expectations.

(Hi readers, Stephanie here! I just wanted to note that I wrote a book review of Meet Your Dog that you can read on the blog here. We found both some pros and cons with this book and just wanted to direct your attention to that!)

What are your favorite and least favorite parts of breeding Windsprites?

My favorite part is matching puppies to families. Go-Home week is the week of the most mixed emotions I have ever experienced because it’s like, “Oh no! The puppy is leaving and I’m going to miss the puppy!” But there’s also relief because the 10 weeks of that many puppies is a very long time. But then also I know these people and I know what they want in a puppy and I know who this puppy is and I know the kind of family that they would love to live with and I’m just so excited for this puppy to have these people and these people to have this puppy and there are so many feelings. The match-making part is my favorite.

My least favorite is just laundry. I’m not a laundry person, I don’t love laundry and there’s just so much. I have pictures on my social media of one day of laundry and it goes from the floor all the way up to the bottom of a window. It’s this pile of beds and toys and blankets because once one of them steps in a turd, they don’t stop to go “oh no, I stepped in a turd!” they play this game called Puppy Poocasso where they touch as many things as they possibly can while the turd is still on their foot!

If someone was interested in breeding and learning more about breeding, whether Windsprites or others, do you have any advice?

Yes!~ Find a breeder in a breed community and ask if you can help out, or kind of follow that breeder. I have a mentorship program that runs mostly remote when I’m having litters where I kind of go live all of the time with everything that I’m doing so that people can see what’s going on behind the scenes. So that’s an option too. But it’s great to get a feel because again, on the surface it’s puppies and puppies and puppies but there’s so much more that goes into breeding than that. Getting an idea of what it all looks like, but also so that you can start developing your own systems of organization or how you want to work things if you’re going to start having a program. Having someone you can go to for advice is important. Everyone on the internet has a different opinion, so having someone whose opinion you value and respect can be helpful.

Do you have any upcoming litters you’d like to share about?

I do! Poki is pregnant with a litter of little dinosaurs at this very moment. She is due on November 8th and we are beyond excited to meet our second generation. This litter is dual-sired, so that means that Poki was bred to two different stud dogs. One stud, Tigger, is a Windsprite, who is the offspring of our Mirage and a Whippet, Zippy. The other, Weller, is a purpose-bred mix produced by the Vulpine Spitz Project. Both Tigger and Weller compliment Poki so well in so many different ways. It’s unlikely that she’ll have puppies from both stud dogs, usually only one or the other takes, but it would be so cool to watch a litter with two different studs grow up together to note the differences in temperament and behavioral development.

Interested in learning more? You can connect with Ezri and Aspara Windsprites at: