We are located in Skagit County, 6 miles outside the city limits of Sedro-Woolley, Washington. We own approximately 100 acres with access to 1,000’s of acres of forestry. We have sheep, two horses, the occasional cattle, poultry, and pigs, and of course, the dogs, all Filas.
My husband, Lance, and I met in 1989 at college and married in 1992. I have a B.S. in Animal Science, with my studies covering applied genetics, husbandry, diseases/parasitology, and behavior. Lance’s degree is in Agricultural Science where he spent an additional year taking post-graduate education courses to become an agriculture teacher. He taught at Sedro-Woolley High School until November of 2001. He is currently employed at Mount Vernon Fire Department as a full time fire fighter.
Our dogs are a central part of our life. They go everywhere with us - on vacations, anniversaries, to work, or just plain cruising around in the car. We very much believe in socializing, and try to take our puppies out at least 3 times/week to let them interact with situations in town. We let people pet them until they don’t want to be touched by strangers. We feel this helps to make the puppy confident, knowing that although it may no longer like new people, they’ve never been hurt by one.
We also encourage our dogs to interact with the livestock during their youth, to encourage them not to be frightened and also not to harass the animals. Our dogs are all protective, but are not short-triggered, snap-happy nuisances. They are well-behaved and obedient in public. This does not mean that they are softies though! If a stranger advances at me or my dogs in a threatening manner, they will get a hard glare and a warning growl.
We only breed dogs that prove themselves in the ring and at home to be worthy of having litters. We expect a lot out of our dogs because we want our puppy buyers to be able to expect a lot out of our puppies. From putting up our yearly hay to walking through the busy city streets of Seattle, we believe that Frog Holler Filas are the ultimate in protective family companions!
