Hi friends! April has been a good month with a combination of warm, sunny days, chilly, rainy days, and cold, snowy days! Amidst the busy routine of puppy care and our other daily activities, we’ve taken time to enjoy the little things. Things like a long walk in the woods where the pine trees are tall, green grass is shooting up, and in the quiet, you can hear the rustling of the branches in the wind, and the song of birds.

“When you value the little wonders, every day is an adventure.”

Little things like playing in the yard with our Berners…

Or taking Brookie along on a drive. 🙂

“Happiness is a warm puppy.” – Charles M. Schulz

Our puppies (Litter J) are doing great and growing well! They all love people, love to play, and love to eat! Here are some recent pictures of them:

As always, we love getting updates from our puppy families! Here’s a sampling of some recent pictures of our puppies from previous litters. Their families love them, and they are all growing so fast!

Another fun bit of news: Harvey (Darth Vader Alexberns), Bulochka’s dad, and Brookie and Brielle’s granddad, recently won a Veteran World Winner title.

Isn’t that impressive?

Well, that’s all for now! I hope you’re all having a lovely spring! How have you been “enjoying the little things” in life? Comment below!

Merry Christmas friends! We hope you all had a wonderful, joyful, peaceful Christmas season! How lovely it is to celebrate the birth of the Baby Boy who changed the world forever, the King in the manger who offers us freedom and hope.

“For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6

Scroll on for some more festive photos of our dogs!

Brielle and Bronco joined us for some Christmas shopping one day. They both got lots of attention (but the baby, Brielle, got more!). There was a lovely old historic church building all decorated for Christmas, and we had Brielle and Bronco pose in front for pictures.

This is the first time since coming out west that we did not get a white Christmas! Crazy, huh? However, we did get some snow earlier in the month, and the dogs loved it! Here’s a picture of Brielle in the snow:

Brielle is 4 months old now and weighs 48 pounds! She’s growing great, loves to play, is very smart, and so sweet! I really couldn’t ask for a better puppy.

Seeing pictures of our puppies after they go home to their new families is always fun. We loved this picture of Brielle’s littermates, Nora and Goose.

Thanks to Sparrow’s Nest Bernese for sharing this darling photo!

This next photo of Bulochka and Brookie was taken almost a year ago. Look at how little Brookie is!

Here’s Brookie now at almost a year old:

Brookie is such a sweet girl. She is always so excited to see us when we get up in the morning or come home, and going on long walks in the woods is one of her favorite things to do.

Well, that’s all for now! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hi friends! Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and a wonderful start to your Christmas season! October and November were very full months for us! Here are just a few highlights from the past two months.

Bulochka and Brookie joined us on a fly fishing expedition one day. See Bulochka in the photo at the top of this post and Brookie below.

Brookie is getting so big and such a sweetheart! Here she is with our boy, Bronco.

In October all of Bulochka and Eli’s puppies went to their new best families! Jenny, Eli’s owner, came with a family member and a couple of friends to pick out their puppies first. It was a hard decision, but they chose Ira and Irina. We love the names they picked out for them! Irina is now Sparrows Nests Northern Light “Nora,” and Ira is Sparrows Nests Eureka Big Sky “Goose.”

Ian was the last puppy to leave, and we all grew very fond of him!

And we are absolutely in love with our puppy that we are keeping from this litter, Back 40 Montana Kootenai Sunrise “Brielle.”

While in the mountains of Montana, we’ve gotten some snow…

…we also took a trip down south, where we enjoyed some warm weather! Bulochka had a special spot in the vehicle, and was happy to be close by.

She tagged along while we went to the beach, went fishing, explored plantation ruins…

…she even got a pup cup from Sonic! When they brought out our food, they saw Bulka and asked if she could have a pup cup of whipped cream. Bulka loved it!

Back home, Bronco joined Sam on a trip to town and got his own pup cup. Sam said he also met a dog in the store who looked just like him. 🙂

Well, that’s all for now! Next post, I’ll be sharing some Christmas-y photos of our dogs, so keep an eye out for that!

Hi friends and happy October! Here are a few of our highlights from the month of September.

Brookie joined us for a hike. It was a fairly steep incline, but as the saying goes, “the best view comes after the hardest climb.” And it was an amazing view. Brookie started out on a leash, but after going for a short time, we turned her loose, and she was so good! She had a blast running and exploring, but stuck close by. It’s hard to believe she’s 9 months old already!

Brookie also joined us on a fishing trip to the river a couple of times.

The fall colors were lovely, and Brookie was in a good mood to pose for pictures!

Bulochka also came along on an evening outing to the river.

Mama had waded out into the water, and Bulochka wasn’t sure about following, so she found a log to rest on where she could keep a close eye on Mama while she patiently waited for her to come back.

Bulochka and Bronco came along on a trip to Glacier National Park. Here they are at Lake McDonald, which I think is one of the most beautiful lakes in the country. Bronco loved all the attention he got from other visitors at the Park! Bulochka would rather just stick close to her people and keep watch.

Bulocka and Eli’s puppies are six weeks old now! They’re growing great, showing some personality, and love attention! This is our “I” litter. The boys are Indie, Iggy, Iger, Ike, Ira, Idaho, Izaak, Ivan, and Ian. The girls are Ivy, Indigo, Irina, and Izzy. Here are some pictures of them:

Well, until next time! What have you and your dogs been up to lately? Leave a comment and let us know!

As we begin the month of September, here’s a look back at some of the highlights from the month of August!

Most of Bryshka’s puppies have gone to their forever homes now. We always love to see how excited their new families are to get their new puppy! Huckleberry, Hadrian, Hans, Henry, Hudson, Helina, and Haven are all settling in well with their forever families, and Hazel will be leaving to go to hers soon.

Before Haven left, Sadie and Levi dressed her and Bryshka up for a dog costume contest at the county fair.

The plan was to pull both of them in the wagon, but Bryshka decided at the last minute she’d rather walk and that she didn’t want to wear the hat. Leave it to Bryshka to spice things up! Both the people and the dogs had a great time and received lots of compliments! 

Levi also showed Bryshka in the obedience and showmanship dog shows at the fair. They did very well and took home a ribbon for “Best Team in Showmanship.” Levi was quite excited!

And now…

the big announcement…

Bulochka and Eli’s puppies have arrived!

On Friday, August 25th, we took Bulochka to the vet for an x-ray and progesterone test and decided it was time to go ahead and do a C-section. After encountering a few roadblocks finding a vet office that had the staff available to do it, it ended up being a pretty late night! 

Somewhere around midnight, a vet tech came into the room where we were waiting and announced– “Thirteen puppies–nine boys and four girls!” 

Thirteen puppies!  

We were thrilled to hear that they were able to save all thirteen puppies and that our sweet mama dog Bulochka was doing well. 

A little bit later, a vet assistant brought us a box full of thirteen squirming, whining, darling, perfect little puppies. We gathered around the box, admiring and so grateful. 

Before too long, Bulka was brought in, tail wagging, overjoyed to see us, and a good bit smaller now that she was no longer carrying thirteen puppies! 

We made sure all the puppies nursed well before making the hour and a half drive home, finally arriving home around 3 A.M. 

Bulochka and the puppies are doing great, and it’s been a good, but exhausting week with someone watching them around the clock, rotating through all the puppies, making sure they all get to nurse and that Bulochka gets a break, too. We’re supplementing with some bottle feeding (thirteen puppies are a lot for Bulka to feed herself!), and the puppies love our homemade formula of goat’s milk, yogurt, beef liver broth, egg yolks, and other goodies.

All of the girls are reserved and we only have a few boys still available. Head over to our PUPPIES page for more information or CONTACT US.

Well, that’s all for now! How about you? What are some of your highlights from the month of August? Leave a comment and let us know!

Happy August, friends! I hope your July was wonderful! Warm weather, puppies, trips to the lake, outside playtime–these were some of the good things that filled our month. Pictured above is Brookie, who LOVES to be outside and especially loves playing ball.

Bulochka and Brookie came with us to the lake a few times last month. They both went paddleboarding, and Brookie’s been enjoying some swimming!

We love hearing from our puppies’ families, and recently got a couple of updates about Brookie’s littermates.

We enjoyed this picture of Rosie (formerly Fiona).

And we got this from Nala (formerly Fjord)’s person:

“Hello… in January my mom bought a puppy from you. I believe Nala’s name was Fjord and I just wanted to give you an update on how she is doing. She is such a wonderful dog and she listens very well. Thank you again for allowing my mom to purchase Fjord!”

And a picture of her:

Our current litter, Bryhska and Bourne’s puppies, are also doing great. Huckleberry, Hadrian, Hans, Henry, Hudson, Helina, Haven, and Hazel are seven weeks old already! They love people, and love playing with each other and their mom and dad.

Fun fact about Berners: if you go inside and leave them outside or vice versa, they WILL find you. Mama and Sam were inside talking one day and looked out the window to see this:

And now a little story…

A couple of years ago, we saw a picture of the most beautiful dog we had ever seen. She was in Ukraine, and her name was Bulochka, Bulka for short. We contacted the breeder who told us she had “so many people interested in Bulochka.” It was looking like we weren’t going to be able to get her, but we still held onto a tiny little hope that just maybe Bulka could be part of our family.

A bit later, we were camping on the Oregon coast, when I (Savannah) and my sister Sadie woke up one morning to hear our parents talking on the phone, making arrangements to buy a dog from Ukraine.

Bulochka!!!

The next week, we were in San Francisco. After navigating all the technicalities of Customs at the airport, a dog crate was finally brought out to us with a big, fluffy, beautiful seven-month-old Bernese puppy in it. Poor Bulka had been quite traumatized by the journey over, but it didn’t take long for her to adopt us all as her new family and Mama as her special person. Now, we can’t imagine life without her! She follows Mama literally everywhere, wants to please, and loves to go on walks in the woods.

Here’s a picture of Bulochka and her daughter Brookie on the 4th of July. We can say Bulka’s very happy to be living in America now!

And now, some exciting news…

Bulochka is having puppies due on August 25th!

Eli, an AKC Grand Champion and import from the Van’t Stokerybos kennel in Belgium, is the father of this litter. Here are a couple of pictures of Bulochka and Eli together:

And some pictures of Eli:

Thanks to Sparrow’s Nest Bernese for their partnership in this breeding!

You’ve already seen a few pictures of Bulochka’s puppy Brookie and a couple of her littermates in this post, but here are more pictures of some of Bulochka’s puppies:

And a few of Eli’s past puppies:

We already have several puppies reserved from Bulochka and Eli’s upcoming litter, so if you want a puppy, don’t hesitate to contact us! And head over to our PUPPIES page for more information.

Well, until next time!