Puppy Plans for 2025

We have two litters planned for 2025.

The first will be a breeding between our boy “Bandai” Northern Tier Aurora Polaris and our Swedish import Kitty-Malone. These puppies will be $1500.00 USD and are expected spring of 2025 pending health updates, so it could be pushed back to fall 2025.

Pedigree

The second will be a frozen AI litter between Northern Tier City on Fire SSR SOR and GCHB Estet Classic Tihomir. These Puppies will be $2000.00 USD and are expected summer 2025.

Pedigree

If you have any questions about these litters or would like to get on the wait list please contact us!

2023 Update

Its been almost a year since I posted here. We’ve had some tough times lately and have been busy raising puppies. Brynn and Bandai are over a year old now and have been to a couple shows. I have holtered them both a couple times and they have had pretty normal results. Eastleigh had a litter of 9 puppies on New Years Eve. Raising 9 puppies was exhausting and a lot of work, but all of them stayed in the Twin Cities area so it is nice to be able to see them often. We also decided to keep a girl and call her “Johnnie”.

We lost Evija to sudden death at the end of the year and that was hard to recover from. Later in March, Raven was diagnosed within parameters of DCM at his last echo. This puts a stop to all breeding plans involving Raven for the time being. I have switched him back to Purina foods and put him on supplements hoping that it is just diet related and can be reversed. He has a recheck at the end of August. A bit of good news though is that Kitty also got an echo and was cleared.

With the economy the way it is now we have not been pushing too hard to try to get to shows and races. We have been to a couple this year but with raising puppies and dealing with the health related issues in the dogs I have been weary to spend too much money. We are focusing on keeping our dogs healthy and happy for now. That being said- we are at a place where we need to evaluate our breeding stock and decide where to go from here with our program. We do not have plans to breed again for at least two years, possibly longer.

Champion Puppies and dealing with loss

Its been a while since we updated. We had a litter in April that was stressful, and we have just had a lot going on! That didn’t stop our puppies from shining though.

Northern Tier Finest in the Shop “Evija” was the first puppy in the litter to finish her AKC Championship. She is busy working on her obedience titles now, continuing to have fun in Idaho.

Her brother Northern Tier Benjamin Barker “Raven” also finished his championship last weekend at our local club specialty supported entry on Sunday. We are so very proud of our babies.

Zangief finished his Grand Championship this summer in Fargo, and continues to be the best boy there ever was here at the borzoi farm.

Lady had three puppies via C-section on April 4th 2022. She was bred to GCH Satara’s The Desired Effect “Brexit” belonging to Danielle Steenkamp down in Texas. The pairing was a great one and produced some beautiful puppies. Unfortunately Brexit died of sudden death two days after they were born. This spearheaded a massive group effort by all breeders, led by Danielle, to holter test their dogs and send the results in to the heart study. We will continue to monitor Lady and the puppies closely, to gather data and hopefully keep the puppies safe and healthy. Brexit was only 6 years old. Owned and loved by Danielle, who is also a vet. He had seemingly normal results on his heart testing all his life. Sudden death is a terrible and scary thing, and I really hope all the research we are doing can give us some answers and help save our breed.

Just this past Monday- Cedar (Northern Tier We’ll Do Wonders Wont We My Friend) from the Sweeney Todd litter (Zangief X Lady) died of sudden death just before his 3rd birthday. His body was taken to Texas A&M university for a necropsy and his heart was donated to the Borzoi Health and Welfare foundation for examination. It has been a rough year and I really hope we get some answers on Cedar soon. I will make another post about it once I have those results.

For now, we are trying to have fun with our current puppies Brynn and Bandai. And we are continuing to campaign Eastleigh and Raven, and finish their health testing so that we can hopefully start making breeding plans again.

More information on the heart study and sudden death in our breed and what you can do to help can be found here: https://borzoihealth.org/

2021 BCOA National

The last week of May we attended the National show in Wilmington Ohio. We were very proud and happy that our boys both came home with 4th placements in their classes. Clifford was entered in Novice Dog and Raven was entered in Open Dog. We weren’t expecting anything, so just to come home with placements was a lot of fun. We got some very kind compliments about our puppies and we got to see Evija. Justin showed her in Bred by Exhibitor. It was great to see all of our friends and their dogs again after a year of no shows.

I showed Eastleigh and Clifford in Brace class for the first time and they did so well. Handling more than one dog at the same time is not as easy as it looks. Which is why I am so impressed by Kari McCloskey when she handles the brindle Team. Zangief, his neice, half sister, and their sire took the win for Team.

We also did some health testing while we were there. Lady, Clifford, Eastleigh, and Raven all got their eyes checked and everyone has normal healthy eyes! Zangief, Clifford, Raven, and Eastleigh all got echoes and everyone passed with normal results as well. OFA links will be updated as soon as the information is uploaded to the database.

Exciting Announcements!

We were finally able to attend the Land O Lakes Kennel Club dog show this past weekend. Raven came home with a Best Of Winners win and a 4 point major on Saturday, and a Reserve Winners Dog on Sunday. Eastleigh was awarded Best of Opposite Sex on Sunday but didn’t manage to make it into the points. Clifford also attended and behaved himself well and had fun at the show with my mom.

The weekend before the show we attended the first LGRA meet of the season. Eastleigh took breed for two more points towards her title. We are just so happy to be back out doing what we love with our dogs and so looking forward to attending the National at the end of the month. We are gearing up for a big trip.

And for our announcement: We imported a puppy! This has been a plan for a long time and its finally come to fruition. She and her sister flew all the way from Sweden to New Jersey where my mother picked them up. You can learn more about her on the “Our Dogs” page.

Check back for updates on how the National went! If you would like to follow us on our trip make sure to connect with us on Facebook or Instagram!

Hopes and Plans for 2021

We are doing well here, just waiting for things to go back to normal. The Land O Lakes Kennel Club Dog Show, one of our favorites, was postponed from January to May this year. So we have had a quiet winter. We are looking forward to some spring running events and the BCOA National Specialty show coming up at the end of May in Ohio. Everyone is entered, and were planning on getting some health testing done while we’re there.

My mother and I have recently purchased a Holter monitor. I plan to test all dogs that I own and breed. So far Lady has had a normal test result as well as a normal Echocardiogram reading. I finally got her in for an appointment and we confirmed it. Shes got a healthy heart.

We have plans to breed Lady again at the end of the year. Stay tuned for details and updates as plans progress.

Fall 2020

The babies celebrated their 1 year birthday in September by going to one of our favorite shows. The Summer Solstice Cluster in Cambridge Minnesota. It was rescheduled to later in the year because of Covid. I must say that I greatly prefer this cluster to be held in the summer lol. Eastleigh managed to bring home a BOS and Zangief got Select Dog, both bringing home some points.

With the puppies turning a year old, they can officially compete in Lure Coursing. Ankor and Evija both earned their JC this season and Raven and Eastleigh scored SRC, and ORC points. They’re really rockin’ it out on the field. Now we begin winter hibernation.

Photos are of puppies at 4 weeks old and 1 year old.

Racing and show photos at the bottom.

The Puppies First Show

We attended a show in Waukesha WI a few days ago. I was a supported entry with the Midwest Borzoi Club. We took Raven, Nutmeg, and Eastleigh. They all did so great! We stayed at the show sight in our camper and everyone was so well behaved. The puppies happily and beautifully went around the ring and stood for exam. It was a success! The best part was that our junior handler Anna, handled that big puppy boy Raven to Reserve Winners Dog! We are over the moon impressed with our puppies and especially Anna and Raven. We can’t wait for the next show.

As we head into next year, we are really working on future breeding plans. We plan to outcross into some fabulous lines from all over Europe. Mostly German, with some Czech and Swedish thrown in. We are very excited for what the future holds with these pups.

Spring/Summer 2020

Things may have slowed down for most of the world this year, but Justin and I work in the food and agricultural industry. So we just got busier. We have been going full bore since May, trying to find a work life balance. We have been doing well all things considered. We just get tired sometimes (lol). The puppies have been doing excellent. Hammer (now Evija) went to live with her new family in Idaho at the end of May. She has settled in nicely and seems to quite enjoy living with her aunt and cousin.

The puppies are certainly gangly teenagers now. I can’t believe they’re almost a year old. Our time with them has gone by so fast. They are such a joy. Speaking of puppies, we were finally able to enter a show before they age out of puppy classes! We will be attending the Midwest Borzoi Club Specialty at the Cudhay Kennel Club All Breed Show in Waukesha Wisconsin, August 7th and 8th. All CDC guidelines will be implemented and enforced. We are excited for the puppies to finally experience a dog show.

In the mean time, updates may be less frequent the rest of the year. I don’t see us slowing down any time before winter. I will keep in touch as much as I can. If you would like more frequent updates, you can find us on social media. Our links are at the bottom of the page. Stay safe, stay sane, stay healthy everyone.

COVID-19 Slow Down

The pandemic has reached us here, high in the northern tier. As a result our trip to the BCOA National has been postponed and possibly cancelled. So the puppies won’t hit the show ring until June at the earliest, that is, if things are back to normal by then. So for now we are just concentrating on having fun at home. Nutmeg returned to my mother and we continue to try to work out plans for Evija (Formerly Hammer) to go home to Idaho. They are 6.5 months old now.

We dug our beehive out of the storage shed this weekend and I was happily surprised to see that my colony survived! I was worried about them since we had such a big blizzard the first week in October. I thought for sure they got too wet and froze out. But no! They prevailed! I really hope they stick around. I am fairly certain they’re queenless right now but I did see a big queen brood cap on one of the frames, so maybe they’ll work it out. On that note, yes we have bees and honey! The season is just starting though, so there will be more on that later I’m sure.

As of right now we are discussing plans of a co-breeding. Stay tuned for updates on that.

Here are some recent photos of Lady and the puppies for you to enjoy-

5 Months old puppies

As we turn the corner on winter and head into spring the puppies are now 5 months old. I couldn’t be more happy with how they are all turning out. I continue to get stellar updates from their families. We have finally found a home for Hammer, now “Evija”. She will be going to Idaho but will remain in our breeding program. I will be sad to see her go. She is such a beautiful and sweet girl but unfortunately, we cant keep them all. Thankfully the perfect home popped up for her. She will be competing in the ring and in the field and I can’t wait to see how she does.

Now the growing really begins. By the time they are 7 months old they will be almost adult size! I don’t think I’m ready for the babies to be all grown up. Speaking of babies, Nutmeg (formerly Kemper) has come back to the Northern Tier to get trained up for nationals in April. I’m hoping to get a good bit of muscle back on him before we go. He and Eastleigh would make a great team. Its been hard to practice for the show ring with all the ice covering the ground at the moment. So nationals may be interesting, but I am excited.

Nutmeg

We are happy to have you back for a short time!

Puppies are headed home

The past couple weeks we have been busy with getting puppies to their new homes. Peak was the first to leave the nest, flying from Minneapolis to California. She made it safe and sound and her new name is Miloushka or Mila for short. Nutmeg joined us on the journey to Minneapolis and stayed to start his new life with my mother there. The weekend after that I drove south to Texas to hand Cedar off to his new parents. Sailor tagged along on the same trip and I was able to drop him off in Oklahoma with his new mom where he continued on to Ohio to meet his new family. His name was changed to Ankor and he will be learning all sorts of doggy sports like agility, obedience, and dock diving. Along the way we stopped to meet a new Borzoi friend named Evie in Tulsa. Evie is a cousin to Lady and she is just as sweet and pretty as she looks in her pictures. I also stopped to have lunch with some friends from high school in Wichita Kansas. It was a whirlwind trip!

I have received great reviews on all the babies. They seem to be settling in and adjusting wonderfully and thats all I could have asked for. Gregory will be the last puppy to leave the homestead. He is being picked up the first weekend in January where we will be attending the Land O’ Lakes Kennel Club Dog Show in St. Paul at the River Centre. Zangief will be showing and the puppies are tagging along for meet the breed on Sunday. If you’re in town stop by and say hi! We would love to see you.

I probably wont update again until after the show so seasons greetings and enjoy your holidays!

Some serious pupdates!

The babies have been very busy growing up and turning into real dogs the past couple weeks. They have been given vaccinations and new names, and have all been registered! Real adult dog things!

This weekend they enjoyed time at home together for one of the last times. Only one more weekend here at NTH, then they are headed off to new families, places, and adventures. I sure will miss the precious ones that leave the nest, but I am excited to see them bloom into Borzoi with their new people. Peak, Gregory, Nutmeg, Sailor, and Cedar are all going to new homes where they will be loved and cherished. Some of these pups will get to try their hand at showing and sports! I can’t wait to see if they’re up to the task.

Hammer, Eastleigh (formerly Queen) and Raven will all be staying here at NTH to help establish our bloodline and shape and enrich our family. Raven will be a juniors dog for our children and we are so excited to work with him. Look for Raven and his sisters in the ring and on the field in the Fall of 2020!

2019-11-24_18-36-12_396.jpeg

We’ve made our choice.

Eastleigh, Raven and Hammer will be staying here.

Puppy Party!

Veterans day weekend the puppies turned 8 weeks old. We took them on the biggest adventure they’ve had yet. Everybody shipped out to Minneapolis Minnesota to meet my dear friend Megan. The babies took the 6 hour car ride in stride. Whining only lasted about 10 minutes, and then they settled down to sleep for the rest of the way. The only exciting thing to happen was two pee accidents. I was very proud of how they behaved for their first road trip. Being comfortable with travel is very important to me as we like to take our dogs everywhere.

On Saturday the puppies experienced their first walk down a city sidewalk, which also happened to be their first time on leash. Everyone did very well and made it once around the block. I was pleasantly surprised by how easily they took in moving cars, joggers, other dogs, and leaf blowers. We don’t have any of that at our homestead in North Dakota.

That evening we headed to Fusion Pet Retreat in Minnetonka to participate in some enrichment activities and meet new people. The puppies loved it and I don’t think I’ve ever seen them so tired. You will notice that some of the puppies names are starting to change. This is because they have buyers, and their new owners are starting to name them. All of their new names have been perfectly fitting, and this whole naming process has been kind of fun for me. They are all confident and friendly. Never afraid to try new things. I am so very happy with how these puppies are turning out. They’re beautiful and bomb proof. I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for them.

Thanks for reading!

-Erin Wagner

Our First Litter

On the afternoon of Friday the 13th of September 2019, our family helped Lady welcome 8 beautiful puppies into this world. Five boys and three girls. They are six weeks old now and have been a joy of a litter to raise. With these puppies we begin the Northern Tier bloodline and I couldn’t be more excited. So far every single one of them is perfect in my eyes, but these puppies will always be extra special to me. Besides sharing a birthday with them, they are my first litter. I have high hopes for these little fluffs to not only be beloved family pets, but field and ring champions too. So begins another chapter in our life with dogs <3 .

There are currently still two boy puppies available from this litter. The red boy “Twister” and his little tricolor brother “Hook”. If you think you may be interested in adding one of them to your family, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Zangief and Lady

Zangief and Lady