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Our Story
Our Life With Animals
Animals have always been a huge part of our life.
We spent a decade breeding Miniature Galloway stud cattle and running our little farm. Alongside the cattle, we bred some of our donkeys and raised chickens and guinea fowl.
That taught us that breeding comes with responsibility — making careful choices, understanding what can be passed on, and doing right by the animals we love.
It also taught us the importance of conformation. Structure isn’t just about how an animal looks. It affects how they move, how they age, and ultimately, their quality of life. Faults that impact quality of life can also impact length of life, and that is something we take seriously.
Finding the Australian Cobberdog
Up until this point, I’d only ever had rescue dogs.
Max and Maggie were our two RSPCA rescues. We had them for 15 years, and losing them within a few weeks of each other absolutely broke us. Anyone who’s loved a dog like that will understand. The house just felt empty.
A couple of years later, I found myself working from home, spending long days on the computer, and honestly, my mental health was starting to take a hit. I missed the connection. I missed having another soul beside me through the day.
That’s what led me to start looking into therapy dogs.
The more I read about the Australian Cobberdog, the more it just felt right. These dogs were being bred specifically for human connection.
Auri
When we purchased Auri, we had absolutely no intention of breeding Australian Cobberdogs. We simply fell in love with the breed.
Auri was the first dog we’d ever gone to a breeder for. I’d always rescued, and I always will support rescue, but this time we wanted to know what we were getting.
Then Auralia came into our lives — Auri for short.
Her name means golden, and she quickly became the dog that helped me find my feet again. She brought connection back into my life and showed us exactly why the Cobberdog’s human-focused nature matters so much.
Because I work in the disability space, it didn’t take long for me to realise that the same connection Auri gave me could mean so much to the people I support too.
With the help of our wonderful dog behaviourist and trainer, Mel Daly, we started working toward Auri becoming a therapy dog — which she did at just 13 months old.
Watching Auri work alongside people who don’t have the ability to have a dog of their own only reinforced that we’d made the right decision.
Frankie
Jason saw the bond Auri and I had, and before long, he wanted that same connection for himself.
That’s when Frankie came along.
Auri and Frankie were always meant to be our pets. We had simply fallen in love with the breed and what these dogs could bring to a home.
We understood the Australian Cobberdog is still a breed in development, so there can be variation between dogs. But what we experienced with Frankie changed everything.
Frankie came to us with health and behavioural challenges that required a lot of support early on. We were fortunate enough to get him the care he needed and work through those challenges with him.
But not everyone is in that position.
That hit us hard, because these dogs are often chosen by people who are already vulnerable — people looking for companionship, emotional support, stability… sometimes their one good thing.
That experience made us realise that if we were going to love this breed, we owed it to the dogs — and to the people who trust them — to do it right.
Breeding With Intention
That’s what led us to become involved with the Australian Cobberdog Society and learn what ethical, responsible breeding should really look like.
We also had Allegra, who was our first prospective breeding dog. As she developed, it became clear she wasn’t going to be suited to breeding. And that’s part of doing things properly too. You don’t force it. You do what’s right by the dog.
So we made the decision to start properly, with intention.
That’s when Kissy came into our lives — Lovelocks Daphne’s Kismet.
She’s our foundation girl, and she represents everything we’ve been working toward — sound structure, beautiful temperament, and exactly the kind of dog we believe the breed should be.
Her name means a lot to me too. Her mum is Daphne, which was my grandmother’s name, and “Kismet” felt fitting. Like it was all meant to happen the way it did.
What Matters To Us
When it comes to what we’re aiming for, we keep it pretty simple.
Health comes first. Always.
Then temperament. These dogs need to be stable, kind, and genuinely human-focused.
And then coat.
Coat matters more than people realise. The goal is a single fleece coat with no undercoat — not just because it’s beautiful, but because it’s practical and manageable for everyday people.
We don’t breed for colour. We breed for health, temperament, coat type and strong pigment. Coat colour may be beautiful, but it will never come before the things that actually matter.
For us, it has never been about looks alone.
It is about breeding dogs with the health, temperament and soundness to truly thrive in the homes they are placed in.
Dearborn
The name Dearborn means a lot to us.
To us, these dogs really are the dearest dogs ever born.
They have changed our lives, shaped our purpose, and taught us just how much difference the right dog can make.
Everything we do moving forward comes back to the same thing: health, temperament, purpose, and doing right by the animals we love.
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