life with Livestock guardians is never boring. we love to share the adventures of dogs.
25/06/2025
We have some sad news to share...... Today we said our Final Farewell to Shania. She was the clown of the pack here always getting into mischief counter surfing or tipping over bins, she liked her food. When we moved to Willow Holt she loved all the walks up the field with everyone else.
Over the last few years she ventured less far and the last few weeks she barely moved up the garden. Yesterday she wasn't able to move at all so we have to let her go.
Thank you for All Pets to Peace she had a dignified send off and she is now home where she belongs.
She has left a Shania sized pawprint on our hearts but we know she isn't suffering and she'll be happy over rainbow bridge causing trouble with Willow.
10.07.2013 - 25.06.25
22/06/2025
Just back from Blackpool Champ Show and wow what a long but worthwhile day it was. We had classes so felt we had to support and therefore we entered Tax, Belle and Alva.
Tax was an absolute star, he won his class and was awarded:
Best Puppy in Breed
Best Junior in Breed
Best Male and BEST OF BREED
At only 7 months old this is an amazing achievement.
Belle was best Puppy B***h
Reserve best B***h
so she is now Crufts Qualified ( all pups can now happily attend Crufts 2026)
Alva being the Star she is as always didn't put a paw wrong and walked away winning her Open B***h Class and Best Opposite S*x.
Thank you Geoff Duffield for thinking highly of our dogs especially Tax, thank you so much for the lovely comments.
Thank you Julie for handling and Megan for supporting and being ready to step in when needed. Thank you also to Michelle for being there to support it was so late in the day with a mixed bag of weather it was great to have a support group there with us to see the shock when Tax was awarded BOB over Alva.
Thank you Ant for driving and Handling. Those that called and messaged congratulations thank you too, your support is much appreciated.
08/06/2025
Yesterday was another Champ show this time we mixed the show team up a little and it was Egans turn.
Estjak Valley Cabras (Egan)
Best Puppy in Breed
Best Opposite S*x
Kayarrach Wish Upon a Star (Alva)
1st Open B***h
Best B***h
BEST OF BREED
Thank you to Anthony for driving and handling, thank you to Mark for handling Alva and of course thank you to Jacky Cutler our breed judge for the awards.
It may have been a mixed day weather wise but we had a lovely day catching up with people..
A weekend off showing next weekend.
08/06/2025
So last weekend Anthony and Tara went off to Southern Counties with the show team. Under Breed judge Francesco Conchetti they were awarded:
Estjak Valley Teixera (Tax)
Best Puppy Dog
Best Puppy in Breed
Best Opposite S*x
Estjak Valley Ferre (Rosa)
Best Puppy B***h
Reserve Best B***h
Kayarrach Wish Upon a Star (Alva)
1st Open B***h
Best B***h
BEST OF BREED
As always thanks to Ant for driving and handling and thanks to Tara for handling. Huge thanks to our judge for thinking highly of the dogs and the lovely comments made.
01/06/2025
Updating the puppy album with a few photos from May
01/06/2025
31/05/2025
Last weekend was a busy one for the Estjak Pups. On Sunday we took Egan, Belle and Rosa to Carrington Steam Fair. They were golden and experienced so much, we don't have too many photos as we were too busy talking to all the people who loved the pups.
Then on Monday Tax and Rosa attended their first Champ show where they received more lovely comments and Tax even managed a Best Opposite S*x against Alva.
While they were at the Show our lovely Friends Karl and Tracy picked up Egan and Belle and took them to the beach for the first time. They video'ed the pups but facebook won't let me upload photos and videos so there are some stills of them in the sea. they aren't great quality of course but they show how well the pups did.
19/05/2025
The video of Ant, Tax and Belle trying a brace class.
19/05/2025
The pups are now 6 months old so can show in the UK. We took them along with Alva to EmDC Open show. Its a nice outdoor venue so we wanted it to be a good experience for them.
Unfortunately the estjak van is a bit broken still so we had to travel in two vehicles. Huge tha ks to Tara for helping get all the dogs there.
Everything was a first for Tax and he did exceptionally well.
Tax beat Egan in their puppy class, he then went on to win reserve best dog and beat jis sister to Best Puppy in Show.
Belle beat Rosa in their puppy class but she was then beat by Tax in the puppy challenge.
Belle and Tax then went on to try their first brace and did amazingly well.
I will post the video separately.
Alva as always didnt put a paw wrong inside or outside the ring but clearly wasn't to the judges liking so placed 2nd.
So proud of all 5 dogs their first time competing against each other, first time for all the pups at a show together and an outside venue.
Thank you to our ringside supporters and those who passed nice comments on them.
Thank you Ant and Tara for getting us there and piloting the dogs.
07/05/2025
So this weekend 2 of the Estjak Dogs went across the water to Ireland where they attended Sth Tipperary National Show and Fermoy International Show.
This was obviously little Rosa's debut and her only chance to do baby puppy.
Rosa hasn't been great at travelling but she coped amazingly. She was best baby puppy in breed at both shows and she met so many people and dogs she had a great time what a lovely experience for her.
Alva as always just shone like the start that she is, she received reserve green star and reserve best of breed on Saturday behind the lovely Ursa and on Sunday she was awarded the Green Star, CACIB and BOB. As always she didn't put a foot wrong and hopefully helped show Rosa what to do at shows.
Huge thanks to Sarah (Qimugta) for allowing us to go with her and for doing all the bookings and the driving.
Thank you to Tara for handling and Connie stepping in when it clashed.
We were thrilled with some lovely comments from the judges and many people at the show.
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Our Story
Our journey started about 11 years ago. We went to Crufts to find out about the breeds we were interested in and meet the breeders and the dogs. Discover dogs is such a great place to learn about dogs and meet them and people who live with them.
We went with the intention of learning about 3 breeds, samoyed, chow chow and Leonberger. We met all three breeds and spoke to the people who live with them then as we continued wondering round we came across a breed that initially looked similar to the leonberger but smaller so we stopped and spoke to the people on the stand. This breed was the Estrela Mountain dog, we learned they were classed as a rare breed and were live stock guardians. Although initially they looked like Leo’s to us pet people we were soon educated about the differences because the Estrela was not a designed breed they came from the mountains and were therefore not messed with but also not common so finding puppies wasn’t easy. We weren’t in a rush so this wasn’t a problem. From then we spent the next 3 years visiting Discover Dogs at Crufts to learn more about the breed and what they are like to live with.
When we were in a position to get a puppy we made contact with a few breeders to see who had puppies. The breeder who had suitable pups was Gill Reid of Milagre. We had hoped for a male but she only had females left so we spent some time with Gill and her dogs. We agreed if she was happy we would be honoured to have her last available female come and live with us. Gill explained she had started vaccinations so wasn’t happy to let the puppy Willow leave until she had finished the course. This wasn’t a problem and we respected she was doing her best for the pup so we paid our deposit and agreed to return in a few weeks to collect her.
We collected our puppy Milagre Gotta Feelin, pet name Willow 2 weeks after meeting her. She was a bundle of fluff and settled in well. Part of the agreement with her breeder was that Willow needed to be shown to prove she was a good Estrela, we weren’t really interested in showing but said we would give it a go. We signed up to some ring craft classes to learn what we needed to do and we entered her into some shows her breeder was going to be at so that we had someone we knew who could advise us what we needed to do.
Within a few weeks of Willow joining us there was a post on the breeders page, an advert for Tornjak’s. We had never heard of the breed so we googled them. What we read about them told us they do the same job as Estrela’s but in Croatia not Portugal. The difference other than their look is that Estrelas have selective hearing but apparently with a Tornjak once taught something they don’t forget so this raised our interest. We made contact with the breeder Borna Saceric of Zlatna Sapa Kennels but he was in Croatia. We looked and were unable to find breeders in the UK so we had to look into importing a puppy. This wasn’t as straight forward as we assumed and was also quite expensive so we decided maybe as responsible owners we should drive to Croatia and collect the pup, this would give us the opportunity to meet the breeder and maybe the pups parents. We agreed with the breeder which pup we would have and we paid a deposit. We had regular contact with the breeder and asked him to ensure the puppy was socialised so she would be confident when we came home with us. We then decided if we were going to the effort to drive to Croatia to collect a pup it was more cost effective to get 2 pups so we negotiated a 2nd pup from the same breeders. We thought it’s no more work really and the pups would keep each other company on the journey, but being younger than Willow they could look upto her and learn from her when we got them home.
We booked a couple of days off work and left home at midnight on the Thursday for the long drive to Croatia. We arrived in Croatia by 10:30 on the Saturday. We met Borna who introduced us to the pups. We met their mother and then we were taken on a trip to the capital Karlovac to learn about the history, we were taken to meet some other tornjaks so that we could see what the pups would grow up like. We left Croatia at 2pm to head back to the UK. Unfortunately neither pup travelled well so we had to make lots of stops to clean them up. We drove through the night and arrived home by Sunday afternoon. We introduced the pups to Willow and this was the start of our journey with Estrelas and Tornjaks.
