2/10/2026

Gunther von Hoffnung BN, owned by John and Karen Johnston, won First Place in his third Beginner Novice leg with an outstanding score of 198 out of 200. What an accomplishment for this puppy from Ranger and Ember, who is not yet even ten months old. ...

1/19/2026

When I posted on Facebook this photo, sent by one of our Puppy Families, of their Three Candle Hill Shepherds, some other puppy families made such dear comments. You can read them here. See the people who have had Four or Five or More Candle Hill Shepherds. Each Puppy Family is very dear to us! ...

12/2/2025

Most people assume that summer is the best time to raise a puppy. That's not true for me. Every year, we keep back one or more puppies for the breeding program. In all my experience over the past twenty plus years of keeping a puppy to raise, hands down, winter is better. ...

11/19/2025

Do you remember these two? Congratulations to our precious duo, Reba and Caya, from the Tobbs x Nika litter this summer. They have both earned their STAR Puppy Title. The puppies learned good focus, socialization, a speedy recall, and sits and downs during distractions. ...

7/3/2025

After their bath, Nika's puppies are having so much fun playing on this beautiful day!...

1/23/2023

1\. Pregnancy care has been optimized in every way we can including premium nutrition for the mother dog while carrying her pups, providing an holistic organic transition to puppy food, daily weight-gain management for the first several weeks, and most importantly heavy doses of love, play, and a safe, fun environment. 2\. Whelping was in-home with cle...

1/23/2023

Graduate of our Super Puppy Program:   Yukon, a Candle Hill Shepherd pup from our dogs, Cardinal and Chinook, born 2012. Methods of Stimulation The U.S. Military in their canine program developed a method that still serves as a guide to what works. In an effort to improve the performance of dogs used for military purposes, a program called “Bio Sensor...

8/7/2019

We founded Candle Hill Shepherds to breed exceptional dogs in 2003 at our ranch in beautiful North Idaho. We have over 40 years of experience working with canines in such diverse fields as Search and Rescue, Schutzhund, AKC Obedience Competition, Agility, Dogsledding, Therapy work, Family Companionship, Sheepherding, and more. We are just plain passio...

1/31/2018

Puppy training is easy when you use their dinner to teach the behaviors you want. Watch the video on how you can simply guide your puppy into each of the AKC Obedience Positions. ...

7/15/2016

This is Tula, the puppy we decided to keep from the Sunny and Cassie litter, now ten weeks old.  Tula can be very persuasive. Here she is encouraging our visiting son to stay around. Tula takes her training times very seriously, especially when food is involved! Some dogs are just a delight to work...