John and Lori Ulrich, owners BLOODSTOCK GENETICS

We are located in the "Outer Bluegrass" region of northern Kentucky in an area that was once part of the "Canelands" long sought by Simon Kenton and frequented by Daniel Boone.We were both born and raised in the area. We have two sons and three grandchildren to date. I have had over twenty five years experience breeding dairy cows, dairy goats, Arabian and Thoroughbred horses and now Katahdin sheep and English Shepherds. My Arabians had some success in Florida in the early 90's.  I am a voracious reader and have long studied the genetic principles and methods utilized.by the great breeders.

 John and granddaughter Beth at Christmas

My concept of English Shepherds goes back 90 years to my father's black "Shepherd". (That's what they called them then and at least in our area they were still "Shepherds" when I was a lad in the late 40's and 50's.)

 He was a large dog as related to me by my father. He described him as half again as big as the German Shepherds ( I would guess these GSD's were somewhere in the 50 - 60 lb. range) who had started to make an appearance in our area at the time. He was a dog who fit the concept of an ES who could do it all.

He kept all other dogs and predators off of our farm with whatever force was required. He drove cows but only when asked. If they got out, he put them back in. He stayed inside the boundaries of the farm except when accompanied by someone. He was bidable and loyal.

In town he was protective when he needed to be, but was never aggressive or protective without cause. But no one had any doubt that he would do whatever was required to take care of his family either on the farm or in town.

The "Shepherd" I had was smaller, I don't know if that meant that the local landrace was becoming smaller or if it was merely individual variation. (There was a larger one up the road, but not as large as my father's had been.)

Other than size and not going to town (they went in on horseback or buggy in Dad's day), he had the same traits as my father's "Shepherd" just less size and strength to enforce the rules and while he would drive cows on command, he had lost much of the instinct to keep them in on his own.  But he was a wonderful dog and the best I ever personally experienced.

In later years when I wanted a dog for my son (just as he later wanted one for his children) I thought the type of "Shepherds" I had known had gone out of existence.

It was only a year or two ago that I discovered ES's on the internet. When we purchased sheep I thought of them immediately and started to research them and their current bloodlines in depth.

I found that ES’s of the size and soundness my father had were hard to find. I wondered if some of the other traits had been somewhat lost or diluted as well. In the end I’ve discovered some genetic treasures. I have recently been contacted by other people having dogs of great interest to me due to their apparent size, stature, sonndness, working ability, and other important attributes. I am looking forward to evaluating and obtaining representatives of those lines that meet our criteria..

It is our goal to produce “Shepherds” as they were 90 years ago in our area and then fine tune them based on current needs. Only God being perfect, "changes not".