About Us

Our main focus in breeding is producing healthy puppies with stable temperaments for lifelong family companionship. Health checks on both the sire and the dam of any proposed litter are of paramount importance in our breeding program. We believe firmly in testing for the potential of Hip Dysplasia, Eye Disorders (PRCD and cataracts) and Deafness in Australian Cattle Dogs and support the organizations that track these disorders. We require OFA and CERF examinations and strongly encourage BAER testing on all my animals and those that we use for breeding.

We believe in breeding only when we have a list of qualified homes interested in our puppies. Each potential home is screened via questionnaire initially and references are required. 

We will GLADLY furnish you with references from people who have our pups in return! We consider the puppies that we bring into this world to be our “grandbabies” and thus consider each puppy purchase an adoption of sorts. All of our puppies that are deemed pet quality and unsuitable for breeding are placed into homes on spay/neuter contracts.

All puppies from Katwala are unconditionally guaranteed for their entire lifetime. This guarantee includes not only health and temperament concerns, but it also insures short term “babysitting” or full return and placement into a new loving home. We feel that we chose to bring these puppies into the world and are thus forever responsible for their love and care. Please feel free to browse my contracts for further information about our prices and guarantees. As we have become more and more involved with Australian Cattle Dog Rescue over the years, our commitment to insuring the lifelong well being of these puppies has only become stronger.

While many Katwala dogs have been successful in many performance arenas, we are especially concerned with the people that come to us looking for a family companion. Our puppies are raised in the home where traffic is the heaviest (in the family room and the kitchen) and are exposed to other dogs and children early on in their development.

We also firmly believe that as breeders we should always be available to a puppy buyer as a constant and continuing reference. We welcome questions about the breed about development and training. The breeder who was responsible for getting Kathy started in Cattle Dogs has remained a most valuable information resource (and thankfully, a good friend). When you purchase one of our puppies, you are adopting one of our babies and thus are becoming a member of the extended Katwala family. The wacky group of people that make up the Katwala Family even have a special Facebook group of our own where we share photos of and stories about our pups and compare notes with each other! If you have a Katwala pup and need to be added to this group to join in the fun, please email me!

References from fellow breeders and from those families that have one (or more) of my pups are always available.

Katwala dogs have earned titles in the Conformation ring, the Obedience and Agility rings, in Flyball and in the Herding Arena….but ask any of them and they will tell you that their favorite place to be is simply by their owner’s side (wherever that may be). Several of our 4 legged grandkids are also actively being used as Detection Dogs & are involved in Therapy Work.

Kathy’s foundation bitch, “Oreo” has won the Brood Bitch Class at several National Specialties in both the US and in Canada and was awarded 1995 Dam of Most Champions by the ACDCA (from one litter!). She was awarded the honor of being Dam of Most Obedience Title Holders for 1999. Oreo has been titled in all three arenas and, by producing offspring who have done the same, has qualified for the ACDCA Register of Merit. She is currently the #3 ROM bitch in the country. Oreo also thrilled her “fan club” and shocked Kathy (self-proclaimed inept handler of the year) by winning an Award of Merit at the 1999 ACDCA National Specialty.

Kathy’s pride and joy was “Yonder” who was taken from us too soon. Yonder won the Canadian National Specialty from the Open Dog Class in 1993 and was an Award of Merit winner at the ACDCA National Specialty in both 1992 and 1993. Yonder was posthumously given the award for being the 1995 Sire of Most Champions and the 1996 sire of most Obedience Titled get. He is sadly missed, but his loving personality and goofy ways live on in his children and grandchildren.

After a diagnosis of PRA in 1999, Kathy slowly rebuilt  our breeding program. Dally spent some time at the Baker Institute and had a test litter of “Australian Cattle Poos”. This litter held Dr. Grag Acland and others isolate the gene that is responsible for PRCD in our breed and at long last we have a genetic test for this disorder! We firmly believe that full health testing disclosure is the ONLY way that we will be able to eradicate some of the nasty genetic disorders that afflict this breed and we are more than willing to discuss this issue with others.

Katwala puppies currently live across the United States from California to Maine. One of the puppies from Kathy’s first litter lived and works on a cattle ranch in Puerto Rico and we are quite proud to have sold the first American Champion to reside and be shown in Holland.

Kathy is a member of the Australian Cattle Dog Club of America and has served in the past as Vice President, Newsletter Editor, Publicity and Promotion Chair, Secretary and Membership Coordinator, North Central Regional Director, and the AKC Gazette Breed Columnist for the ACDCA. Kathy has been or currently is a member of the National Club Rescue, Genetics, Awards, Herding, World-Wide-Web and International Committees.

In 1998, Kathy was honored to be chosen to write Australian Cattle Dog version in Howell’s “Owners Guide to a Happy Healthy Pet” series. This book is available through Amazon.Com (click on the book cover photo or the text link to go straight to the ordering information).

If you have any questions about my dogs after browsing these pages, PLEASE feel free to drop us an email message…..talking about cowdogs is one of our favorite things to do!