Once upon a time, a big tall handsome Texan by the name of Zane Sterling met and fell in love with a red haired girl called JoAnn. So they got married. Zane had 2 boys that were about 7 and 12 at that time. Zane and JoAnn decided they needed a dog.

Zane wanted a big dog that the boys could train, play with and wrastle (that's wrestling and mauling in a gentle manner) without either of them getting hurt. JoAnn wanted the dog to be part of the family and live in the house, but she didn't want dog hair and dog smell all over the house.

So the two began looking for information about all the different breeds of dogs. They looked on the Internet, they went to bookstores, they went to dog parks, and they talked to people who had dogs until they narrowed it down to three kinds of dogs. They were the Airedale, the Giant Schnauzer, and the Standard Poodle.

The Airedale didn't seem to have just what they were looking for - they are great dogs but something was missing for the Sterlings.

The Giant Schnauzer was a very close second. It had a lot of the qualities they were looking for. But then as they looked at the Standard Poodle, they were mesmerized. The beauty and the regal look of the poodle and the intelligent look in their eyes captivated the Sterlings. The athletic capabilities were very impressive indeed. So a poodle it was to be.

Now finding just the right poodles is no easy task either. There are many, many great poodles out there, but each family has their own idea about how a poodle should look and act. There are many colors to choose from - Oh what a decision to have to make! So the search began.

There wasn't as much exposure on the Internet at that time. They didn't have any contacts to refer to. But they found some breeders and drove all over looking at poodles. Finally they saw the perfect puppy. He was a little black fur ball. He was full of adventure and fun. He weaved in and out of the breeder's split rail fence. He was theirs. He was a very gentle and loving boy. And so the story began. They all enjoyed their Max so much that one year later - after much training and learning about many different aspects of poodles - they found their next love - Sasha. She was a demanding little thing. She came into the house and took over. She shoved Max over at HIS water bowl, slid her little paws into the water and drank. He just looked at her and wondered what had happened to his world! Next she moved him over at his food dish and started eating. Once again, he just looked at her incredulously. After the shock of it all though, they became fast friends. They were always together. While Sasha was little, Max watched out for her. When she got bigger, they played together all of the time. And that is how the Sterling's got their start. The rest is history.

Now we have 4 adult poodles and three up and comers - and occasionally a litter of 8 or so puppies. Our life revolves around all of them and we love it. We even moved onto 10 acres so we would have more room for them (and for our horses).

Right now we are in the process of building so we are 'roughing it' - living in a construction site office trailer! We have temporary water and septic tanks, temporary fencing and a lot of work ahead of us. As we progress, I will update you on our improvements that probably will not start until spring now that the weather has changed.

Enjoy our web site and our pictures. We took all of them with love.