this is where it ALL began
In May, 1971, Curtis Taylor was stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California.  He found a bloody, dirty puppy by the side of the road.  He picked it up and tried to discover who had lost the little guy.  No one claimed him, so Curt took him to a vet and was told that the dog was an Australian Shepherd.
The pup was about 11 months old.  As Curt was being discharged on June 4th, he chose that date for the dog’s birthday and named him Chupanako-little shepherd in Greek.
About 2 years later, he met and married Cindy Perron, my daughter.  Their  next door neighbors raised and showed German Shepherds. The neighbor thought that  Chuppy was a purebred and further suggested that he should be shown.  Chuppy was taken to a fun match and took Best of Breed!  Needless to say, that victory was pretty exciting.  The following week, Chuppy went again.  Again he came home with as Best of Breed.
Other breeders became interested and verified that he was indeed purebred.  Chuppy was registered with ASCA (Australian Shepherd Club
of America) with an unknown pedigree.  Taycin Kennels was born, "Tay" for Taylor and "Cin" for Cindy.

Cindy gave my sister a Chuppy puppy, which proved to be too much for her.  I took him to a show to see if anyone might want him.  Instead, I entered him in the show, and he took Best of Breed.  Guess who was hooked!  I had Ch Taycin’s Country Bumpkin (Tuff Stuff) for 15 years.  He was the best, producing many great puppies.
How did the North American Miniature Australian Shepherds get into the picture?  At an ASCA show, Doris Cordova came with a very small Aussie, telling people that it was a miniature.  The quality was not too good.  I told her that I felt she could improve the breed, I thought a place for such a small dog might exist in the dog world.  For the most part, standard Aussie breeders didn’t like the idea of a miniature replica.
She bred her bitch to a small standard I had (Taycin's Mr. Blue Eyes).  The puppies were much improved.  Doris didn’t have the opportunity to pursue this breeding program.  She passed away, and her progress was lost.  A few years later, along came Kathy Croswhite-Munson with a couple of small dogs-Mini!  Again we used another small standard male of ours, Oaktrail’s Flaming Arrow.    In that litter was future Ch Destiny’s Radiant Ruby.  She became my foundation bitch.
From that beginning, I have gone from standards to the Miniatures, which I love.  We’re a three generation kennel because Cindy Taylor-my daughter-and Karen Keller- her daughter-have all gone on to breed and show these wonderful little dogs.
In addition, we also raise the full sized Australian Shepherds along with Gina Blair, another third generation Taycin member.We have been fortunate enough to have finish well over 40 Miniature Australian Shepherds and numerous Australian Shepherds and hope to continue to add these numbers.

Before getting into the Australian Shepherds and Miniature Australian Shepherds,  I raised the miniature and toy poodles from 1952-1972

 

Jeanine