Larch was bred by our good friend, Valerie Schmaltz, and is out of Lacey (Birdie’s “twin” sister)’s 3rd and final litter. I was still on the fence about trying to breed Birdie at that time. We were planning to consult a repro expert in OR to see if we even could but had to wait for her next heat to start. She was going to come into heat soon and as she was nearing 6 years old, it would have been our final shot. After a lot of thought and soul searching, I decided not to breed Birdie and was considering a puppy from Lacey’s litter. At 6 weeks old, I fell head over heels in love with Larch and everything was made clear. :) Larch reminded me SO much of Birdie, and I connected with her early on. The decision was finally made certain and I took her home on my birthday. :)

Larch shares many of the traits I love so much about Birdie (and Lacey), but she is very different in a lot of ways as well. And she has many wonderful traits from her sire as well. I find her to be breathtakingly beautiful, I love her length of leg, her head, her expression, her movement. She seems to be a slow maturing dog as well, which I appreciate. I also adore her endless curiosity and optimism. She is a bit more shy with new people, but that curiosity and optimism carries her through. She has a great appetite and is very food motivated. She is a bit cautious with new dogs at first meeting, but warms up very quickly, and she is proving to have excellent restraint and manners with dogs who do not like to play as rough as a Siberian. :) A fabulous trait, especially in a young dog! She has more moderate prey drive, like Birdie & Agent (much easier to live with compared to Posey & Rhys’s HIGH prey drive), and also shares their very low level of resource guarding, which is another wonderful trait. Larch has done a fair bit of traveling already, including a couple camping trips, several road trips, and a handful of hotel stays, and she’s done fantastic with all of it.

She has started nose work training and is doing amazing, she is a natural! She is also starting foundations for agility, and as of April 2026, has begun her show career. We have plenty to work on still :) but she has done fantastic and her confidence has grown exponentially in her first 3 show weekends. We also started some basic scooter foundations when she was 7 months old because we had some nice cool weather for a long stretch. She is a very natural puller and has loved it so far! Birdie has also been an excellent scooter companion! I can’t wait until next fall to get into it more fully and possibly enter some races! We also hope to start rat sport training soon as well, now that we have our own rats to practice at home.