Intro: Juno is the dog that started it all for us. He is our first show dog that we purchased as a pet. When he was about six months old, I looked at him and (despite not knowing a thing about conformation) thought that it would be a shame if he was never shown. We took him to his breeder, our dear friend Liane, and asked if we could show him. Despite our complete lack of experience and the fact that Juno was fat as heck, Liane took a chance on us. A year after we started to show him, completely owner-handled by me, he finished with three majors. At his first specialty after finishing, he took an Award Of Merit in tough competition. At his second specialty, he made the final cut of specials along with three Best in Specialty winning dogs. No matter how many dogs we have in the future, Juno will always be special to me. He was a challenge as a puppy, but he is one of our smartest dogs and a real character — he always keeps us on our toes. Juno has the quintessential Siberian personality: friendly, outgoing, comical, and mischievous. We think of him as a person, and he does too.
Health & Conformation: Juno is OFA hips good and eyes normal. He is a medium-sized dog at 22 inches and 50 pounds. He is very moderate in bone — he is more coat than dog! From the time he was a puppy, he has had wonderful movement. He has beautiful length to his upper arm, giving him a really smooth front and still topline in movement. He has great height to length proportions. Juno’s best quality is that he is a SHOW DOG, through and through. He absolutely loves to show, and he turns it on in the ring every time. It helps that he is super food-motivated, but I think he would show himself without bait. He is the sire of our 2019 litter, from which we kept his daughter Serena. We were very pleasantly surprised by the quality and consistency of the litter, which was a relative outcross. He passed on his best qualities to Serena, including his showman attitude.
Temperament: Juno is like that child who isn’t necessarily the most obedient or loving but who is so smart and interesting and challenges you so much that you can’t help but love the most. He is the unequivocal leader of our pack. From day one, he has been an extremely confident dog who knew what he wanted. For example, one day when he was around three months old, he decided that he never wanted to be picked up again. From that day on, he would voice his displeasure whenever we picked him up. To this day, if you get the bathroom scale in order to weigh him, he will run and hide. On the flip side of that, he is often the most obedient of all our dogs. He has mastered sit, down, paw, jump, and spin. The most Juno thing that he does is every evening, after quickly pottying in the yard, he sits at the door to the house and cries to be let back in to his kennel, because he wants his nightly dental chew. If you call him (when he’s not distracted by birds), he comes to you, wagging his tail and pinning his ears back. He loves head scratches and tummy rubs.
Drive/handler focus: Juno is a little bit lazy, and I say that with love. He is almost too smart to exert himself in harness when he doesn’t see a reason to. If you give him something to chase, though, he will run all day — his prey drive is alive and well. In fact, he has been known to snatch birds out of thin air and swallow them whole. Knowing that Juno is a bit lacking in harness drive, though, we have focused on bringing in lines/dogs that have strong harness drive to breed into his line. Despite not being a great sled dog, he has shown drive in other ways, including having excellent handler focus in the ring and at home. Juno is one of the most food driven of our dogs. He has passed this quality on to his kids and grandkids, who have easily obtained championships, Trick Dog, and Canine Good Citizen titles.
