About Rust Belt Farms
Located in Williamston, Michigan; we are a small farm that raises Australian Shepherds & Miniature American Shepherds. Our dogs are members of our family, and we love them all. We value the importance of OFA health tested and DNA tested parents; we work closely with multiple veterinarians and we consider ourselves very fortunate to have their experience, expertise, and support because their is absolutely a medical aspect to breeding and raising dogs and we consider veterinarians vital to our success. We also value the friendships and working relationships that we have built over the years with other breeders, competitors, and trainers of dogs - they each bring years of knowledge and experience to the table that only helps to further our own abilities. In the words of Sir Isaac Newton, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Everything I have been able to do with our dogs, is directly because of the supports that we have built over the years with people that are willing to share knowledge and their experience. I listen to breeders from sport/performance, Mini American Shepherds, Australian Shepherds, Border Collies, conformation, those who have been breeding dogs for decades, judges, top ranked competitiors, pet homes that want a fido-friend, and many others. Our breeding animals are selected using multiple criteria - pedigrees with proven bloodlines in conformation or performance, quality of personality, and their ability to also produce offspring with these attributes. We put many hours into the selection of our animals so that we can produce animals of excellent attributes and qualities, of course all animals have their strengths and weaknesses which is the art and science of breeding complimentary pairings for the best possible offspring.
Kristine is also the President of the MASCUSA (Miniature American Shepherd Club of the USA) Regional Affiliate Club - Great Lakes MAS Club, and an active member of MASCUSA, the AKC Parent Club for the Miniature American Shepherd.
We take our name Rust Belt from our family roots as part of the Auto-Industry of Detroit and Flint, being a part of the factories that built America's cars and trucks and provided for our family across multiple generations.
Kristine is also the President of the MASCUSA (Miniature American Shepherd Club of the USA) Regional Affiliate Club - Great Lakes MAS Club, and an active member of MASCUSA, the AKC Parent Club for the Miniature American Shepherd.
We take our name Rust Belt from our family roots as part of the Auto-Industry of Detroit and Flint, being a part of the factories that built America's cars and trucks and provided for our family across multiple generations.
Available Puppies & Dogs
About Us (the people)
About our family: We are by nature private people, so I do not put many details about our personal lives on the internet because I want to allow my kids to grow up without publishing their lives frequently to social media for the sake of (adorable and funny) content that makes algorithms happy and keeps my pages high ranking.
So here is a brief bit about us - We are a family farm and we have an energetic family of four with two young boys, Jeff is a disabled Navy Veteran and currently works in Aeronautics industry in Metro-Detroit and Kristine is a former 4-Her who grew up showing Paint horses named Spitfire & Sprite and a black wool sheep named Deanna. Kristine went to college at Oakland University and Winona State University and earned two Bachelors degrees in History and Political Science and half of her Masters degree in Counseling Education, she also works as a on a Sexual Violence Crisis-line Advocate, and often takes one of her dogs into work with her. Kristine started breeding when she had hedgehogs and had a few other exotics as XWH Wildhearts Hedgehogs when she was in college - the hedgehogs were wonderful and curious creatures with unique needs for their personalities, however as the family grew and became more involved in dogs, the decided it was best to end things with the hedgies. Together Kristine and Jeff run the farm, Jeff does woodworking and sawyering with his sawmill and Kristine bakes and makes soaps, lotions, and candles for Wild Hearts Orchards to sells at local farmers markets and shows. Kristine primarily competes with the dogs in disc, barn hunt, FastCAT, and also does training in agility, herding, and dock diving; Jeff also competes in disc (and he is the better disc player actually).
So here is a brief bit about us - We are a family farm and we have an energetic family of four with two young boys, Jeff is a disabled Navy Veteran and currently works in Aeronautics industry in Metro-Detroit and Kristine is a former 4-Her who grew up showing Paint horses named Spitfire & Sprite and a black wool sheep named Deanna. Kristine went to college at Oakland University and Winona State University and earned two Bachelors degrees in History and Political Science and half of her Masters degree in Counseling Education, she also works as a on a Sexual Violence Crisis-line Advocate, and often takes one of her dogs into work with her. Kristine started breeding when she had hedgehogs and had a few other exotics as XWH Wildhearts Hedgehogs when she was in college - the hedgehogs were wonderful and curious creatures with unique needs for their personalities, however as the family grew and became more involved in dogs, the decided it was best to end things with the hedgies. Together Kristine and Jeff run the farm, Jeff does woodworking and sawyering with his sawmill and Kristine bakes and makes soaps, lotions, and candles for Wild Hearts Orchards to sells at local farmers markets and shows. Kristine primarily competes with the dogs in disc, barn hunt, FastCAT, and also does training in agility, herding, and dock diving; Jeff also competes in disc (and he is the better disc player actually).
