Masquerade is a word borrowed into standard English from early French, which in turn picked it up from Italian mascherata, itself from an Italian word maschera which is the source of “mask” and “masque.”
Before Masquerade Picards began, we were looking for a larger breed dog to do some herding with on our farm. We have registered Red Angus cattle and occasionally need assistance getting a hard headed bovine where we need it to be but also wanted to be able to show. Ashley looked at all the potential prospects like the Australian Shepherds and Border Collies.
While at a show in northern Virginia she just happen to lay eyes on a mutt-ish looking dog that was near her weekend setup. Out of curiosity she inquired on the breed and learned they were a herding breed with very few in the states. After speaking with a couple owners she found out there was a litter of puppies close to her home in southwest Virginia. The litter wasn’t ready yet so gave her time to research what she could of the breed and decided to give the breed a shot.
The pup she ended up bringing home didn’t quite mesh with her vision of things so he was placed in a pet home, in 2010 she received a little brindle bitch from Betsy Richards of Windsor Lake Picards in Roanoke, VA.
AllStars Farrah Fawcett, Farrah to her friends, joined the Bond family around Christmas 2010. Masquerade Picards also added a French import to the crew on Memorial Day 2013, Idle. We produced our first litter in July 2014 and we’re continuing our best efforts to help this breed’s comeback.
Ashley has had previous experience exhibiting and breed dogs, she started in Rat Terriers in 2006 and still does (ratsofnimh.com). Before that Ashley did agility with her pet Golden Retriever, when she was in high school.