About Us

About me and the Tin Roof Ranch

I am Mrs. Jennifer Vanasse, partner and wife of Mr. Andrew Vanasse. Together we operate the Tin Roof Ranch, the Tin Roof ACD puppy program, and our beautiful life together. We truly enjoy the (crazy) life we live with our pack of ACDs.  Andy and I were married November 15, 2017. We met two years (to the day) prior. Billie Jean was my pet ACD at the time, and I blame her for getting Andy to fall in love with ACDs. She is a special girl indeed, but I have to accept the overall responsibility of being the reason he stayed and married us. Tin Roof ACDs was not a thought or a distant vision in my mind, during the time we first me, but unfortunate circumstances became visible as god's blessing in disguise. In 2018, diagnosed with a lethal genetic disease, I was told by doctors that I needed to medically retire. My almost 18 year career at an equine hospital ended that day. At that time it was devastating, I slowly am accepting this new way of life. I have often felt throughout my lifetime that my relationship with my dogs, has truly saved me. I felt like they still were saving me. That was it, slowly progressing into what we are today. my intent was that I was going to create smiles and joy for people through our dogs. I wanted to make videos, and I wanted to start in dog sports, sharing the activities on youtube. The first sport that I learned about from Willow's breeder was AKC Conformation shows. I had shown horses my entire life, so this was right up my alley. I could do this. I was entered in my first dog show the weekend that I was diagnosed, let's just refer to it as "benched". I had an even stronger desire to put a championship on Willow as a personal goal to not give up. That desire to make people smile through dogs has grown into what Tin Roof Australian Cattle Dogs is today. In everything that I have wanted to try, or accomplish with our ACDs, my husband, Andy has been right there beside me. Andy is supportive and he helps accomplish the dreams I dream up. Since retiring from the Marine Corps, Andy has been able to be more involved with some of the fun stuff we do. He is the guy behind the scenes; making things happen, taking care of the ranch property, doing all of the grunt work for me with/for the dogs, and even taking care of me. My ideas of dog shows has continued to grow into doing many sports with our dogs. It is a benefit to the breed to show how versatile the breed can be with the proper training and management. Andy is willing and ready to not only go along with my crazy, but he contributes ideas and supports it. We are very blessed in the health and love we have, and we want to dedicate it to this. Together, we continue to improve the program. We elevate our knowledge through current education as well as keeping up to date with scientific studies, so we can improve our program continuously. 

Tin Roof's goals in breeding include; being an ethical breeder, producing quality, healthy & socialized puppies. We want to preserve the ACD breed, but we also want to improve upon the things that our lines need improved upon in comparison to the ACD breed standard..  

About my personal history, I have been an Australian Cattle Dog owner since 1989, and I have not wavered since. There is something very special about owning an Australian Cattle Dog that is hard to explain. If you have owned one, you know what I am talking about. If you have not owned one; I  would say it is a combination of their loyalty, their strong personality, and their selfless devotion to making us happy that makes me fall in love with the breed. They are so funny, and each one has a unique personality.  I could go on and on, so for space sake, that is the best I can do for now. You just have to own one to feel the experience! In the interim of getting a short bio from Andy, he is originally from Rhode Island. He grew up there, and left there when he was 18 years old to join the USMC. So then we fast forward 23.5 years later, I claimed him back from them, and he retired. We have been able to focus mostly solely on building the dream each day together. We want to be an advocate for the breed, and we enjoy it as a lifestyle.