We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Toyon Embry a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Toyon, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?  

I guess you can say it all started with my grandad and father. They are a lot to blame for my interest in animals overall. Dogs have always been a hobby of mine from an early age. Growing up, being a veterinarian was one of my dream careers. No, I’m not a veterinarian, but I do have to be fully educated in the science of dogs. Reproduction, health, training etc. Knowing what to do in a critical situation could be the difference between life and death in some situations. This is something I have always been passionate about since I was younger. I feel like this career choose me. I just have one regret , and that’s not getting started sooner but anytime is better than not starting at all. I was actually whelping a litter when the Idea came to me. My dog Foxy Roxy ended up getting pregnant without me knowing until it was obvious. They would run off in the woods together and come back by themselves. And from there I fell in love with the whole process. I started researching whelping puppies and caring for prepregnant dogs and I actually learned a lot. I am an Aries so nurturing comes natural to me. I like the idea of caring for things. Then I thought how can I stand out from other breeders and offer something that can not only help my clients but it can also help reinsure that my pups stay in their forever homes. Thats when I came up with the idea of offering training with the purchase of a pup. Which includes: Basic commands, socializing ,crate training , leash training, and one of the most important of them all potty training! Or the other option is to do the training yourself or contact your favorite local breeder. We want our clients to feel like family. We want our clients to feel safe and comfortable. We want clients to be returning customers. We want to be that good that our clients do most of the advertising for us.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

For as long as I can remember, I felt the universe and God pushing me toward something great. Ive always been an animal lover, almost feels hereditary. My father and grandfather were actually where it all started from. My grandfather always kept two Great Pyrinees. He would come pick me up and take me with him to help with walking them. Same place he walked his dogs along time ago , I walk my very own dogs still to this day. My father, on the other hand, was a local dog breeder, and he also bred birds.. We owned about 7 different bird species. 2 American Pitbulls. He was well known for riding around with his birds on his shoulder. My dad would take us to the SPCA ( shelter) just for fun and it was always amazing to watch him. He was able to pet every dog in the SPCA (shelter), even the aggressive ones, but it never worked for me. He would always tell me dogs can sense fear. My dad was into bulldogs and pit bulls, and a lot of breeders would send us videos of their kennels and dogs. A lot of this stuck with me and made me part of who I am today. We have a lot planned for 2024. We plan to offer group training classes, pet accessories, down to our very own shampoo and treats. We want to be more than just breeders. For every pup sold, a portion of it will be donated to an animal shelter. We have tons of ideas, and we can’t wait to share them with the world.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

One evening, I let all my dogs outside to use the restroom. At the time, all my dogs were pups, except for the two oldest. As we were walking in the house, panda which was one of the pups. She was literally walking behind me and somehow veered off back into the backyard without me noticing. As I got in the house I counted everybody and noticed I was missing one. So I called out to her to no avail, then went to the backyard to look for her. At this particular time, my yard was not fully fenced in . Where I live is basically surrounded by woods all the way around. She was nowhere to be found and literally walked around the whole house, but still nothing, which was weird. I went back in to see if I missed her or missed count, but she was not in the house. I went back outside, and I could hear a little commotion in the woods at the back of the house. At first, it sounded like two cats fighting, but as I got closer and closer, the sound changed. Now I can clealy hear that it was panda in the woods fighting for her life. It was around 10 or 11 p.m., so of course, it was pitch black in the woods , and because of that, I couldn’t get a good visional of her. If I were going to save her, I had to think fast. I have come to the conclusion that she was snatched by coyote. I started making a lot of noise, shaking trees and throwing rocks and calling her name as if I were coming down in the wood. Then I ran and got my gun and shot in the air once. Then, she proceeded to walk in the woods to save her life if she could. I was willing to put my life on the line for her to survive, and that’s just what I did . I got about halfway down the hill in the woods, and there she was, leaning up against a tree, barely standing. She had fang mark from the teeth of the coyote on both sides of her neck. Along with an open cut on her belly as well. I picked her up carried her back to the house, rapped her up in a towel and rushed to the vet. The vet gave me a few options. The first option was to treat her and then send her home. The second option was to treat her and keep her on an IV overnight. I choose to take her home because i felt she would recover faster being with her family. She left with a Rabies shot, stitches in both sides of her neck, and a couple going across her belly. The next day, she was already showing signs of recovery and acting like her normal self again. Fast forward 3 years later, she is alive and healthy as ever, thanks to Grady Animal Hospital.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One thing I had to unlearn is, Breeding is not a get-rich-quick scheme, and it is not easy. Its hard work and most people get that image in there head from online breeders. Where it looks like their making a ton of money selling dogs. What they don’t show is how long it took before actually making any type of return on investment or how much it costs to raise a dog. It’s almost like that classic Oldsmobile you buy to fix up, and you just keep putting money into it, until one day all that hard work pays off. All that hard work shows in your dogs. Unfortunately, when becoming a breeder, there are some things that aren’t promised. A lot can go wrong even after doing everything right. “Hope for the best but prepare for the worst” goes without saying. It can be your male can’t reproduce or your female can’t conceive. Bad structure, Health Issues, bad temperament. You just really have to trust the process and understand whats for you is for you no matter what. God doesn’t make mistakes.

Contact Info:

• Website: bullyfamvlog.com
• Instagram: bully_familyvlog_llc
• Facebook: Bully Familyvlog
• Twitter: Bully family vlog
• Youtube: @bullyfamilyvlog3724
• Other: my website is down at the moment due to changes being done to better serve our clients.

Image Credits
First one is our logo. Second one is a picture of me , molly and my dad. the pictures of people holding puppies are clients of mine. Pictures from a few different litters I’ve had