With over 30 years’ experience of living with the breed, as our family members, we know the consequences of irresponsible breeding and the damage is causes to the health of Rough Collie. Having become aware of the requirements, we have become Licensed 5 star breeders in order to support Collies to produce healthy dogs in order to breed, healthy future generations.
The Collie has changed over the past century, we are very aware that the needs to stay skeletally sound as breed standard, which is what we name as Classic, although it has an abundant coat, we do not breed for over abundancy, it needs to have a coat that the dog itself can manage as well as the owners.
The most important factor to us as breeders is health, we want to know that there will be collies in the homes of our Grandchildrens children, not in such decline that the breed is ailing to the point of becoming endangered.
Clinical testing is not enough to assure that a Collie does not have or carry mutant genes, this only way is to DNA test, so that whilst widening the Genepool, we as breeders can know absolutely what we have done to forward the health of our puppies, moreover it does give us the opportunity to gain an understanding for which we impart to our puppies new owners, that should they wish to breed a litter themselves in the future, they can use science to make their informed decisions, therefore not sully the hard work of other breeders who strive for the future health of this breed.
The puppies we are responsible for bringing into the world, hold a special place for us, they have a lifetime of support from us as do their families. We are always at the other end of the telephone to answer any uncertainty, at any time of their dog’s life.
All of our dogs are brought up and reared in the home, it is our objective to socialize our puppies very early, this is done by ourselves from day one of their lives in the whelping box and as they get older they are exposed to all manner of everyday life, we start transporting from 5-6 weeks with their Mother, expose them to traffic sound and peoples voices and faces from the safety of their own buggy. They quickly look forward to daily outings and meeting people. This stretches their safe experiences of life and allows them to naturally behave altruistically, which in turn prompts the natural greeting of humans who present with a smile and in turn reciprocate the response from the puppy, therefore enforcing calm greetings between the dogs and humans.
We have found that our interaction in the whelping box, although respectful to Mum and Puppies, enables us to impart many assets of experience when it comes to living with humans in a family. We have found that our puppies quickly become house-trained as soon as they can hold their bladder. They are monitored that when they rouse from a sleep the first place to head toward is the garden, every puppy receives verbal reward for going to the loo outside, we say nothing if a bladder is emptied inside the house, unless it is a dedicated tray in the box, relying on our motivative skills for praise and positive enforcement.
We want our puppies to grow and become good citizens so those thoughts are with us when looking at any of our babies, it is better if we can prepare those little beings to accept human without any form of worry or doubt, having the best of interaction, we believe that such preparation can support the family relationship between dog and human.
Stimulation in the whelping box starts as soon as the puppy can open its eyes by way of sounds, seen colours in their spectrum and shapes. We noticed that the puppies do get comfort from soft toys of relative size to themselves, so huddling can also include these shapes.
Like a young human mind, puppies are very comparative when it comes to learning albeit different species. They feed, they crawl, they know when they are hungry, they see, hear and observe, they learn language, their own, and understand many of our words directed at them by the time they are of appropriate age. We therefore work with puppies in a very planned manner so that they are truly ready for their new experiences away from their mum and from the safety of our home.
A lifetime of companionship, of work as assistant dogs, or just couch potatoes, the objective is health couch potatoes, there is always a little something different for them to do every day, even playing find it in the garden to guess where the treat is under the cup on a rainy day.
Yes, we show but do not get upset if not placed, we again look at the dog, if he is enjoying the judge’s hands on him and being told how wonderful he looks, sealed by a treat and cuddle on their day out meeting other dogs of the same family, that is great news. The shows keep us breeders accountable that we should stay within standard, help share tips from other owners and allow owners to ask questions. As the breeders of our canine family, we think the same way as we do our children, taking part, happiness and receiving positive feedback is worth, well it is priceless.
Our dogs are precious, living emotional beings who look to us for leadership, safety, they look to us with trust, a trust that we never will betray as it is a gift.
Each of our dogs has given unconditional love to us and for those who have departed, it has been for all of their lives, we will always hold each and everyone in our hearts and talk about them for the rest of ours!
Ian & Abigail Melonie
Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset
Somerset
England