Saying good-bye

 

 



Being a dog breeder is never easy.  You carefully plan, choosing the best stud dog for your bitch.  Sometimes there are difficulties, and you end up spending thousands to produce that highly desired litter.  And then even after all that time, planning and expense, you end up with either no puppies or a singleton.





 

 

 

You bring your puppy home, and you take turns sleeping in shifts for the first two weeks.  You don't dare leave that precious puppy alone for even a minute, because even the best dog mom can roll over and smother the tiny pup or accidently step on him and break a leg or worse.  So you grab a few hours of sleep when you can, and watch your pup grow.  You watch his eyes open, you watch him learn to walk and play.  You watch  him become confident and begin to explore his surroundings.

 



 

 

 

You wean him from his mother's milk to the best kibble you can buy.  You take him for whatever health checks are required for your breed, because you are a responsible, reputable breeder.  You socialize him, play with him, guide him and love him.

 

 

 

 

And then, no matter how perfect and adorable he is, if he isn't exactly what you need in continuing your line of collies...you have to let him go.  Because you know you can't keep them all.  So you choose the best home you can, and with pride in the beautiful puppy you have produced and sadness in your heart, you hug and kiss him good-bye. 

 

 

 

Today was little Tate's 3 month birthday.  And today Tate left us to live with his new mom, and his new collie brothers and sisters.  But he was sold on a co-ownership, so he will make appearances on the collie blog from time to time, so it isn't really good-bye.  But the house is so quiet without him, we sure miss our little man.

 

Mondays...

Yawn...he shares my opinion of Mondays!

Google Awesome is pawsome!

Google awesome took my pictures, and made this!

Got collies?

I've got collies...

Yes I do!

I've got collies...

 

How about you?

So do you collect dog items?  What's in your collections?

The Dog park in Winter...

Yesterday was another cold day here in New England, with temps in the teens.  But the collies needed to really let loose and run, so we headed to the dog park.

The ocean water, right next to the park was frozen because of the abnormally low temperatures due to the Polar Vortex.

I wonder what had Abby so lost in thought...

Chase!

"I will follow you, follow you wherever you may go!"

Hi!

"I'm Queen of the dog park!"

Abby trying out the tunnel

Then it's Kori's turn!

Then Ryder has to give it a try!

Holly is telling my daughter she is not going in that tunnel!

Ouch!

 

They had a fun time, and were finally ready to go home, get warmed up and take a nap!

Our collies...

Since we have been bad about updating, I decided to make a video!

In order of appearance : Holly, Abby, Ryder, Kori, Scarlett and my amazing daughter!

Meet Scarlett!

Today is Scarlett’s day!  She is the youngest collie in our family, and another smooth girl. (poor Ryder!)  Scarlett turned one on May 1^st.  She was born from an all smooth litter, and she was the only girl. 

 

Even though she is the youngest, Scarlett seems to think she is in charge.  She bosses the other collies around, and steals their cow hooves from them.  And some how, even though she is the baby, she gets away with it.  Of course we stop her when we catch her doing it, but the other collies sit back and let her do it.  She also has a talent for stealing things she shouldn’t have.  I’ve lost count of the times I have seen her happily trotting past my bedroom door, carrying away some stolen item to her dog bed!  She has such a bounce in her step when she is filching our belongings, I always have to laugh.  Kori was also known to be a thief, but now that she is almost two years old, she has stopped most of her petty larceny, and I am hoping that Scarlett will also mend her ways!  She and Kori are best friends, and I have seen her learn new things by watching her big sister, so maybe she will follow Kori’s example.

 

Scarlett isn’t always naughty though.  She wakes up each morning full of joy and greets me as if we have been apart for weeks, instead of just asleep for a few hours.  When we are out on a walk, running errands, or at a dog show, she greets every person she meets as if they are her long lost friends.  When she sees someone approaching her, she begins bouncing side to side, and she wags her whole butt, not just her tail.  Because of her effusive greeting, people are already smiling and laughing before they even reach her. 

 

Sisters are awesome!

 

At home, after she is tired from playing, she loves to snuggle.  All the other collies will cuddle with us, but not each other.  But for some reason, they all allow Scarlett to snuggle with them.  She prefers to curl up with my daughter and I, or Kori, but I have also seen her with the others.

 

Both of Scarlett’s collie parents have very laid back personalities, and Scarlett is very different from them.  But she does have their friendly demeanor, and their good looks.  We have high hopes her future as a show dog.  With very little training, she already steps into the show ring like a veteran.  So there is one place that she is all business!

 

No matter what happens, Scarlett brings a lot of joy and excitement into our lives.  She makes us laugh, and as made her own special place in our family.

Meet the rest of the family:
http://collie222.blogspot.com/2013/06/meet-kori.html
http://collie222.blogspot.com/2013/06/meet-ryder.html
http://collie222.blogspot.com/2013/05/meet-holly.html
http://collie222.blogspot.com/2013/05/meet-abby.html
http://collie222.blogspot.com/2012/12/kitty-time-on-collie-blog.html

 

Meet Kori!

Kori is the next collie we are going to feature.  She is Abby's daughter, and Ryder's littermate.  When interacting with all the collies, she gets along with everyone, but her best friend is her younger sister, Scarlett.  The two of them put their heads together, and create a lot of mischief!  Kori is the first to make new dog friends at dog shows or the dog park. 

 

She is 21 months old, and will turn 2 years old on August 30th.  Kori spends most of her day playing with Scarlett and the other collies.  Throughout the day, she will check in with me, for some quick loves and attention, and then she is off playing once again.  And while she is pretty independent during the day, at night Kori curls up against me to sleep, wanting to be as close as possible to me while we slumber.

  

                   

Kori is very gentle, like the rest of our collies, but she is a bit of an imp.  I have watched her sit back and look around the room, searching for something to grab, or some mischief to accomplish.  Now that she is almost 2 years old, she seems to be less inclined to grab things she shouldn't, but she still slips sometimes.  And her younger sister is usually the cause, as Scarlett engages Kori in games of keep-away with things they have stolen from us.  One time, when we had company, Kori and Scarlett decided it was the perfect time to play keep-away, with one of my daughter's bras, right in front of everyone.

 

Kori is growing up to be a pretty young collie.  We began training her to compete at dog shows when she was little, and then we waited for her to mature.  We have recently started entering her at dog shows, and she seems to enjoy them.  She isn't as excited by dog shows as Holly is, but she has fun.  Sometimes she has too much fun.  For some reason Kori thinks running around the ring is actually a race!  She is supposed to move at a nice pace, and she does move at the correct speed when we take her to handling class.  But at the dog shows, she starts running faster and faster, until she is trying to pull my daughter around the ring.  We are working hard on fixing this, by trying to convince her to move a bit slower in the show ring.

 

I think the root of the problem is that Kori is built for speed!  When we take her to the dog park she races around the park, and none of the other dogs can keep up with her.  She loves to run, and she is fast.  I have not seen one dog able to catch her yet, and I think she enjoys leading the chase.  So at the dog shows, when she is following the other dogs around the ring, she is speeding up because she wants to be in the lead and she wants to show the other collies what she can do.

 

Each of my collies is special in his or her own way.  I love them for their individual personalities, and I love them for their wonderful collie temperaments.  But out of all our collies, Kori reminds me the most of our first collie, Lad.  She resembles him, as if she were a feminine version of Lad. Since I miss him a lot, she is special to me for that reason and for the joy she brings into our lives.

And it case you missed them:
http://collie222.blogspot.com/2013/06/meet-ryder.html
http://collie222.blogspot.com/2013/05/meet-holly.html
http://collie222.blogspot.com/2013/05/meet-abby.html

 

Meet Ryder!

This week, I would like to introduce you to Ryder.  He is our one and only rough collie.  His mother, Abby, is a smooth collie.  Abby was bred to a rough collie, named Carson, which produced both rough and smooth puppies.  Kori is one of Ryder’s littermates, and she is a smooth collie.  Ryder and Kori were born right after Hurricane Sandy hit our town, and the story of their birth can be found here:
http://collie222.blogspot.com/2012/08/happy-1st-bithday.html

Ryder will be 2 years old on August 30, so he is still pretty young.  Ryder is our largest collie, and is the only male since we lost Lad in September 2011.  We didn’t intend to keep two puppies out of his litter, but after almost losing him, and watching his personality develop, we had to keep him.  Ryder has the rough coat of his sire, but his expression and his personality are just like his mother’s.  Ryder is incredibly sensitive, gentle and sweet.  He is growing into a gorgeous boy too.

Ryder will let all the female collies walk all over him.  When we give each of them a cow hoof, within in five minutes one of the girls will have stolen it from him.  We always know when it happens, because he comes over to me and looks at me and cries.  I will retrieve the stolen cow hoof, from either Scarlett or Kori, and return it to him.  But five or ten minutes later, the same thing will happen all over again.  When it is dinnertime, our cat, Pumpkin, will run over to his dog bowl and eat his kibble right alongside him.  We have to stop her, because Ryder will not even nudge her away, he just tries to eat faster.

In the beginning, Ryder and Kori were inseparable.  But once Scarlett turned four months old, Kori turned all her attention to her little sister.  We are not sure if it is because Scarlett and Kori are both smooths, or if Scarlett is just more fun. (in Kori’s eyes)  But now Kori and Scarlett sleep next to each other, play together and chase each other.  And Ryder has shown that he now prefers the company of my daughter and I.  All the collies get along, and they all play together, but they definitely have preferences.  I wonder if that would change if we had another rough collie, if Ryder and a new rough would just naturally gravitate toward each other?  Maybe someday we will get the chance to discover the answer to this question.

Ryder’s favorite thing to do is to go for a ride in the car.  He has wonderful car manners too.  It’s not something we had to teach him, he has always behaved in the car.   He also loves to meet new people and dogs, and is a favorite among strangers on our hikes and walks.  People see him and immediately start to smile.  Every walk we have taken with him, without fail, results in at least one person stopping us  by calling out “Lassie.”  Most of the older people will fondly tell us how they had a collie as a child, and how they are the best dogs.  And the young children, who are not familiar with the Lassie movies, will ask to pet him because he is so appealing and friendly.  I have heard many children tell their parents, as we walked away, that they Ryder is a great dog, and they want a dog just like him.  Many people mention how you never see collies anymore, and it’s true they aren’t as popular as they once were.  I often wonder if any of those people consider getting a collie of their own, after meeting Ryder.  In some ways, he is acting as a collie ambassador, and we are very proud of our boy!

When I first fell in love with collies, it was with the rough coated variety.  I planned on having my own collie one day, and I always imagined that collie would be a rough   However, my first collie, Lad, was a smooth boy instead.  Then Abby and Holly joined our family, and I became addicted to smooths.  But now, with Ryder, I finally have my rough collie, and he is a wonderful representation of the breed.  We could not ask for a sweeter, more gentle collie.  They are all so different, but each one of my collies has carved their own place in our lives and hearts, and they all have that amazing collie temperament that I strive so hard as a breeder to preserve. They are such wonderful companions and friends.

 

 

Want to "Meet" Abby and Holly?  Their stories are here:

http://collie222.blogspot.com/2013/05/meet-holly.html

http://collie222.blogspot.com/2013/05/meet-abby.html