Frequently Asked Questions
- Are these Old-Fashioned Farm Collies AKC or UKC registered?
- How often do you breed/ When is your next litter?
- Are your farm collies only for farms?
- What size are your farm collies?
- Do you check their eyes?
- Do you check their hips?
- Do you ship pups?
- Why do you use Shutterfly slideshows for viewing pictures of your Old-Fashioned Farm Collies?
No, they could be considered a designer breed and not enough of them to have a registry of their own. Our Old-Fashioned Farm collies are a purposeful attempt at recreating a more healthy, sensible but beautiful old-fashioned type of collie. There are only a few breeders in the U.S. who breed this rather rare type of collie, which used to be such a part of America's farm heritage. Here is an interesting read on some issues with AKC-type closed registries which is written by a man who loves a different breed, terriers; but many of the same things apply.
This may vary, although in recent years I have tried to do one litter per year, preferably sometime in the spring depending on the female's heat cycles. I try to have at least 4-5 firm commitments on my waiting list before breeding. If I have enough people interested, I will plan for a breeding. I cannot guarantee that I will continue breeding due to my own health issues, but if enough of you are interested we will certainly make an effort.
Our Old-Fashioned Farm Collies do well in urban situations, so long as you have a yard, preferably fenced. Our collies make great family and companion dogs; they do not have to be on a farm at all, though it is good to take them on regular walks and outings if they are in a confined situation.
Our collies do run rather large. The smallest of our females is 55 lbs, but other females have averaged 60-65 lbs, and the males can be 80 lbs. and up. Neither of the parents is large, our personal theory is that this combination of genes is particularly strong and healthy, that's all we can think of! I personally love their sturdy sizes, but I have plans in future to breed smaller.
Yes, the base price for a pup includes a veterinary ophthalmologist exam before I release them to their new homes. I get detailed reports of each pup from the vet optho. Several of these vets have been very happy with our puppies' eyes and although nearly all collies carry the genes for Collie Eye Anomaly (CEA), they say our breeding program is heading the right direction and all of our pups' eyes have checked fine for vision.
We have not seen any signs of hip dysplasia in any of our dogs, and it would have shown up by now since at present Angus is 10 years old and Ginny was almost 8 when she passed of post-partum birthing complications. If you look at the picture on our website entitled "Collie Dance," you will see two healthy and athletic sets of hips. The radiology checks for hip dysplasia are quite expensive in our area, involving anesthesia and the cost would be close to several thousand to get even two dogs checked. We hope you understand that we cannot afford this expense at present without pressing reason. It does seem that collies from us have amazingly strong, sturdy bone structure.
Yes, we do ship pups! I ask that in addition to my base price for a pup, the buyer pays all shipping expenses: air shipping cost, crate, and vet health check certificate for shipping. If you want an estimate of how much it might cost to ship a pup to your area, we can find out an estimate for you as it depends on several things. Currently we have our old-fashioned farm collies in California, Oregon, British Columbia (Canada), Idaho, Washington, D.C., New York, Connecticut, Georgia, and of course our home state of Washington!
I use Shutterfly slideshows because they allow me to post a large number of pictures which take a lot of memory space. I now post the slideshows on my new Shutterfly site. You can go to this site at any time to view pictures, but I do send out notices when new slideshows are posted on my site. On this Shutterfly site, I post news and lots of pictures of the collies from each litter, so that you can see how each individual dog has turned out as well as its littermates.
When a litter is born, I usually do a couple slideshows as they are growing up. For example I might send a slideshow when they are 3 days old, 3 weeks old, 6 weeks… the actual times & numbers will vary as I have time and energy. If anyone sees a pup on the slideshow and wishes to reserve that particular pup, I would ask that the buyer sends me a $50 deposit to reserve that pup until the pup is ready to go to its new home. I do encourage prospective pup owners to select their pups as soon as they can, so that others may know which is available or not.