'Fashion comes and goes. Beauty is timeless.'
The true Collie is the most beautiful of all breeds and is timeless, I don't think it can be 'improved' upon by fads or fashions. I want to breed Collies that meet our breed standard, as well as being as sound as possible in health and temperament. A winning show dog is the cherry on top, but every puppy needs to be healthy, happy, and sound, so we can never sacrifice this.
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Photo: me with my first homebred bitch Vycaran La Ritournelle
And so with a simple love for this breed, my dream of raising Collies was born...
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7 years and 2 Collies later we had bought our first home and I felt I had the knowledge to bring our first litter into the world.
I spent those 7 years studying the Collie. In the past, new breeders would be said to 'serve an apprenticeship', studying under a mentor and learning the foundations of the breed. This allows knowledge to be passed on from generation to generation of breeder, often old knowledge that would be otherwise lost, and line-specific insight. My mentor is Angela Harvey of the renowned Wicani Collies, and from her I have learned and continue to learn holistically about the breed - from sound and healthy construction, to temperament, feeding and rearing, gene pool management, genetic disease, and of course the breeding of quality, original type Collies. In my opinion Angela is one of the most important breeders in the history of the Collie, so I take her guidance seriously and I'm happy to report that it has paid off every time! It also helps that we have similar ideals and goals. You will find my breeding programme is shaped greatly by Angela's and I returned to Wicani to find a great husband for Juliet.
I passed my Level 3 certificate in Dog Breeding with a distinction. This was studied at the Animal Care College under tutor David Cavill (an esteemed championship judge and breeder, and Chairman of one of one of the UK's largest shows, with quality judging). From this study and his experienced insight I have explored anatomy, genetics, ethics, evolution, parturition, and rearing in detail.
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Lastly, there is always more to be learned and records to be kept, including maintaining a pedigree database, reading research papers, and studying the history of the breed through books and photos. I also run the website iCollie, helping breed enthusiasts of all levels to access unbiased information on Collie health and history. This is a non-profit endeavour that I fund myself, because I believe it's an important way I can support the breed's future.
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We are working with living creatures and an organic, changing gene pool - there are always new developments to keep on top of, new things to try, and new challenges to face. I am always challenging the ideas I hold and think that they should be fluid. I consider some of the current challenges facing our breed to be gene pool management (genetic diversity), musculoskeletal soundness, temperament, and maintaining the true type of the Collie. So these are themes you'll see me discuss a lot. My focus is on preserving the quality of Collie I brought into my programme through the Wicani kennel, and supporting efforts to increase genetic diversity in the breed - which cannot be achieved through 'unrelated' Collies or even imports, as the breed has a single digit number of founders.
A tribute to 'Juliet'
A moondew stars her hanging hair
And moonlight kisses her young brow
And, gathering, she sings an air:
Fair as the wave is, fair, art thou!
My foundation bitch came to me named Wicani Moon Dew Stars after the poem 'Simples' by James Joyce. It was a coincidence, or fate, that I had already chosen the call name Juliet for her, after the moon. I love the poem and find it a poignant and fitting name for her. 5 years later, Juliet was mated under a 'strawberry lunistice' and gave us our long-awaited first litter, on her birthday, under a full moon. She's always been special.
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As Steven from the Golden Fish blog so perfectly describes about this poem... 'life unfolds, with each instant a myriad fractals of choices, reflections, convergence, divergence, possibilities known and unknown, felt and dealt with, followed, ignored and then in a moment not entirely dissimilar to the first moment from which all this emerged - it ends as we know it.'
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The moment we hold a newborn Collie is the result of an uncountable number of choices by breeders past and present, and by the generations of bitches who raised their babies. And as quickly as that moment comes, we get to work on cutting their cord, checking them over, and adding to the web of decisions that brought us to this point. To me it's the most beautiful moment. It reminds us to think carefully about our breed and to make all decisions in the best interests of our Collies. The dogs themselves, if they could talk, would want to be free of disease, pain, and anxiety. The other elements that we humans value, like preserving the essence of the breed we love, is for us to build on their soundness and happiness. This is my guiding principle.
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To my beautiful Juliet, who has given me so much... my promise is that I will treasure every generation of your children and put their happiness above anything else.
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