Our Imports
Foundation dogs for Pikkupaimenen Border Collies
this breed. No need to say there were a few people telling me that I have no right to own a Border collie as they have had spy finding out that I have got no sheep of my own.. As there was not much use for him in breeding, and I started to look for a suitable bitch from Australia for her. Just to have a litter or two durig following years.
I met Ace in early 1986 when he was just one year old. As the owner had enough dogs - in my opinion - I begged her to sell Ace to me, with not much luck. At that time he had no fabulous show career and even less so obedience background. The only thing he had done was agility, something he never got to do here in Finland.It took two more years before I got him. In a way that was good, because now I was forced to do my studies of this unique breed before having one. I did obedience with him up to "CDX" , having a few trials at the UD level along with introducing the show world to information of our own dogs, both those ones planned for breeding and their littermates, the more we can expect from the future litters based on true information and facts.
Sally arrived on whelp in July 1990. That was the start for my breeding. Sally had some outstanding puppies in Australia, and that was the reason to choose just her, despite her rather high age. From the very first litter we decided to start eye testing all puppies for CEA, long before the tests were done in other countries or for working sheepdogs. Sally and her daughter Dina (Ch & "UD") were a nice start for Pikkupaimenen multi purpose Border Collies.
As all of our breeding was based on imported background, I decided the more we can get
obedience trial champions, 14 out of 15 pups competing in performance events and all the 15 pups have passed the character test), not to mention the looks (two Best in Show (all breeds) -winners, three Best in Group -winners, top winning show Border Collie in the past 4 years, only beaten by Cola herself one year. Cola herself competes in class 3 obedience, and would be "CDX" IF we had obedience titles here.
In August 1992 I imported another bitch from Australia. Cola proved to be a fabulous producer, whether you look at the health statistic (100% dysplasia free dogs with clear eyes), temperaments and work. Some years later other people started to test their dogs too, and the situation was looking really bad: 50% of Border Collies were dysplastic. (At that time our dysplasia level was 25%). It was good luck for the breed that the scoring was started at that stage, now the breed average is down to 25%, thanks to testing and choosing non dysplastic dogs for breeding.ability (3 Jojo was supposed to live with me, but the long stay at the hospital was not good for a young and very active Border girl. Jojo was at "day care" with Riikka and Jari for a couple of months, and no need to say that they invited me to visit them to see my dog if I wanted to meet her. And to be honest, jojo is lot happier there now that she can have enough activities like she needs. Jojo has started her obedience career with "CD" in three trials, and from shows she has picked altogether 4 separate winner -titles from 4 Winner Shows she has attended.. Now she needs her working test result for her International and Finnish Championship. But so far she has been too busy for that. No worry, she will get there, and stop collecting all those CACIBs in front of other top dogs. Jojo is good fun as a dog. She is also healthy in every way so far, and she has got very high drive, just like a woking dog should. Now we just keep our fingers crossed for her performance competitions and that she will be as good a producer as Cola! Even half as good would be nice..
In April 1997 I heard about very interesting combination, saw a video of the litter and bought a puppy, Jojo. I had no intention to do so, but I couldn´t resist. The combination was full of potential for work, long life and structure, and my oldies started to be closer to 15 than 10 years of age. New blood would be needed anyway, and the local raports of the temperaments were just what I wanted. There was no questions left (except like where to get the money from ;-) Jojo travelled down here with her friend Pyry, that was the main thing ordered from Australia.
Skippy arrived 3,5 years later, fall 2001. I had been hoping to get certain lines into my breeding program, and had been following Skippy´s sire and his progeny for several years. Now that I heard that one of my favourite bitches whose parents had been familiar to me for several years had been mated to this very same stud, it was the time to contact the breeder. Seeing the pups on the video at 6 weeks of age,. I had made my decission. It was to be Skippy. My dear friend Piia had been looking for a friend for her 10-year-old Border Collie bitch, and I had promised to keep my eyes open for a pretty red and white bitch, and after a while I found myself convincing her that red and black goes so well together.. At the last minute Skippy decided to take her sister Faith along, and they travelled from the sunny Queensland to the chilly Finland, and have settled down very well. The time will show if Skippy will be part of our future breeding program. We sure hope so.
Zip was born in January 2002 in Texas, United States. However, her mum was mated in Australia prior being exported to Wildblue kennels. Zip was one of the three girls in the litter of six pups. She travelled to Finland together with Mike at 12 weeks of age and has settled down extramely well. Zip trains for search and tracking and naturally obedience. Later one of her brothers have moved to Denmark, but rest of the litter lives in the States. Also Zip like all the previous imports has been hip- elbow and eye tested clear, and now that DNA tests have
arrived, we have also tested Jojo and Skippy. Zip is genetically clear by parentage, as both as both of her parents are tested, as they were both genetically clear so none of their pups can have carrier. even though her grandsire is carrier but sire is not carrier .Now we still wait for CL gene test for Zip before she will have her litter,We just want to be sure. Isa arrived - again - with Mike, but this time from his trip to England, Crufts and Scotland, leaving behind several litters from different lines. Some where pure NZ lines, others pure UK lines, some mixtures between Australian and British lines. Interesting enough, the type in all pups, seem to be very
similar. Along we brought a puppy bitch from Mike´s litter, where there were four almost identical girls. Isa arrived summer 2005, and is maturing nicely.Year 2000 I sent a bitch - Twist - in co-ownership into USA to Wendy Jordan. Now, from her second litter we imported a little bitch Tara back to Finland. Tara arriwed 2005, and her litterbrother followed him in the same crate to Finland, so like Isa, they are 50% our own bloodlines and 50% pretty much new blood lines. That helps to bring the very similar type to them.
