THE POP UP ADVERTISEMENT THAT TALKS though this page is not my doing. Just reduced this page, close the aggravating pop up advertisement and come back to view this page in quiet peace. If I can not figure out how to stop this, I may have to discontinue this page.
My kennel name is all 1 word, EARTHSTAR, not 2 words. thanks
Charlie-Colleen First Litter - the boys
If the sire side is dominant in the breeding pair you will have more puppies that look like him, so study the sire well (try to see dogs in their prime by 3-4 years old - possibly some of their offsprings ) and if the dam side is stronger you will have more that look like her. When you obtain what you are happy with, stick with it.
If your breeding pair does not have any outstanding virtues you may not get any outstanding puppies. Most breeding are seeking to improve on something or maintain and repeat the qualities you already have.
Many breeder in the United States have lovely headpiece since they call us the "head breed", after all we have been working on heads for centuries, but a herding dog does not walk on it's head. Steve Field of Parader Collies made that comment and it is still true today.
My dogs and kennel has always been known for movement, health, longevity and temperament. Yes, they have pretty head too, but the point is... I bred for the entire dogs, not just coat or head piece. Most of my collies date back to my original purchased female from Tel Collies; one of the two famous breeder from Louisiana. She was the first breeder in our state to bring in Normal eyed dogs.
A Collie should have type and function - coat may make a good outward appearance but if a dog can't float when it moves (effortless movement), you really don't have anything to brag about. You only have part of the package. Visit the individual pages there will be photos there will show what is called a "flying gait", meaning that they are moving in such a way that all four feet for a brief seconds are off the ground. All of my dogs have been captured on movie film ... and in still photos doing this.
Are all of my dogs perfect ? No, but they won't embarrass me in anyone's conformation ring or at any performance event.
I have been very fortunate to have new friends that have come all the way from Germany, they contacted me two years ago and have made three trips to visit my dogs. They inspected all my dogs, every tooth in every mouth, sperm checked all the males and looked over all my documented testing papers. Oh, did I mention that they are both veterinarians. Free vet service and check ups, it was super wonderful.
I don't bred with many people's dogs, just our small circle of local collie friends. In our small circle all of us have finished the dogs to their championship or performance titles, we are happy with our breeding record. We are not a large kennel, we don't sell puppies for mass market or ship all over the world. I prefer people to come to my home and kennel. We can each be fully satisfied with each other before any puppies exchange hands. In any dog or person's lifetime .. there may be incidents but we don't have sickly dogs or line with problems. Otherwise I would have never stay with these collies I have so long. No bitch is bred more than twice and in most cases only once and I move on. Each generation should surpass the last or the breeding is not a success.
My daughter died on Christmas day, December 2010 and my interest in dogs isn't the same anymore. Winston, Scotty and Sadie may be my last collies. I have five seniors over ten years old and five younger collies. I am happy to pass on what I know from not only my 39 years experience. This experience, I have obtained from my two mentors, Lelia Wachtel of Tel Collies in Louisiana 50 year member of the Collie Club of America and Irma Page of Ladlor Kennels, who allowed me to bred my first collie to her Normal eyed champion back in 1973. Ch. Ladlor's Blue Blizzard. One of her collies - Ch. Ladlor's Gold Standard was the foundation bitch at Lakefield Collies; famous Brazilian Kennel.
I keep those I wish to show for myself. I have been showing for 39 years and I do enough winning to know I am on the right track. I kept Grant and DUKE, I held on to a third puppy Bulter, who was CERF normal eyed male. Zypher was sold as a pet, he had outstanding movement and was also CERF normal eyed. Scarlet, is in photo of the pup moving at 5 weeks, went to a performance home and she has a list of titles behind her name. The repeat breeding has given us a Ch.Earthstar's Cosmic Asteroid, who is currently working on his grand championship and herding titles. They are also CERF normal eyed.
Profiles are important to watch, but some lines do develop different. I remember back when a small bump may have been in the stop area at one and two week old puppies disappeared by three week.
These pictured above are perfect for this age.
****The best puppies purchased or bred ARE show prospects. You can't buy a puppy as guaranteed breeding stock or show dog under nine months because they have not finished growing. Think with your brain. Prospect because they change daily. After the 9 weeks you start to have extreme difference. The potential is there but it's still a gamble or risk you take.
You should pick HEADS at 8 weeks; Keep you eye on the puppy that keeps that full muzzle though 8 weeks or longer. Pick your BODIES NO LATER than 11 weeks, look for the perfect Top Lines. If you don't have perfect top line at 11 weeks, you normally will not have it as an adult. After that it's a good long wait till six months to study them again.
The head will not stop lengthening entirely till End of 9 month. This is when you know if your Bite will remain perfect or not. All teeth should be in place and the movement of the jaws will stop normally at 10 months. There are very few exceptions .. it's best to move on after 10 months. Most of my young six month old dogs are already winning but those bites can be tricky since the head has not finished growing till 10 months. That is when you will know for sure you have picked a winner.****
Wink, ever wonder what happens to some puppies you see at six months and are never shown again after 9 months? Well, my guess is the bite has gone off. It's best to start you puppies out early but at the same time be realistic that bites sometime even from two perfect parents go wrong before they are 11 months old. Just a fact of life, they can still be gorgeous everywhere else.
On the Left is Blue Bitch and on the right is a the Tri Male.
Ch.Earthstar's Toast Of The Town was bred to an outcross female purchased from another kennel. When he bred with Earthstar West Point Lily, their genes matched so perfectly - all the puppies looked alike. This is a goal but doesn't happen often. There were ten puppies in the litter, here are five of them. I could have kept five of these puppies, I ended up keeping three males, DOC, Charlie Brown and Bulter. I sold Scarlet to a performance home. Lily and O'Malley were each perfect in their own rights, both tightly bred, they complimented each other. Head length, Structure - hence Movement and Coat all came through including some Normal eyes with pleasant eye shapes and many natural tipping ears from O'Malley.
Judging vs Breeding : Yes there is a problem here, a Judge is told to pick on Type, Function, Balance, Soundness, Conditioning and Showmanship.
FUNCTION: what is your job? what is your function? To have a correct functioning dog this must includes Balance, Soundness and Conditioning. Does the dog move the way A Collie - A Herding Breed should move to perform his job? With Balance and Soundness the Judge and Breeder should be asking is the STRUCTURE of this collie correct? What is under that coat? Is this dog a good representation of a Herding Collie ?
CONDITIONING: A Collie should not carry any useless timber, a collie should not be overweight. A Collie should have coat that fits the body, so it does not interfer with it's function to herd.
*See my Grant's photo.*
The Body should be longer than it is tall. It's in balance. The body should be firm, hard, muscular, ribs well rounded behind a well sloped shoulders and chest is deep, extending to the elbows. The back is strong and level. Powerful hips and thighs and the coup is sloped to give a well rounded finish. The lion is powerful and slightly arched. Short back collies known as coby.. is not correct. Collies are not oversize shelties either, they should be bred to be your standard in height. Here in the United States it's up to 26 inches high in males and up to 24 inches high at shoulder in females. Too much under that size is not correct. The fads - that come and go producing collies that look like step stools is not correct. Extended necks are not correct either.
A Novice or spectator most often will pick a heavy coated and pretty or flashy dog. A Judge should pick on Type and Function. A Breeder should bred for the total dog and not falsely use artistic license. The goal of a breeder to aspire to bred a perfect collie. The exhibitor just wants to win a ribbon, a ribbon will not always be given to the best dog. As a breeder / exhibitor you must know the difference.
Movement: One of the quickest ways to study movement is to watch side gait. Keep your eyes focused and watch where the feet fall under the body, do the front legs extend out way in front, do the rear legs extend way out in rear. Can you if standing behind a collie in motion see the bottom of his feet?
For more photos of DOC go his is page. He completed his championship from the Bred By Class with me showing him, and he finished with a 5 point major against stiff competition.
Where do the feet converge under the dog when the dog is in motion? Is the dog side stepping or crabbing? His rear could be too powerful for his front. How does the collie hold his head when he is gaiting? If the collie can not reach out way in front of himself when moving .. is his front lay back of shoulder wrong, are his front legs - upper and lower arms not equal?
Look to see if the dogs has a long body and has a flat top line ( height at shoulders and hips ). The dog's body should be slightly longer than the dog is high. If a dog is high in rear that will throws the movement off, still possible to have reach and drive but the dog will not single track as in the standard. Do not make excuses. Read and study your standard, watch and study dogs that have good top line. Feel with your own hands under that coat, what is his height, is his back soft, is the top line straight and strong?
Collies are herding dogs, they are not working dog as in the working group classification (by AKC) any longer and they do stand differently, so they can cut a turn on a dime when herding sheep, cattle or horses. Making excuses for your dog will not help your breeding program. Collies will still be beautiful and they still will have type and coat and outline, but to function endlessly as a herding dog - they need correct structure. Any house that will stand the test of time, need a good foundation - it's bones, it's structure. I can't stress this enough a collie must have excellent structure first, balanced long lean head and flowing coat. Beautiful eyes with wonderful healthy vision will give you heavenly expression.
Oh, how I love to look at this dog.
Many judges don't understand or care about proper structure, they pick a dog only on OUTLINE. A Performance person will tell you if a dog is not constructed properly he will not last all day and perform as well. A herding dog is suppose to work effortlessly all day. Loosing reach due to short front arms will cause pain especially if dog has a powerful rear pushing, as a dog ages the front may drop even more.
He also knows he is my favorite and he protects me and is always by my side.
Fronts: When a dog is coming towards you the front leg should appear to be reaching out and grabbing the air. If you look very hard, if the dog is single tracking you can see the rear feet as they come under the body through the slight gap of the front legs in motion.
Many collies have a cross over movement in front and their rear legs are too straight and wide when moving under the body. Even thou some call this a close single tracking, to many this is acceptable. It's actually double tracking motion, single tracking where the rear feet land in the closest possible spot from where the front feet under the belly have been.
Hacking motion: When the front lower arm is not equal to the upper arm you have a collie that front gait is hacking like a horse. Like a rubber band that is too short to pull all the way and touch the ground. He will not be able to cover ground freely and easily. A collie is suppose to be able to herd all day.
Out at Elbows: This is when the front legs bow to move around a chest. If this spring of ribs occurs too young you are in trouble. Some bitches after they have puppies experience this and dogs that are overweight.
Swan Neck: Most swan neck collies are also straight in front assembly, has to do with improper lay back of shoulder. They may also toe in their front feet, when they come to a natural stance.(not re fixed by the handler)
Proper Neck: The neck on a collie if the lay back of the shoulder is correct comes up and forward; Not up and up into a swan neck arch. Your collie's head / ear should be forward. The head does not stack or appear to be over directly over the foot, if you were draw an imaginary line from the ear down to the toe.
Rears: The rear legs should not be cow hocked, they can be the tiniest bit toed out but not cow hocked when standing still. The rear feet should when the dog comes to a natural stop be under the rear assembly NOT behind the dog's tail bone. If you were to draw a straight line down from the tail bone through the leg it will come to the center of the foot. That may be hard for you to understand as so many people set their dogs up instead of allowing them to come to a natural stop. It is done by handlers to straighten the dog's bad top line and to add more curve to the stifle, it's an illusion trick. As a breeder you need to know the difference and bred for correctness.
Rears on puppies can be seen early
Growing puppies should not be confined to small areas or slippy floor surfaces, they need sunlight and play time with traction for their feet, large piece of carpet when inside is best when puppies are very young and learning to walk and play. Do not enclose collies in pens where they jump on their rear legs to see over the top, these jumpers in the growing stage only injury themselves. Take a good look at what happens to your dog's rear as he is doing this jumping. Do not crate dogs in small cages, they need room to stand up to their full size. Muscling up comes from free range exercise, let them run and play.
Queenie and Winston puppies at 6 weeks, one or two still available.
EYES: When we bring in a dog with a smaller eye shape and a dog with a larger eye shape - you must decide what is more pleasing to you or for dog show judges. Consider what conforms to your collie standard the best. Expression is judged very hard in most dog show rings. Of course expression and how we see a dog is different to each person.
In the United States many feel the CERT OptiGen Normal eye is good for the health of the dog but feel that their is an increase in the eye opening shape. Many in the US do not like this. Many of the European dogs also have a different look to their eyes as well. Again, it is what you are looking to obtain from the breeding. I feel good eye sight is more important. In the US they speak of a three cornered eyed shape and you can have a CERF OptiGen Normal eye grade that is a bit fuller many can still be three cornered. ( Not a round eye opening which seems to happen with a majority of normal eyes in my opinion )
Well it's hard for me to understand why there are so many different LOOKS to the eyes. In the United States it's one way with a few variation in size. Too small or too large is seriously faulted.
In England it's totally different than what I am comfortable with.
So let just end this section saying "Beauty is in the EYE OF THE BEHOLDER".
COAT: Coat is control again by genetics. Of course this can be helped by good food and clean healthy skin with the avoidance of fleas or ticks. Always feed good food to your collies and the puppies to give them the best possible chance to be strong and healthy. Too much coat is not necessary as all it does is hide the dog's natural body shape. Well fitting, proper textured coat is the crowning glory. The outer coat should be straight and harsh to the touch. The coat should fit the dog.
Important tip here:
Do not ever bred two faults together or you will lock it in. Please understand that statement. You do not bred two of the same faults together. Example: two bad fronts or two bad bites Proper care of nail and feet is important too, dogs should not be raised on slippy surfaces and nails should be cut or grinded to keep them back or eventually dogs will alter the part of the foot they walk on and end up will flater feet and arthritis.
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