A hobby started to grow so much that it became a lifestyle and we, as quirky as we were, wanted to bring something that is just not well known and appreciated in this world of dog breeding. Our intention was a HEALTHY and STRONG dog and we saw that getting a dog from a pedigree breeder did not guarantee health.
It turns out that, mainly due to my background as a homeopath (with 25 years of experience), we have a contradictory view of the health of humans and animals and this always causes conflicts and discussions. In my career as a homeopath, I had to see a lot of suffering in an animal that actually has a very strong immune system by nature. It felt illogical to me that dogs got cancers, pancreatitis and so much more, while I do NOT encounter these things with my own animals. And I don't mean "occasionally" or rarely, no, I mean NOT.
Experience with Rodents and Cats...
When I look at what we do "differently"? Well, we feed our dogs mostly raw, we have been doing this since they were babies. We have only been breeding our border collies since 2016. But breeding, genetics, coloring, and working with animals started as far back as I can remember. The first animals I started working with were guinea pigs, of which I got a threesome for my 12th birthday and the subsequent problems with growing up these young ones were a real headache. I received animals with weak limbs and animals that all died very early. Things that were not so obvious 40 years ago (such as offering vitamin C to guinea pigs, which was not added to their diet at the time).
When I was 16, I started my first rodent hotel and my husband and I bred rodents for shows. We literally drove half of Europe for the most beautiful colors and rodents and the many shows that were held. I was so bitten by the rodent virus that I started studying to become a rodent judge and worked on the breed standard with "Rodent, the Flemish rodent club". I bred rodents for over 15 years. And here too we appeared to have far fewer abnormalities, cancers and/or health problems than other growers. This is purely because we gave our animals fruit and vegetables in their diet every day and therefore offered a diet closer to their natural diet.
When I was 21, I became fascinated by the Sphynx cats = naked cats, I found them so beautiful and mystical. I started my first business through a friendship with an English cat breeder who started a pet shop around our corner in Ekeren. Within a year I bought into her company and learned the ins and outs of the company. Ultimately I gave myself my first Sphynx, which cost over 35,000 Belgian francs at the time. Which at the time was one of the most expensive cat breeds in the world. I started doing the shows and breeding. There are only 4 lines of the Sphynx worldwide, so inbreeding is a major problem, which is why Sphynxes are crossed with the European Shorthair or the normal domestic cat. This creates hybrids that contain a dominant Sphynx gene and produce half of their litters of heterozygous Sphynxes. These combinations were the easiest, once we talked about sphynx babies it was a lot of misery to raise those little ones. Mothers had to give birth under the lamp, kittens couldn't find the nipples because everything was naked... After 3 years of misery with babies that didn't make it and the cat disease FIP that became the basis of my training as a Homeopath and Bach therapist, I gave up, this was not for me.
I have always been a cat person, I have had dogs in my life since birth, but I always leaned towards cats. I found their independence intriguing and cats were smart but not pleasing like a dog. I think I've always had the wrong breed... Because when we decided to get a dog to work with in Hungary before we left for Hungary, we ended up with Spotty, our first border collie. From then on a world opened up for me. She was not the easiest border collie, she was fierce, stubborn, East Indian deaf, and challenging. As a 3.5-month-old puppy, she came with us to Hungary, our first experience with this country. She was a handful because on the farm where we were staying at the time, she herded the goats like a pro at that age and did nothing but stalk the kittens that were there at the time and when she got hold of them she would suckle on them and made the kittens looked worn and messy. So she didn't hurt them but she was obsessed. Now, she is 7 and has calmed down for the first time in her life. She is too hard for the goats to herd, she is super fierce, so we work with her with the pigs. For this work, she has just enough spirit to hold them in place, drive them back, and urge them on. She doesn't allow the pigs to lash out. Spotty is also the only one who has to go for walks on a leash, the lady loves to wander off and doesn't come back at all when you call her. You see, every Border has its specific character. You must take this into account during training, which makes life easier for both of you.
And from then it became Border Collies all the way?
So we ended up breeding border collies. We bought our first pair of border collies in Belgium. When purchased, Spot turned out to have a Romanian background, while Buddy, our stud dog, was a real Flemish. We were quite ignorant because no one had told us that Merle on Merle was not a right combination (while Buddy's breeder had seen our Spot and knew that we wanted to breed border collies). It took more than 3 years before we had a litter. Ultimately, we also made an emergency adoption of 2 border collie females in Belgium who urgently needed a new home.
As our farm grew we began to need our dogs more and more to herd our sheep and goats. A process that we had to figure out largely ourselves. Herding is more of a communication between owner and dog instead of a fixed technique. You will stimulate your dog's instincts by exposing him to your animals. We quickly learned from Spot that she had herding instincts, with Buddy we had to experience that he had a lot of enthusiasm but simply walked "through" the goats so that they ended up on their backs and he continued running like an idiot. His instincts were nowhere to be found. But it turned out he had other talents! He guards like one of the best and is very charming with the ladies. Later, when he turned 6, he had calmed down to the extent that he still picked up herding.
We probably romanticized keeping border collies when we left Belgium. We did some market research but mainly saw borders in black and white, then in 2016 there were simply no Merles available in Hungary. Our first plan was to keep alpacas! But it soon turned out that we did not live in the right place in Hungary for that. And could not obtain the necessary nutrition to provide these animals.
But I am happy that we chose the border collie to use as a working dog at our homestead. In the meantime, we have purchased a new stud dog with a very special background, but we will continue with our mother lines, which have proven that they have no health problems/genetic damage and who provided us with the most intelligent descendants.
Meanwhile, 8 years later, our dogs are spread throughout Europe and vary from salon wolves, to sports fanatics. Many score extremely well in competitions, agility, doggy dancing and so on. It has never been about family trees! We always wanted a sweet, stress-free, character-impaired, child-friendly, sporty friend and I think we have come close to achieving our goal!
Do you have behavioral problems with your border collie? Then you can always get help via this link Bachtherapie voor honden
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