The Farm includes various interspecies areas where (on non-show weekends) we hold occasional CCA club meetings and picnics. In addition to the herding instinct and temperament tests and assorted performance events, we also do workshops on handling, grooming, carting – the whole range of skills that tap the versatility of the Collie and the interests of Collie people. The various special events bring all-breed dog lovers from the local community with their dogs (even non-Collies) to work and learn. For the spectator Collies, the weekend duck herding lessons in the field next to theirs provides a great sideshow.
Some of our puppies have herded both species in both arenas(3) at the tender age of 6 weeks. Our most avid adult herders have earned PT and HS titles, and almost all our Collies have passed herding instinct tests. Our laidback homebred wool sheep and ducks were quite a challenge to our non-aggressive, smart Collies. Besides brawn, it takes creative intelligence to move the slow of any species!
After twenty-five energetic years – of timber harvests; of raising and judging pygmy goats and founding the National Pygmy Goat Association; of breeding tame black sheep and producing the best wool in the Valley; of breeding Abyssinians and winning at cat shows; and of observing the interaction of the Collies with the other species, we terminated the Kings Valley Animal Family and focused entirely on the dogs. Of all the many other animals, only Timothy and Oliver, the Collies’ cats, remain. Our Collie boarding clients started to call the place “Collie Camp.”
From the solid foundation of Halle and Hosannah, Tender and Maggie stems the character of the Kings Valley Collie family: Collies that raised the children of many families, became the foundation for American, Dutch, German, and Israeli kennels, and gave us generation after generation of Angels, among them nearly 90 breed champions, 4 ROM matrons, American and Israeli Best in Show winners, innumerable CDs, several CDXs, a couple of UDs, 4 Agility and 3 Rally Excellent dogs so far, 4 Guide Dogs for the Blind, a Search and Rescue Dog, an Alzheimer’s Aid Dog, and a dozen Service Dogs for Mobility and Support to date, thanks to Leslie’s great talent as a trainer of dogs and teacher of people who need them.
From the success and joy of others who work with our dogs, we get lasting good strokes.
And while I may decide to become Collie Breeder Emeritus, we can count on Leslie, who has never been without a Collie, to keep alive our aim for the Collies: to see the Kings Valley Collies thrive and multiply and make us and others happy and proud. That is, after all, our lifestyle: the Collies, and our contact with you – the lovers of the breed.
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(3) The sheep arena is 100×200 feet, and the duck arena is 85×100 feet.
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