Our Spanish (German) Import Collies
One of the great things about Facebook is that I have become friends with collie breeders and collie lovers from all over the world. In spring 2012 I saw a gorgeous litter of collie babies in my Facebook news feed. I looked a bit closer and saw that they were at Astromelias Collies in Spain. I began poking around on their breeder Angela's Facebook page, and saw their sire Vincent--it was love at first sight. I asked Angela about the litter and learned that they are descended from many generations of health tested collies in Germany. Vincent in particular is from old East German working lines (Prignitzer Flur). I told Angela that I absolutely loved her litter, and said "Too bad you can't send one to the U.S." She said "Where in the U.S.?" One thing led to another...and finally, due a lot of hard work on Angela's part, not one but two collie pups flew from southern Spain to Washington state! I drove up to Seattle in a severe rainstorm to get these two little guys...they were clean, calm and perfect in their comfortably large crate when I picked them up. I drove them back home and several days later they saw their first snow.
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Oliver and Olinda's sire, Vincent, and dam, Esmeralda
I am excited about these Spanish puppies for a lot of different reasons. First of all, they come from many generations of well tempered, thoughtfully bred, health tested collies. They are (of course) totally unrelated to my other dogs, and thus will bring genetic diversity to my breeding program, which will mean healthier collies. Second, they have wonderful loving temperaments--both dogs are incredibly stable, sweet and eager to please. They are "people dogs"--never happier than when squished up against one of their loved ones on the couch. Thirdly, both Ollie and Olinda are very well built and handsome dogs, with beautiful, expressive faces, and I know that their looks will combine well with my American dogs to create some absolutely gorgeous puppies. We are expecting our first Spanish/American litter this winter (2013) and I couldn't be more excited!