Currywood Collies

        I am a young hobby breeder in Northeast Louisiana. I have owned collies for years and have decided to breed. I love everything about collies. They are loyal, intelligent, beautiful, and have the best personalities. They can be trained very easily and quickly. They are happy and content as long as someone is there to love them. They are great around children and other animals. I look for collies who are healthy and have a great personality and temperament. I want them to be completely loyal and love their people. I strive to produce healthy puppies that have great temperaments.

I breed collies for dog lovers only. They are not for people who have puppy mills or large kennels. These dogs have a strong herding drive and I would love to see them go to homes where they will have "jobs". Collies are very active and do not need to be inside 24/7 with couch potato owners. They need to be walked for long periods of time and they need to feel important. My advice is to give them a doggie back pack to walk with. Put something with a little weight in it like a couple of water bottles. My collies are played with daily and they love children. Their puppies will be the same.

A few honest things about Currywood Collies:

I love all animals. As a child I had dogs, cats, birds, fish, frogs, snakes, a water dragon (AKA the Jesus lizard... it runs on water-the neatest thing I have ever seen), rabbits, hampsters, and gerbils (nasty.. but oh so cute).

I do not show dogs. I wish I could, and I will in the future when I have the time to travel more. I live in Northern, La... so showing definitely equals travel.

 My dogs are very well socialized. My male, Blue, does prefer women to men. Grace is almost too friendly. Sometimes I wonder if I need a guard dog for my dogs. None of them bark or growl when people come up... not even my pom. Probably has something to do with my quiet nature.

My collies get along great with other dogs. Grace gets a little grumpy when she's pregnant and does not take much horseplaying from Blue. 

The puppies will also be fed Natural Puppy Food, I am just now making the switch with my new litter due in January 2010 so I do not have a food name to give yet. If you prefer another type of food, slowly wean your pup off of my food. For the first few days, give them my stuff  (I give a sample bag, that should be enough). Start adding in your food. As the days go, make the mixture more and more of your food. This will help their digestive systems get used to it. No one wants a sick puppy in their home, especially not a big one like a collie. Believe me, it's no fun cleaning it up.

The puppies will be brought out into the world very often. I'm a worried momma, so they will see the vet every time a bump or mark shows up most likely. They will be taken to Petco and now my town has a Petsmart... so these new puppies will be extra spoiled. I do attempt to get them used to a leash. I also do my best to get them started on obedience. They will (unless they are very stubborn like daddy) know sit, lay, and shake hands by the time they leave here... unless the new owner wants to do that themselves to bond... which is perfectly fine with me. I'm selfish though, so they will probably still know atleast how to sit on command. I do not give my puppies to new owners before 8 weeks of age. If I am shipping, they will not leave until 9 weeks atleast. As I said before, I am a worrier... so you have to call or email as soon as you pick them up or get home if the puppy has been shipped... I do not care what time it is. I have shipped 8 puppies and I am definitely not used to it. I'm not going to lie, I don't like it one bit. The puppies will have ALL appropriate vaccinations and dewormings before leaving. I pay for all of the vaccinations while the puppy is in my care.

That brings me to price. I sell my puppies as of now, for $400. This is with limited registrtation only. I do not offer breeding rights. The only people I will sell a pup to with breeding rights would be breeders I know that have good reputations. My price is $400 because my dogs have not been shown, so I do not think I have worked quite hard enough for $1000 puppies.

I do have references, but I do not give out personal info before asking first. I do not ask what the owner has said, so you will not be interrogated for "gossip" if you do indeed talk to another owner.

Speaking of interrogating, I will ask prospective buyers questions. Samples are on my "Contact Us" page. No that is not all I will ask. That just gives me enough to start up a conversation and to understand what you are looking for. I need to know a little about you. What type of person are you? Are you a dominant or reserved person? Are you the rule maker? These things are very important in choosing your puppy. If you are reserved, you do not need a dominant puppy. It will walk all over you and it will tell you when and what instead of the other way around. Theres nothing worse than a rule- making dog in your home. If you are a stern and strict person, then a dominant dog would be good for you and a passive dog would probably be scared to death of you. 

 I know there are people out there who are in love with a certain color collie. I love them all, but when I first saw a blue merle my mouth hit the floor. He was the sire of my first collie to call my own. My mother did not like male dogs, and all of the blue puppies were males. I decided on a tri. Everyone else had sables, I wanted something different.

To another point, do not tell me you only like sables and that other colors do not look like collies to you! You will push what everyone calls my "pissed off button". I do not mind if you prefer sable or just like sable... just do not go as far as to say a blue or tri do not look like a collie simply because Lassie was a sable. If Lassie was a blue, these people would say sables did not look like a collie. A collie is a collie and "looks like" a collie no matter what color. Now that I have gotten that out of the way and have saved some people from angering a southern woman, I will move onto why I breed collies. Oh and FYI, in the book about Lassie, Lassie was a tri... HAHA!

I breed collies for many reasons. I love the breed for one. I can talk about collies for hours if the person listening would let me. I do hope to better the breed and I feel I have done that. I have taken two wonderful collies from two wonderful breeders (and very nice women) and made beautiful and healthy new collies. I get so many great stories from owners and I just ooh and ahh at the pictures. Willow, Hudini, Fergus, Cody, Sassy and Drake are all marvelous collies. My other owners haven't sent pics very recently (HINT HINT), so I cannot say much about them. The stories about Willow make me laugh so hard I cry. Fergus is so well rounded and oh is he spoiled. He gets to go on boat rides and he gets to hike on the beach.... makes me wish I was a collie. Oh, there I go. I better quit before I use up all of the memory on this thing. I swear, I could bring collies into every conversation. I'm probably annoying about it to tell you the truth. Back to why I breed. I love puppies and I love to watch them grow. I love to see the sparkles in the puppy's and the new owner's eyes when they meet for the first time. I cannot wait to be on the other side of this again. I am getting a new puppy soon. He will be a non carrier for CEA and PRA. I hope to own only normal and non carriers. I do not breed for money. Any animal owner knows, animals are expensive. Dog food, vet bills (regular vaccines, and then the occasional  UH-OH), collars, leashes, flea treatment, yard treatment, heart worm prevention, toys, shampoo, vitamins, grooming accessories, even toothpaste (Oh the dogs hate that, but I hate bad breath and I love clean kisses). I breed to bring other people what a collie should be. A collie should be healthy, intelligent, calm, loyal, loving, and beautiful and that is what my collies are.

People who are thinking about breeding should read this next part-

Nothing I own truly belongs to me. My car is covered in dog hair. At this very moment, my car has leashes, dry dog shampoo, spilled liquid shampoo, dog footprints on the seats, dog treats, a few collars, and a drool towel in the backseat. There are dogs in my car more than there are passengers. My clothes also belong to my dogs. There is no point in me trying to look nice. As soon as I get ready to go out, I get covered in paw prints. Most of my sweaters have snags from dog claws. My belts have teeth marks in them. Flip flops are a definite no no. Puppies love flip flops and not to mention toes! I cannot own shoes with shoe laces... walking around wtih shoe laces flopping is a huge mistake with puppies. I have 6 puppies now and everytime I try to put on tennis shoes I have 3 puppies attached to each foot. That brings me to another point. Collies are herders... collie puppies are the worst. You will never be able to make it to one place in a straight line. You are going to be weaving and turning trying to dodge puppies. Walking 5 feet into another room could take minutes! If the phone rings, and it is in another room, don't even bother trying to answer it. Just let your machine get it.... To be continued.

                                                My Babies

Blue and Grace- "The Old Married Couple". Always together and always picking on each other.

  Karma- I cannot help but call her "Baby Girl". She's just too sweet!

Ace of Spades-"The Goat". He has to be on the highest spot possible...whether it is simply the back of the couch or your shoulder. He will sleep on a sock instead of the floor if one is around.

My Babies:

Grace- Loyal, loving, and extremely intelligent. She will stay next to you without a leash and never try to run off. She loves to play catch. She is trying her hardest to learn to catch a frisby, but she cannot get used to the fact that it is flat unlike her favorite tennis ball. Her favorite snack is a pear  and her favorite spot to be is right with you with her arms on or around you. She loves to give hugs (HUGE HUGS). She wraps both paws around your waste and holds on tight until you tell her that's enough. She loves puppies, but she will teach them manners. She hates to be alone. If I take her man (Blue) and not her, she will not be very happy with me. She loves her ears to be rubbed and her back massaged.

Blue - Sweet, happy, and very goofy. His favorite thing to do is play dead. He lays on his side or his back and closes his eyes as tight as he can and does not move a muscle. You can shove him with your foot, pull his ears, flap his jaws, sit on him, yell.... but until you act like you gave up and you are walking away, he will not move or open his eyes.... unless of course I let Spade (My 4 lb pom) go after him. Blue loves to dance. He is as tall as me so he puts his paws on my shoulers and we dance. He also loves car rides. He sits right in the middle of the back seat and sticks his head between the front seats and enjoys the AC. He slobbers all over the console... but I don't mind... too much. I can take him anywhere and I go not have to worry about him being hyper. I call him Eyore. He just slugs around and goes wherever I go, tons of slack in the leash or maybe he is dragging it behind him. He's a big dog, but he doesn't jump up on counters or anything of the sort. He's very lazy. If I run him he just plops down when he's tired and tells me that's enough. Then I use him as my pillow and he doesn't mind. One bad thing is that I cannot lay outside with him out there. He is definitely going to come lay by me and use me as his pillow. One time I tried napping in the lawn chair and he decided I looked like I needed a blanket. He layed on top of me with one paw on each side of my head and his head on my chest and he fell right to sleep. I could have told him no, but yes I have spoiled my dogs... but not to the point to where they have horrible temperaments. They do not jump on anyone but me. Blue's favorite snack is acorns. He peels them and eats them in about 5 seconds flat. There's no stopping him once he has one.

Karma - She is the newest addition to the family. She loves to be groomed. She could walk all day long as long as you could keep going. She loves to play fetch. She does have ADD though. If you throw the ball and something makes a noise or moves, she completely forgets what she was doing. Her favorite place to be is a shady spot unless you are in the sun, then she will stand the heat. She is extremely sweet and no one could ever get mad at her. I think if we did it would ruin her. She's so fragile. She loves to be loved on-more so than any dog I have ever seen. She does not beg for it or demand it though. She lets you decide when and then she eats it up.

Spade - My little man. Everyone knows that poms are supposed to be little yappy dogs that you cannot house train. Some are vicious little terrors that obsess over their owners, a toy, or food. Some are just extremely hyper. Not my Spade. He is the complete opposite of those stereotypes. He is calm, quiet, sweet, and he loves everybody. He has never growled or bitten anybody or anything. He is housebroken. The only times he makes noises are when he really needs to go outside or if you are playing with him. He does not even play bite. He opens his mouth but by the time it gets to your hand he is licking. He does not run off. He is just like the collies, he stays by me. He knows most commands and does not expect anything in return. He loves to get blow dried. After his bath he gets a little spurt of energy and he goes outside and runs in circles about three times and stops and goes to the door to go back in and he is calm again. His best friend is Blue.