Our Mission
To rescue pure bred Collies from situations that are abusive, endangering, or neglectful.
To rescue pure bred Collies in danger of being euthanized at area shelters/pounds.
To assist owners unwilling to keep their dogs, by finding new homes for their Collies as an alternative to placing their dog in a public shelter or animal control facility.
To place rescued Collies into permanent adoptive homes.
To educate and promote the importance of spaying/neutering companion animals.
To educate the public on how to prevent animal cruelty.
About Collies
The breed standard for the collie describes the Collie as a dog who “presents an impressive, proud picture of true balance, each part being in harmonious proportion to every other part and to the whole…. No part of the Collie ever seems to be out of proportion to any other part. Timidity, frailness, sullenness, viciousness, lack of animation, cumbersome appearance and lack of over-all balance impair the general character.”
This is a picture of a dog who is both regal in appearance and regal in character.
Collies are a double coated breed, meaning that they have a top coat of rougher longer fur with a softer undercoat closer to the skin.
The double coat serves to both insulate them from the hot Summer sun and keep them warm in the Winter.
A collie with a well brushed coat is both cooler in the Summer and warmer in the Winter.
Shaving the coat of a double-coated breed prevents the coat from doing what it is designed to do. A good brushing 2 or 3 times each week is usually enough to keep the coat in good shape.
Collies are intelligent, sensitive, strong, loving, happy dogs all wrapped up in a package of beautiful fur. Collies come in two coat types, rough and smooth. The rough coat is the more well-known, recognizable long-haired coat made famous in TV and movies. The smooth coat is less recognizable but shares the same qualities of a dense double coat with the top, guard hairs being short. Except for the coat length, the standard for rough and smooth collies is identical.
Here in the US, there are four recognized primary color patterns: Sable and White; Tri-color; Blue Merle; and White.
Collies are a large breed, and range in size from 24-26 inches at the shoulder, and weigh between 60 and 75 pounds. You will also find dogs larger than the standard and smaller than the standard.
A little History
Collies were originally bred in Scotland as a herding breed, with the rough collie being used mainly to herd sheep and the smooth collie being used mainly for cattle. Even your family pet collie will retain many of his original herding instincts. This means that the collie is a generally energetic, independent, and intelligent breed. Problem solving abilities in collies are the stuff of movie legend, but also very real in each dog. Expect your collie to be loyal, eager to please, but also willing and able to think for himself. Collies’ intelligence coupled with their sensitivity has made them well suited as working dogs, service dogs, therapy dogs, and family pets for many generations. While the collie is a strong powerful dog, able to defend itself and those in its charge, a collie’s temperament is that of a watch dog, not a guard dog. All dogs bark, that is their nature, but some collies seem to have elevated barking to a true art form. A collie’s bark is a part of what they were originally designed to do – alert shepherds from far across the Scottish Highlands. It is a bark that can carry far, and they are often very happy to demonstrate this to you. If you are not able to handle a dog who may enjoy barking, then you may want to consider a different type of dog.
Some people sometimes observe that the collie temperament leans more toward the aloof end of spectrum in contrast to the cuddly end, but don’t let this fool you into thinking that they are lacking in love.
Collies generally make excellent family pets, and will be loyal to everyone in the family, although they may select a single family member as their special person. Collies tend to be extremely sensitive and intuitive, and able to bounce at the drop of a hat between the dog giving comfort and the dog acting like a clown who just wants to play and make his person laugh.