Honeytree Collies

20100130 SAt. Last night Yankee jumped in my hot bath water tub with me without warning. He is such a funny boy. I think I am keeping him spoiled too much. He didn't seem to mind the heat, but his coat is thick and most of the time he would rather be in the cold. Well, that ended my bath but it was a chance to give him a good cleaning too.

OH yes, as you know I sent my Honeytree Nectar Blossom Classic back to MN with her breeder Denise because I wanted to breed her to Ruffy (Carealot's Ruff and Ready). Ruffy is better than his photos and will be just perfect for Honeytree Collies show lines. I had thought it out and with Denise's help I chose Nectar as the most perfect female I had for Ruffy. She has the colors and coat, expression and personality to make perfect pups with Ruffy because we are doubling up on great stuff and no possible faults are doubled. One of the things I get out of the plan is two puppies right off the bat at first choice. I have decided to make my two choices from this litter even though there were no girls.

I have made my choices and the shipping date is set. Little Ruff and little Rolls will be here soon. They are 2 months old so in four months we will have new puppies to show. We will also keep showing Delusion as long as we can if he stays in coat enough. We also have plans to show Rose as long as we can. She has been doing fine in class and looks good.

Honeytree Northernclassic Ruff
Honeytree Northernclassic Rolls
Honeytree Blue Delusion
Honeytree Rose in Spring

So that means we hope to show the two pups at the same time and keep up Delusion as an adult and Rose will be moving up the age group till she looks like an adult. Those are big plans.
But we will also be helping our collies that are owned by others that want to show in conformation. So far these are the ones that are taking classess and plan to show when they can:
Honeytree Dark Ginger
Honeytree Great Gatsby
Honeytree Blue Skye

Did you ever wonder why Honeytree Rose in Spring looks so good like a show girl? Rose's sire is Yankee. Yankee was bred by my friend Denise Schroeder and came from a sire bred by me that was owned by Denise at the time, Chaps. Yankee's dam was bred by Jupiters collies that brought in that strong look for Yankee.

20100128 Thur I left most the collies out in yards, and the ones in the house were Vienna, Rose, and Delusion, for the night but at 2 am I had to go outside in my slippers and housecoat to get Yankee. Yep, he loves being in the house so much he barked too much and just flat would not give up and relax in his yard. Since Gentleman was in the yard near Yankee I let him come in too.

(You see, if you know collies , you might see that they think different than most other breeds. We might even consider that they think more like humans, with the same emotions. So I felt that Yankee just didn't understand and since he barked the whole time for too long that it is not good for him to stress like that. I don't really have an answer for him yet. The others are still happy about staying out in the yerds. The others would be jumping with happiness to come in but also love to be in the yards. But Yankee likes it in the house. He is no trouble in the house and is clearly at peace in the house. Well, since Gentleman was in a yard nearby and saw me take Yankee it was needed that I take in Gentleman too. He would have gotten stressed if I took one nearby and no other yards with collies were in that area and he would be alone too suddenly. He is still a pup anyway, only 9 mos old.) I hope I am not spoiling Gentleman too? He was not worried while Yankee did that though.

Today is rainy so the females have been lying around on a blanket in the laundry room and get to dash out the door to the big back yard every time I open it for them to go out and then come back in again on the big blanket. It works great.

The inside collies go out in the big front yard area and back in again too while I do other non collie stuff. House stuff, phone calls, and organizing ideas. I had bought corn yesterday to lead around some goats to an area I wanted to try doing herding homework. Yep, Shawn , still has not had time to make the special herding pen but I think I can use a pen we already have for some tiny herding lesson that involves the long leash. Even though it is raining I might give it a try anyway, later.

20100127 Wed Today was busy for me.

I had energy and walked around the property with Grant, Yankee, Gentleman, Rose, Vienna, Delusion,Olympus,and Regard. (Vienna can jump a four foot good straight fence so that is why she was with us.hehe She saw us all out and about and had to be with us. So she jumped out of the female back yard)

I checked out the yards that have not been used in awhile and let one male each go in each yard.

I took Grant to the bank and feed store with me after checking email.

When we got back I let more collies back out running around through the house and main yards. Grant,Rose,Vienna,Her Majesty, and Delusion. Each took some turns on the grooming table outdoors for some minor grooming and checking out. I was going to work with Grant more on training but didn't get around to it so I put him in one of the gravel yards to himself with a bone.

Then Her Majesty back with the females. All the is left for staying with me the rest of the day was Vienna, Rose, and Delusion.

When Shawn got home Vienna went in a crate and we took Delusion and Rose to the handling class. I went through the class with Delusion and Shawn took Rose.

Yesterday was special. Honeytree Jasmine Blossom Classic's son Honeytree Great Gatsby came to visit. I showed his owner some grooming things for feet on the grooming table while outside on the nice day. The good news is that Gatsby will be taking conformation lessons now at the same place we go. It is also the same place that Delusions sister, Skye, goes with her owner. Joyce Morgan training school at Austin Canine Central.

More good news is that Honeytree Dark Ginger's owner still plans to enter her more in shows soon too.

So that means we all will be seeing each other at shows around Texas.

Honeytree Blue Delusion

Honeytree Blue Skye

Honeytree Great Gatsby

Honeytree Dark Ginger

Honeytree Rose in Spring

are all planned to show even if they all can't make it all the time at least all these Honeytree collies will be working at getting conformation points. All of these Honeytree collies have plans to keep up some conformation classes too.

Honeytree Olive Blue CGC

Debra, Good Luck with your new pup, he is so good looking. Just wanted to give you an update on Olive. She is now 9 months old and has turned into the most wonderful dog. From the beginning she was sooo smart. She was easily house trained and NEVER was destructive. Olive can be a bit stubborn at times, she likes her way, so I have to be consistent with her. She still has all her baby toys, all intact. She plays well with the cat and our other dog Pepper who is a crazy schnauzer. Olive absolutely LOVES children. She is so gentle, kind and protective of them. I have never seen such a strong trait in a dog before. I wish I would have had her when my children were growing up. Olive has completed a puppy and basic obedience course. She also completed her CGC class but we are still practicing before we test. My future goal is to pursue Therapy Dog status with her.( I am an RN and Dee Dee is a physician) I think she will work well with children or people in need. People just want to reach out and touch her. We get stopped were ever we go because she is such a striking looking dog, people are drawn to her. I think she will be able to help others in only ways we can't imagine. She is a gentle dog with a good personality as well as good looks! She won "Most Regal" at our library community event and loved the attention. She doesn't love grooming but she tolerates her bath and brushing. She loves the rain and is not afraid of thunder. As a pup she suffered from car sickness but we worked thru it and it is now resolved as well as her initial skin eruption. She is fine now.

She is enjoying the cool weather and likes to be outdoors. She sits on top of our hill and protects her imaginary sheep! She is so funny! There is a herding class coming up and I am thinking of enrolling her. Olives downfall is chasing the weed whacker. I also have to put her up when we use the chainsaw for cutting firewood. She also chases cars along the fence line. We are working with these issues so if you have any suggestions that would help. Can't say enough about how happy I am with her even though she favors Dee Dee more than me. Olive understands Dee Dee "goes to work" and "will be back"as she is often away for long periods of time. She is always excited when Dee Dee returns and wants to be with her. They go for long walks and have bonded very strongly. Strangers often stop me because they want to know if "she will have puppies" or "where did you get her"; needless to say I refer them to you. Well enough for now, let me know if you want pictures of Olive as I would be glad to send them to you.

Thank you for our beautiful Honey Tree Olive Blue as she has been a joy and a wonderful enrichment to our lives as well as whomever she seems to come in contact with.

Forever thankful,

Darlene

Click this photo to see Jasmine's file

Hi Debra,

Just wanted to send you some of the latest pictures of Jasmine. She is doing well here and is such a part of our family now we can't imagine life without her. She has been going to obedience training for the past 3 months, and will graduate next week after she passes her final exam, which I am sure she will. She blew the practice exam this past thursday out of the water. She is so smart. She knows now how to walk on a leash with an automatic sit when I stop, how to down, stay, down and stay, and come. We are currently about to start off leash training, and she is learing her right and left. :-) She also has learned some jobs around the house like sitting and staying while I am putting Barrett to bed, and when he and I are playing in his play area she sits right outside the play area keeping an eye on things. Hope you enjoy the pictures. We sure are crazy about this dog.

Tiffany

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20100125 Yesterday we went to the dog show. Delusion won first in his puppy class so that was nice .

We took Rose so she could socialize and she is just funny too happy to greet everyone. I think I will take her ears out of her brace because I do not know how her ears really have turned out. The brace has stayed in her ears since she was 8 weeks old. If Rose has good ears I will enter her in the next shows so she can grow with a show experience . That will also help people with adult collies have a chance at majors.

Honeytree Blue Skye visited the show yesterday but was not entered so she could get used to the environment some. Skye is owned by Sheri. Skye is already entered in San Marcos on Sunday and Austin on Sunday. Skye has never been shown yet.

I want to make a remark about some phone calls I had gotten from breeders in other states that think shows are not good .

I have even spoke with "breeders" asking me for a collie that say they do not believe in shows and when I ask them questions about why they breed and only some seem to want to learn what more is out there to learn about breeding and collies.

I want you to know the more shows I go to, then the more I learn about collies and how nice looking I want in my own breeding choices . If you are a breeder and do not go to shows then please know it is worth it to show off your good stuff or to learn and see how the good stuff looks while in real life. go early and watch people groom if you want. The collies are nice at the shows.

It is fun to be around other breeders that know they have nice collies to show off. The travel is fun too. If all the collies in the ring are just the same nice then, the same collie will not always win because they are all nice , but when you win it is fun too.

A breeder that breeds to improve will know that the hardest part of breeding and loving collies is to keep a puppy with better showing and breeding qualities. That could mean it is time to find a home for the loved parents , so the older collie can have a life with their own human family that has time to love them even more. When a true breeder learns more they will know that the collie needs to be born in the best health and the prettiest most dignified body that is possible, so we keep moving to the child if it is better, and at least not breed the mother over and over.

Let it be known that breeding is an art that needs to be developed in the brain. The greatest artists in history carried pads around with them practicing the art of painting and drawing what they saw from all angles and views till they conditioned their brain to understand how the parts made the whole scene. It takes time and a desire, but to breed for the best a person has to study the look of the best in real life and 3-D ..

Please visit the dog shows and learn what is good. There is no other place that you can go to see all the beautiful collies in one place to compare, enjoy, and learn.

There were a lot of nice collies at the show yesterday. You will not know unless you go.

Remember if you do not get help you can breed two great dogs together and get puppies far worse in faults, so please study.

Delusion is still immature looking so I have been entering him in the shows in the puppy classes for his age group. So all we can keep doing now is go to shows to support everyone to help make a major at each show. We will be going to Rosenburg west of Houston on Sunday and San Marcos shows on a Sunday too. I sure hope Delusion gets out of his immature stage and finishes his head growing and whatever else will please me for shows. He is our baby now and sure did behave wonderfully in the show ring with his daddy, Shawn.

We like the shows and plan to get into smooths in hopes to show more often. Especially when the roughs are out of coat, and bring some genes in our lines while not having as many roughs to groom at home.

I still like, Rose, and will continue to ring train her and me as long as I think she will be show worthy. Then I will have something along with Shawn while he shows something.

20100114 Thur I took conformation class last night with Rose. Shawn did not get to go because of job stuff. It was her first time in the training ring and she was pretty good. She is one of those that will do fine with conformation showing as long as the handler is trained.hehe So the classes are for me mostly. They are called Handling classes for a reason.

Today I worked on Grants command training just a touch. It is rainy and foggy out so I do what I can do in the house.

We will know within days which pups from the RuffyxNectar litter are available. I am still thinking about which pup I might keep, but the goal for this litter was for at least me to keep a pup from Ruffy for my lines and for showing.

I do not have any females in heat yet for my new project for the champion smooths, but I expect to breed for the smooths by summer. In the mean time the goal is to raise and train more, on my 12 collies, and maybe add the Ruffy pup from up north to the training routines.

When Shawn can make the herding training pen I will start a routine of a daily lesson for each of the 12 collies on herding the goats with their beginning lesson routine till they all get it down well. Then we will have to go for another lesson to find out the next beginning command or movement to accomplish.

The agility lessons are not started yet but when the class starts I will be taking Gentleman for some of those lessons too and those too will be learning each obstacle in a daily routine at home.

So my routine will be to get up each morning with knowing that I will be taking each dog out to repeat our beginning lessons for herding. Then Gentleman for his agility lesson. Then I might work others on Gentleman's lesson if I have the energy and after Gentleman is bored or tired of his lesson.

This is funny. Maybe I need to take notes to post to myself for my collie training schedule.

Well, enough of what we are going to do! The facts are that Rose had a conformation ring class last night and did well.

Delusion had went to his conformation show and also did well and

Delusion IS entered in the Corpus dog show for Sunday.

Delusion is entered in the Houston area Rosenburg show for the following Sunday.

Grant has had and begun his trick training classess

Grant,Delusion,Rose,Vienna, and Brillaint HAS went to their first Herding lesson with the herding trainer.

Honeytree collies has put up $100 cash for the best in show prize at the dog show given by the collie club of Austin collie AKC specialty show at the end of FEb! If you have a conformation show collie please enter and try to win the prizes and get points from AKC.

20100113 Wed. Some people have wanted a reminder of how I got into raising collies. Well, I used to raise collies in the 70's but was afraid of shows and show people so I didn't get to get into the quality that I wanted. So I stopped and over time my last collie died of old age. Then after I finished raising my own human children I just wanted an extra nice collie, or two, since my husband and I were finally settling down to our dream land in Texas.

I set out shopping all over the country for the best collie I could find because my big dream was just to own two collies and train them for everything and show off anywhere I could take them. I wanted a show collie and mostly one that would win in conformation shows.

The more I shopped for collies the more confused I got and worried about the health. I knew that my heart would grow strong for the collie that became mine and I didn't want to lose it to a health problem. I noticed at that time there were NO breeders that did tests on collies like other breeds.

Worst of all I found that I would not be allowed to fully own a show collie, when I tried to buy what was clearly the BEST PRETTIEST collies that I wanted to show. All the breeders I found wanted their own kennel name as the name, which I didn't understand at the time, but worst of all they had to co own or keep their own name as owner while I showed the collie. The worst yet was there were contracts that made me have to make the dog a champion before it would ever really become my own dog.

I just flat could not do that with my heart involved. I was older and had lived life long enough to know that things can change and different people have different ideas about what should be done or not with an animal. I was not really sure I wanted to spend a lot of time at shows because I had not been to very many and still to this day do not want to be controlled just in case my life changes and I can not keep something up so long. I needed the freedom to try it out and see how it went but still keep my other plans and make my own decisions of if the collie was good or not for breeding.(I now know all the hard work it takes to develop a "line" of collies and once it is developed the breeder really can not let the best just go. I used to think that they were not sharing but it is way too much work to let a good one go to just a pet home or to let it go to someone that takes credit after that without you still getting to be a part of that collie. But things can be worked out any way two people can work it out. So some collies still might not be totally available and many good ones still can go to good homes in different ways.)

The closest thing I could find to health testing was at the VanM collies way over in NJ. She had also impressed me with many years of experience with her own same lines and so much was KNOWN about each collie or puppy she had for sale.

Since I wanted to show that meant full registration which made most breeders put me aside.

By the time I shopped at the NJ breeder I had figured out that I would have to breed my own show collie anyway.

So she did help me. I went ahead and worked for her whelping litters and she constantly taught me all the gooey knowledge of this complicated process.

If you are successful at keeping the pups alive then you end up with pups to sell.

I learned that the best way to weed out the people that just wanted "deals" or cheap collie pups were to ask higher prices but to also have a real VALUE for that high price. Now a days it is seen all over the internet that certain breeders say they test or believe in it. The buyers trust them and buy anyway so many of those breeders still have not gotten around to it because they still make sales. It is still hard for me to find collies already tested for anything , even from the breeders that say they do it.

I picked pups to grow for myself from Van-M lines and helped her sell the rest. I tried many ways of communicating these needs to sell the rest, and in the end it has been long and expensive. With a lot of work and I have made some strange images of myself over the years in my efforts to find the perfect show collies in my own work....and to sell the great pups that I did not choose.

The VanM collies are healthy and strong. The lady knew collies and knew how they are supposed to look.

Just as in active show lines, it is known that the whole litter is NOT going to often be good show collies. It is also known that truly a very young pup can not be chosen as a for sure show collie untill it is grown. A collie has a nose that has a long way to grow till it is done and the head of the collie is the main and first judged part of a collie in the ring. (I do understand that judging aspect now)

Well, it was expensive developing the "eye" for a collie because for awhile I kept choosing the wrong pups and spending a fortune raising them and even knowing enough for myself that I did not want to breed them. So I kept starting over after finding homes.

I also used to buy collies from other breeders and even show breeders in 2004&2005, when I had a chance and most of those also did not turn out for show or even to breed because of health problems or something I was afraid for in my lines.

I also judged collies on health test scores and would not breed what I thought was bad tests for breeding. So I had to keep losing money and selling collies at a loss to keep starting over.

Finally I worked on breeding out the bad things but still it has been expensive and painful on my heart when I have to let a love adult go so I can make room for the growing youngsters.

Well, now I know I have it good and getting closer to getting my type consistant. We are winning at the shows so no matter what some people say it does not matter. The facts are in and we are in the game. We are normal competition.

I do have a new joint venture with someone respectful that believes in me. It is a big boost with a bee line to the top winners in the country...even beyond the regular big breeders!

I can not let the cat out of the bag just yet because it will be fun to keep it a secret till we bring the new pups to the shows!

We are definatly going to show smooth collies and rough collies at the same time now. There will not be many times the smooth will interfere with the times for the rough so it gives us more to show at the same show.

The smooth but rough factored champion line will be putting the same perfect show head and good body on extra long hair show collies also!

I have sources of smooths to breed to mine coming maybe this year and we will show them. The pedigrees are solid full of champions that make the pedigree red, and the Nationals and Westminister are our goals that are already in the direct relations.

Oh yes, we love collies.

Grant is for sure starting trick training.

Gentleman is starting agility training.

All the collies are starting herding and the best one will go on to compete.

Delusion will continue to conformation show till he can't. He is even sceduled to show in Fargo this year.

Rose is my youngest puppy as of now and I personally take her to class for conformation training TONIGHT!

Some of our collies that went to other homes still plan to try some more conformation shows and a couple have dropped out of that to try obedience and agility. We even have some trick videos of some Honeytree pet collies to make a tricktrained video page on this website.

20100112 Tue yes I have been busy again and my computer has been shutting down before I can get much uploaded to the website. So bear with me and I will try and get all the new photos and news uploaded soon as I can.

Last Friday we showed Delusion at the GlenRose collie specialty and there were no other young collies that showed up so Delusion did not get to go against any collies except some grown up extra full coated beautiful collies from all over the country!!!!! We sure did get an eye full and studied how beautiful collies can get and how we want all our collies to be.

Also we did meet a fantastic show champion male recently that is now for sure to be in our lines. So sometime this year we will be doing a smooth breeding. Yes we will be breeding a smooth male to our rough girls to get another show collie line. There will be extra long hair rough puppies and there will be smooth puppies. (Shawn and I are so excited to be also showing smooth collies soon. We have a dream for our smooth collies to have long necks and substance. We also know we will win with Smooths too)

I still do not want to let it be known who this Champion male is because I do not want to jinx the great opportunity and the kind prestigious breeder that has made that offer to us. I can promise he is from collies that go all the way to the top in shows.

If you want a pet smooth or rough collie please contact me to get in line for my left over puppies. I will be keeping some smooth and some rough pups from this line to grow up to show. But I would like to have some good pet homes on my list that would be interested in waiting for these future pups.

If you want to show there might be something we can work out too. I do not have all those details worked out but please get on my list for news.

Last Sunday we took 5 of our collies to herding class. All 5 of the collies we took thought this was great fun and did not act like herding dogs.hehe But it turned out to be a great herding lesson that we now plan to work on at home with all our collies.

They had their first introduction but mostly it was our own introduction with our collies where we can start from the first step in training. This is the most helpful because we do have the land and the space and the goats that will give us and our collies the start. The next time we take our collies in public for herding they will know it is ok to "chase the sheep". hehe

We have had goats a long time and the collies thought they were not supposed to chase the sheep because they have been called off chasing our goats and they thought it was wrong. But now we know how to start them and what kind of ring will give them the correct feeling. I wish we had done this years ago!

The collies that went to herding lesson were Grant, Brilliant, Rose, Delusion,and Vienna.

20100105 Tues Grant and I got up early and after morning collie chores were done we headed out in the car to Grant's training class. He worked so well with the teacher and even me that we have decided that he will go for intense perfection training and to go on to tricks and show off stuff.

We might even visit California to the Birds and Animals movie training facility with my friend that owns the real movie collie that played the star role of Lassie in the latest Lassie movie with Peter O'Toole. Grant has been invited to go too if we can get that trip together. It is just for fun and no movie role planned or anything.

In the mean time we will get our perfectly trained trick collie for sure because he will live with the best dog trainers in TExas at unleashedunlimited.com

I am so excited that I can't wait. We love Grant so much. He is going to the vet tomorrow for an extra check up and stuff for his stay there.

201004 Tue When a lot has been happening it is more difficult to write the news because I am busy.

The collies and I have been taking "our collie walks" out on the land and they all are so happy about it and I am glad they stay with me so well. We walk on 20 acres even though we own 10 acres. We lease the other 10 connected with us.

Since our collies have been staying in the house a lot it has caused them to shed some of their beautiful coats. We have used just the fireplace this year to heat and it has been doing a extra good job. Since we have kept a large amount of wood easy to get to for adding to the fire then it never gets too cold. It seems better to have some cooler areas in the house and the heat from the natural fire floating around. I like it a lot but it is still hotter than the collies coats needed so they are losing some hair. Oh well, I just brush it out and let them outside to play more often.

We are assuming the AKC inspector will come again and look forward to him. I shaved the lower leg belly area and went over all the tattoos again while Shawn held each collie. They do not even feel it for some reason. IN fact they like that attention.hehe

We use steel buckets full of clear fresh well water outside each of the three outer doors for dog water available for them which ever house yard they happen to be in for each day. I can quickly bring in the bucket to wash in the kitchen or dishwasher and refill even a couple times a day if needed for perfect clear water.

The outer areas or holding pens that might be used we have automatic faucet nipple waterers that stay perfectly clean and they get brand new water at their own convienance.

It is easy to take a bucket of bleach water and a brush to brush onto everything as we walk around all collie rooms, animal areas, possible pens that might get used, water nipples on water lines all over the land, and outside shelter areas.

Gravel keeps things the cleanest and we keep ordering more trucks of gravel all the time.

More Good news! An appointment is finally made for our collies to begin herding instinct tests and the best one will get more training to the point of competition. We do plan to work at the upcoming herding show again and it would be nice to have a beginner enter but it might be too soon. Shawn and I will be there anyway.

And even more good news! Tomorrow I will start back to obedience training. The plan still is for Grant to get that condensed training. He is so classic and special to us and the look that will cause anyone to recognize that he is a collie. So when he begins more tricks and training it will be the most fun to show off to strangers because no one will ask if he is a collie or not.hehe

The next thought I have been having is that I think Grant might be the best herder too. But I also think that Regard and Olympus have their moments of following and stalking the goats with peaceful attempts to keep the goats where they want them in a group. So we will see. We do plan to take all 12 of our collies to herding tests, even little Rose. Oh so fun. This is why we wanted more collies because we want to do so many things.

The plan is for Delusion to stay in showing even past he is a champion as long as he does well.

Regard or Olympus for herding but if they do not test as the best then only the best one will go on to a herding career.

Rose for our female show pup. So I will be planning to take her to handling classes while I learn to handle and maybe get in better shape. My knees have finally began to work better so I will work on that.

Grant will go to training class tomorrow with the goal of tricks after he learns most of the human language. I will be taking Grant to those classes that his mother started with me a long time ago.

Shawn wants to fine tune his relationship with Delusion for the shows so , on the nights that we make it to handling class Shawn will enter class with Delusion and I will enter with Rose. ( still love Gentleman and know he would win easy too! so he might get worked in somehow)

Then there are the Honeytree collies that live in their family homes: Skye, Gatsby, Ginger, SEagaze, Breezy....I know there are more. So everyone please keep sending in your reports of training and entered events!!!! I am trying to set up a page for those announcements. This will be fun.

Seagaze has obedience planned and this will be so fun to follow her carreer.

Breezy has begun agility and we already have a video of her beginning training and she looks happy and focused. I like how gentle her owner handles her.

Ginger still plans more conformation with her brave owner that has already went in the ring doing a great job without ever having a lesson.

Skye has graduated beginner handling classes with her brave owner and will be entering conformation shows over the next year too.

Gatsby is also looking into doing a conformation show every now and then around the center of Texas areas. He is a nice blue from Honeytree Jasmine Blossom Classic.

Shawn will be planning to help take as many of these Honeytree collies in the ring as he can but some have owners that will take up the slack. I will take our collies in the ring when Shawn is helping others , in most cases unless we are needing a certain chance at a major or something. It all depends. Mostly this is going to be thought of as fun.

All are welcome to visit and sit with us at shows. We will be at GlenRose on Friday this week showing Delusion.

I might sell my male Honeytree puppy that lives in MN to go to another country to show. It is just a tentative plan. I am still thinking about it. It will keep a Honeytree name so it will be another fun thing to watch on the website because it too will show and have a life we can watch while he grows.

I am so much wanting a Honeytree named collie to do well in herding. All the details of my herding Honeytree collies will be have his or her own news page to watch his career. I already know the trainer!!!!

The training of my Honeytree herding collies is Sheryl McDonald at sheromkennels@sbcglobal.net . Sheryl is an AKC certified herding judge and I think she is the best herding trainer and herding winner in the whole country. Also she lives almost next to us and is in our collie club. I am so lucky to have her. We love working at one of her big show places when she has the big herding shows at her place. Her sheep are in great shape and glow with health and quality.

So without even making a new years resolution we have started off with real and active quality in our collies lives and our lives.

Honeytree Wrigley Rose out of Honeytree Cashmere

CASHMERE/Wrigley20091128familyTBtangoxCashmere.jpg

look how nice this pup turned out!!! click photo

click photo to see new show photos of Delusion

Delusion/Delusion2009showPhoto1stPoint8mos1.jpg

this is his first point show photo 8mos old

20091229 Tue click photo to left of Delusion when he won his first point. He is 8 months old.

I get to stay home a lot with my collies because all my kids and grandkids live so close and it is easy for family holiday gatherings. Everyone has a house so we can make the rounds and still feel like we are home because it is so close in the same little country area.

We love the cozy weather and still like all the collies in the house with us. Cherry and Delusion sleep on our bed and Gentleman on the floor in our room.

The puppy, Rose, is spicy and stays in a crate,in our room, that she actually likes.

We know they all play so hard all day outside in the weird weather that they want to sleep hard all night and most of the day after their fast running outside.

The collies are wanting to come in and out the front door without waiting at the door. So we are working on that training lesson , to wait at the door when it is opened. It is a way for us to relate but can be stressful since they get muddy and try to disobey sometimes by running in without wiping their feet first. But they are getting better all the time. Most of them are young adults and are not all trained yet for everything.

Yankee, Her Majesty, Brilliant, and Regard have also gotten lots of close attention in and out of the doors, but end up in crates in the living area and go out one of the back doors in shavings for potty time because it is raining today. Otherwise there is a back yard that works for running. I did let them run around the house some too but they were good about cuddling back in crates with bones while others took turns with me at the computer and other chores.

Olympus spends a lot of time in the big washed gravel pen even in the rain because he is so big and likes it so much. So I let him.

Grant and Dawn have been using the laundry room and big back yard for cozy moments and big fast running off and on all day.

The fireplace has been doing fine for all our heat and gives the house an extra cozy feel too. It gives me energy to wipe counters with vinegar and rub the bleach mop all over the floors again just to get that nice winter warm house feeling with my collies while Shawn is at work.

The collies here are all well and happy this winter holiday season.

Hope all the rest of the collie homes are good. One had a Christmas chocolate scare but he made it through fine. So be careful with the chocolate of the season. Dogs can not digest it for some reason and will die if they find it and eat it.

20091209 TWO GOOD NEWS!!!!

Delusion is now "POINTED" ! He did well again his last show this last weekend. Now he will not go to a show again till Jan 8th in Glen Rose. I want to enter Gentleman too but it depends on things. Shawn wants to stick with Delusion all the way and expert friends say that if we put a male against our own male it will not work as good. Oh well, I have to agree it makes sense. I will still take Gentleman to classes.

MY LONG awaited show puppies were born today in MN!!! There are only boys. This is a dilemma to me because we wanted a girl to breed with Delusion someday but mostly for showing to championship . We can still show Yankee's daughter , Rose, so that is ok. But this litter out of Nectar is bred with Ruffy and has the qualities that I wanted to top off my gene pool for my show kennel.

Anyway the whole litter is known normal eyes for CEA. Most are white factored. All are expected to have thick coats. There aresable,tri, and white boys. I still might be taking two pups as my first choice agreement. My friend plans to pick something too for showing. But we might have to sell these and wait till the next litter from this breeding.

Ruffy is Caralot's Ruff and Ready and he has sired known whites that show well and have extra nice coats, especially for whites. Ruffy is also known , and has proven to me, that he passes his exceptional show head down his lines. His head is long, straight, and smooth which is the secret to a winning collie. He has other things in place too. Nectar also has a smooth head scull and thick coat.

This is exciting. My friend , Denise, and I will not make our final choices till the pups are 8-9 weeks old or later. But if you are interested in getting on this list for a show puppy then please let me know. This is a shared litter so I do not have full decisions for the remaining pups but I can certainly help make this work for you. The prices have not been set yet but there will certainly something available because we can't keep them all.

If you are in Texas you can know that I will be going in person to get my pups so I can bring yours down here too. But if the winter turns out bad then the weather makes a difference of when I take that trip.

Let me know if you are even mildly interested in one from this litter and we can work this all out over the next 2 months .

Stella and Sebastian

2 more grown Honeytree Collies. Click photo to see Stella page

20091117 Tue Last Sunday we felt we had a successful show day with nice wins. Delusion won 1st in his class and Elaine's Honeytree Dark Ginger won 1st in her class and went on to win reserve against all the females at the show. This is a very special win! We knew we were going to win with the pups from our final puppy project from this summer, but we didn't expect it to happen so quick. So this is so nice.

We are also entered in the Belton show this coming weekend. We know we will make it Sunday but we might not have anyone to take our pups in the ring on Sat after all. We will be grooming and going anyway.

Tonight is class again for a couple of our collies so we are still busy and coming right along.

20091109 mon we went to the dog show yesterday and our Honeytree Blue Delusion won first place in his puppy class. He then went on to go against the adults and did not win. It is expected that a pup does not win often over good adults. There were 18 collies and many nice collies at the show.

Also Honeytree Seagaze went in the ring for the first time in her life. She was handled by her owner, Michelle.

Honeytree Dark Ginger is owned by Elaine and did a great job in the ring yesterday at the Houston Dog Show too! In fact puppy Ginger has never had a class or been in a show either. She also had her ears over trimmed and still won second place in a class of 3 girl puppies. We are all so happy!

Honeytree Blue Skye showed up for the whole event also. She got used to the show scene fast and now that she is taking lessons we expect her to enter a show very soon.

Many of you might love to see the show photos so click this photo to see the events and even some of the other nice collies at the show. Wow it was a nice big show of 18 collies. Next week at the same place there should be 13 collies I think. Then the following week at Belton there should be something like 40 or 50 collies!

This is the way to see what nice collies are really supposed to look like. After you see nice collies in person and all in the same place then you will never want a common collie again. Even breeders that have not been to shows will say to themselves that they want to start over with collies that look like that.

20091105 Wed. I do know of one nice litter of collie pups due in Texas. So please contact me if you want to be on that waiting list.

Our goals right now at our place are training our young collies.We do not have plans to breed till spring.

Please keep in touch for when I do plan to breed again. I will be contacting my news list first with my plans. There are so many tests and conformation reasons in making breeding decisions so I have not finalized my exact future breeding plans yet.

For years we have been testing and breeding nice collies for just 1-3 times to get nice keeper pups and then found homes for the nice adults. We have spent a lot of money on health tests to keep the ones with the best readings we could, along with breeding for beautiful conformation for the wonderful collie breed to be at it's best. We have tested many many collies that did not have tests that satisfied us for breeding. It has been extremely costly and puppy sales did not cover it. It just has not been working out so our progress has to slow down. But we did at least end up with our own beautiful collies to train for various things and have a lot of fun.

We like our Delusion and Gentleman for showing. We think Yankee and Cherry will still be good if they liked shows better but we might not have stayed out at shows with them enough when when they were young. We are working with Vienna now in conformation class too. They all know the routine at home but the show atmosphere is different and some need that more while they are younger.

Remember this name: Honeytree Blue Skye

She is a pup that will be showing...maybe before next year. This one is extra nice already.Her owners do bring her to the same conformation class that we attend so we get to see her! Skye and Delusion are breed by me from our own Honeytree Brilliant Rose.


				HoneytreeCollies *blog entries to 2/3/2010*



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