Why a rough collie?

     My story, I can even say my love story with Rough Collies and my dream and ambition to breed this beautiful breed started by pure chance.

     As every child I always wanted to have a dog. But at that time “the Faithful Lassie” was not part of my dreams. We were living in Switzerland near Montreux by the Geneva Lake. As my parents didn’t want to buy me a dog I spent all of my spare time with my best friend which mother was breeding my dream breed:

the Afghan Hound.  Their coat, their movements, their elegance, their dignity, everything enchanted me. I decided I shall have an Afghan Hound one day.     

     Years went by and I moved to Slovenia. There I met my husband who was “addicted” with German Shepherds. Though him I stated to love this breed too. So I offered myself my first dog, a German Shepherd. I named him Lex.  Lex is a great dog, nice, friendly with people and very obedient. We worked and played a lot together. We trained obedience, trail, attack/defense. The only thing that bothered me was his aggressiveness  towards  other  males.

That’s  why I never  really enjoyed our walks in the forest and other activities we did together.

     Then my two sons and horses (my two other big passions) came into my life. Lex’s aggressiveness became more and more of a burden. So I started to dream of some other breed, which would be gentle and kind, with a friendly disposition towards other dogs and horses.

     I remembered my childhood dreams. I started to look for breeders of Afghan Hounds especially in France. When I explained I wanted a dog that could follow the horses in the woods, they all dissuaded me from buying an Afghan.

 Primarily because it is a Hound and secondly because its beautiful coat would be ruined at once in the woods. I continued to look for the ideal breed. I found out that the most similar breed as for the coat and the movement is the Rough Collie. When I started to read about the breed, its temperament/personality immediately enchanted me. “….Appears as dog of great beauty, standing with impassive dignity, with no part out of proportion to whole.   Temperament: Friendly disposition with no trace of nervousness or aggressiveness. That was in 2003 and at that time I only knew the sable and white collie from the Lassie films.

On the website of the Slovene club for British Sheepdogs I found the only available litter of Rough Collies in Slovenia. It was February 2004 and the breeders were Lea Bohnec in Nenad Krznar from Lendava. In the course of time, we became really good friends as we share the same passion for this beautiful breed.
When I called them they told me that they had only two tricolor bitches left from the litter. I wanted a male and on top of that I didn’t know about this color variety. And so my Aisha, my black pearl came into my life by pure chance.

     Just after a few weeks by looking at Aisha growing, I was overwhelmed by the desire to breed these beautiful dogs. I started to look for a tricolor male puppy. Through the web I met Alexandra Torok (Born to Be kennel) from Hungary. On her web site I saw for the first time  Zorro, for me the ideal tricolor dog. There was the link to the web site of his breeder Christine Bisconte, owner of des Marecages du Prince Kennel.

The luck was one my side once again. Christine had two tricolor male puppies left, whose great-grandfather was »Zorro«. And so Virus Noir des Marecages du Prince - Pâris flew during a snowstorm to Slovenia, as “cool” and fearless then, as he is now.

     One year later I was contacted by a breeder from Austria, Andrea Stefan (Presseggersee Collies Kennel).  We met during a show in Ljubljana. As she wanted a male puppy from the French kennel Les Marecages du Prince she asked me to go with her in Paris. She brought from Christine Bisconte A Love Affair, I brought my Frosty, A Touch of Frost des Marecages du Prince.
   In 2006 I registered a kennel under the affix »Of the Holy Mountain«,  as  I  live  nearby  the  “Zasavska  Sveta  Gora” - translated from the Slovene language “the Holy Mountain of the Sava Region”.

  

So once upon a time there were the Rough Collies of the Holy Mountain.
     To make our lives less »boring«, to introduce some more excitement in our lives and make my »addicted« husband happy, I stated to look for a top GSD puppy on the web.

     I found him in the famous kennel Von Athaba near Hanover. In January 2007, they had a top litter (sire: Bijou von Freese Land X  dam: Afra Von Athaba). We immediately booked the »most perspective« male puppy. We have chosen to name him PAX, which means PEACE in Latin. Pax is supposed to bring peace and harmony among the lovers of two as different breeds as are Rough Collies and German Shepherd Dogs…… On the 31st of March 2007, Pax Von Athaba traveled 1200km to come to his new home in Slovenia!

     She came into our lives by pure chance, from the remote Bucharest, sweet, delicate, elegant as a blue dream, my lovely bitch, my Layla - Born To Be Femme Fatale.

     I always wanted such a delicate and elegant bitch and her breeder Alexandra Török  (Born to Be kennel) made my dream come true.

With my Frosty it was love at first sight… immediately in Zagreb .

     A New Star is Born, Désir de Gloire du Chant des Madones- Dolly Doll …. And how did this little treasure come to us?

     For our colors´ palette to be perfect, we only needed a sable & white collie. So when my son Alexander expressed the wish to get a sable puppy girl for his 9th birthday, I said… It shall only be from the famous Samhaven line, as it is for me one of the most beautiful lines for sable & white collies … I started to contact all my favorite breeders. My son had only one demand…she must be sable & white, not dark sable!

 

On February 3rd 2008, a litter of 5 beautiful sable & white puppies was born in the kennel “Du Chant des Madones” owned by Karine Bernard.

The sire is the remarkable CH. ROBBIE WILLIAMS FROM SAMHAVEN the mother the very promising young bitch ABBLE to FAITH du CHANT des MADONES (daughter of the French Champion  Un Amour de Jeunesse des Marécages du Prince).There were three girls in the litter, but I almost immediately chose Dolly Doll-she was THE ONE… So on the 13th of April 2008 that Dolly Doll arrived in Slovenia. 

Thank you Karine Bernard and Christine Bisconte, for this great mating that brought Dolly to us and made my son Alexander so happy.

 

My dream came true on October 29, 2008 when my 7 beautiful puppies were born… My A litter ... There are: 2 blue girls, 2 blue boys, 2 tricolour girls, 1 tricolour boy…

The Dam is Born to be Femme Fatale - Layla & the Sire is Virus Noir des Marecages du Prince-Pâris.

Unfortunately, on November 18, our Calypso left us.. The beautiful tricolour girl I wanted to keep. Layla and we all really miss you!

     

My first puppies grew up and all have wonderful owners... now we are waiting for them to grow up and hope they shall carry well the "Holy Mountain" name around the world.

Year 2009 started very well as at the »Nad Mlini« kennel 8 beautiful tricolor puppies were born on January 14th (4 boys and 4 girls).  

The sire is our Pâris, Virus Noir des Marecages du Prince & Dam : Afrodita Nad Mlini (Int.Cro.BiH. Ch. Steadlyn Huckleberry FinnX Aurora)  


Black Madonna-Lily stayed with us for 1 month… 


now she is herding goats with Emil Pižmoht.

     The 24th of April I fulfilled one of my dreams when I brought home from London Moon-Wicani Touched by a Dream (Wicani Waltz of the New Moon X SERYPHINA DANCE OF THE RAVEN MOON). Moon is all I always wanted in a collie! Thank you, Angela and Keith for letting me have my precious Moon!

     To have an "authentic" English tricolor male has been my dream for a very long time. I fulfilled it on the 4th of July 2009 (what a date!) when Dandy-Essanjay Encore arrived from England. His sire is the wonderful tricolor male with an exceptional pedigree Ingledene Mr. Majestic, the dam is the beautiful Wicani Moonkissed Maiden at Essanjay. Angela Harvey helped me once more to fulfill my dream. She is the breeder of Dandy's dam and she has chosen him from the litter at the breeder's kennel Essanjay! Dandy is everything I wanted and the new hope of our breeding, especially as the carries in his blood the most famous European lines: Wicani (UK), Ingledene (UK), Seabounds (Sweden), Shep’s (Denmark), Vom Haus Rukopf (Germany) .... So many expectations, so many hopes...


Dandy only few hours with us!

     Since I have Moon ... I caught the »Wicani Mania« ... and when I started to look for dark sable girl I knew she should be from the Wicani line... so I found on the Polish forum a litter born in the KoToRa Kennel. The dam is Neneland nostalgic HOPE,   daughter of the fabulous Willow Pattern Wicani ! The  puppies were 1 week old ... in litter there were 5 girls and 3 boys ... and I immediately chose girl No. 1 ... I named her "In the Wings of Hope" (again, a symbolic name: _)) ... Her pet name is Lexy-in memory of my first dog, a German Shepherd called  Lex ...  

Her sire Old Golden Gates VIS-A-VIS was imported from the Ukraine and he has also very interesting pedigree. He already produced 13 Champions of Poland, 6 Youth Champions of Poland and 1 Youth Champion of Slovakia!

I am persuaded that Lexy is a good foundation for my dark sable line as she has the temperament and the looks a collie should have. When you look at her and she is only 3 months old you can see a true rough collie that … »appears as dog of great beauty, standing with impassive dignity, with no part out of proportion to whole«…

Our A litter was 1 year old! All grew up do be beautiful young dogs that embellish their owners’ lives! I must say, they all surpassed our expectations!

We meet all together to blow their first candle… Sky, Glory, Zorro, and two daughters of Pâris, Lily in Whisky, came with their owners. We all, dogs and humans, had a great time! We hope, we shall meet again soon!

Two sisters and a brother …  Sky,Zorro,Glory.

 
And so the story of the Collies »Of the Holy Mountain« goes on…