About our Border Collie Dogs...
Our breeding program has been taken over by our daughter Pam for many years. You will see them advertised under our ranch name, or her personal ranch name, Nip Creek Ranch.
We started raising Border Collie Dogs in 1990. There was a strong demand for good cattle dogs at the time, and not many to be found. We started our program with a dog we called Jake. He was a phenomenal dog, absolutely human... If you have a good dog, it'll replace any one good person or two any day. Jake had a good bloodline and strong traits. This has been passed on to all his pups, and we have an awesome breeding program today because of him. He set the standards, and we maintain those standards to keep the bar set high for anything we raise. Jake made our program very special, as his pups excelled in all areas. Most Border Collie's can be very hyper, but Jake put a cool attitude into the pups. We try to maintain that attitude in every dog we keep for our program. This allows them to be cattle dogs, companions, trial dogs, agility or you name it! In one of our first litters of pups, a female named Jessy went on to be Manitoba Flyball Champion in no time! In the past few years we've also raised a pup in BC doing exceptional in dock diving, as well as more flyball superstars.
Our female dogs over the years have also been chosen with high standards. One female in particular made an exceptional cross with Jake, exceeding all expectations. Her name was Becky, purchased out of Regina Agribition in 1995. Her price was very high for buying a dog at that time, but we would call it a cheap buy. You cannot put a price on a good dog, and she wasn't just good.. she was outstanding! We do try to keep Jake and Becky's blood flowing through our current dogs, but we firmly believe in keeping the lines fresh as well. We maintain any dogs we've had over the years that we consider first class for our program in the bloodlines as much as we can.
We look for several traits in our cattle dogs, which is our main focus in the program. We run up to 1000 head of yearling cattle each year, as well as cow/calf. We like a cool attitude, meaning not too hyper. Not too strong an eye, if they get locked on the stock, they get run over doing chores. Not too loose an eye, they still need to focus and be able to push. We like to have push, bite and a bit of grit, and the ability to have good listen. When we cross our dogs the ending result is to make the pups all around. Not every dog will have the exact amount of what we want of every trait, but we can certainly try to get it as close as we can. Also having a bit of variation in the females we breed, help accommodate what our customers want and can handle.
Border Collies originating from our ranch can be found all across Canada, from BC to Newfoundland, including going north to Nunavit. We can arrange flights and travel for pups going out of province.
Pam & Scott Cody, Jet, Bo and Becky