Our disappointment in not getting Vider bred spurred us to adopt Bird, but then, as often happens in the human world, after adopting, we got the offspring we had been trying for--we finally got a pup from Vider.  I borrowed Imp. Killiebrae Rudy, a dog bred by Derek Scrimgeour in England that ended up in the US, not far from us.  Rudy came over with a littermate, Geri Byrne's Lyn, and was raised and trained by Mike Hubbard.  Mike took Rudy to the sale at Red Bluff and Chris Gansberg of Gardnerville, Nevada, bought Rudy for his family's cattle operation.

We wanted to have a Cleo grandaughter and Vider daughter, so we tried to breed Vider several times.  It seems that the timing was always wrong for a breeding to a dog we really admired, and we thought we'd never get another pup.  So we contacted Vider's sire's owner, Bonnie Thwaits, in Arizona.  Bonnie had Vider's littermate, Queen, and just happened to have a litter with one female available.  So we ended purchasing Cleo's granddaughter, Bird, in 2006.  A friend brought her back from Arizona for us.  Bird turned out to be more like Cleo than either of Cleo's daughters.

Bird is...well, Bird.  She is an interesting combination of absolute gung-ho on sheep and very vulnerable at home.  I had a chance to take her to a Derek Scrimgeour clinic soon after starting her, and Derek said she had talent and a lot of power that the sheep recognized.  She is not always the most biddable, but she always has control of her sheep and is rarely unsure of herself when working.  She is also very outgoing and social with dogs and people.

Bird gained a few nicknames, like "Birdagator" because of her love of lurking in water, and Birdzilla for just being a young monster.  Her combination of toughness and sensitivity has just endeared her to us.

We've been working together for a while, but I'm not in a hurry to start competing with her.  She loves excitement and isn't above blowing through a bunch of sheep if she feels a training session has gotten boring.  She doesn't bite or chase or ever hurt sheep, but she has stolen them on occasion and gone off with them, I think possibly because she enjoys the power and hearing me get wound up.  Bird has some nice dogs in her pedigree and is coming along with her farm work, so in time I think we'll be great partners.

The first daughter of Cleo's that we kept was Freckles, now called Bun (Freckles>Frecklebunny>Frecklebun>Bun).  She was born on the Ace Hereford Ranch in Alpine County, California, in 1996 and spent her first few years working there as a cow dog.  Bun was fast, intense, and a natural at working livestock.

 

Bun will be 13 in November of

 2009 a

nd is still an active dog that 

loves to work sheep.

See Bun's pedigree at: http://www.bordersandquarters.com/Freckles_ABC9

5873.htm

The second daughter of Cleo that we kept was Vidalia, or Vider (or Spide or Spidey).  Vider was the first dog I formally trained to work stock, under the direction of Sandy Moore of Gardnerville.  Vider was born in 2001 and her first AHBA trial was in December of 2002.  I have competed with her in AKC, AHBA and ASCA arena trials plus a few trials put on by the Norcal Sheepdog club in 

California.  Vider is our farm dog as well, and the dog we use to gather and load new sheep or goats.

See Vider's pedigree at: http://www.bordersandquarters.com/Vidalia_ABC188072.htm

Vider had some awkward periods when young but turned out to be a lovely dog.  She was a good first dog for me, being kind to stock and fairly biddable.  She won a lot of

 arena classes for me.  

In 2005 we bought a puppy from Tim and Anne-Lise Stannard, a daughter of their Ruby.  I had always admired Ruby, though she wasn't trialed extensively.  Gwynn is a happy dog with a sunny temperament and lots of talent though she can be a little soft.  She is very biddable and eager to do well.  She is working at the advanced level in arena trials and I have worked just a little on cattle, and it looks like she'll be willing to work cattle.  She also works geese well.

Gwynn, right, at the Justin Memorial AHBA ranch dog trial in Gardnerville in 2008.

See Gwynn's pedigree at:

http://www.bordersandquarters.com/Gwynn_ABC266977.htm

Speck was the most biddable, willing and kind dog (though a little sticky).  We expected the same from Cleo, but from the moment she stepped into our lives, she felt she was born to run things.  At eight or ten weeks, she was bullying the four year old dogs (Speck and our Australian Shepherd, Hannah).  Cleo was a pistol, busy, energetic, driven to stay occupied.  She was very, very intelligent and figured out things in moments, especially if it involved anything she wanted.

We worked in a feedlot when Cleo was small, but moved out to work on a large ranch before she was one.  L.D. was cattle manager on the 200,000 acre operation, and we found opportunities for her to learn stock work when we were riding out to check the 850 cows or 3500 yearlings.  She learned fast and had lots of ability to control cattle.  We still didn't know much of anything about training stock dogs, but Cleo quickly figured out what we needed and helped all she could.

Cleo's sire, Casey, was bred by Arthur Allen and his dam, Dottie, was the offspring of two dogs bred or owned by Arthur Allen.  Casey and Dottie worked in Tom and Bonnie Thurman's Kansas sheep feedlot.  After we got Cleo, Casey and Dottie were sold in Texas.  Dottie ended up having descendants who were competitive cattle dogs, one placing 7th in the USBCHA cattle dog nursery trial in 2001 (Jewel, owned by Linda Holloway).  

Cleo was not only a great working dog for us, she was a great companion, being very close to human.  She had a brilliant mind and noticed everything, and even at 12 years old was still very active.   She had three litters.  We kept pups from the first and third litter.  We lost her in 2006 and still miss her.

Cleo, above, with baby Vider sleeping on her tail.

You can see Speck's pedigree here: http://www.bordersandquarters.com/Speck_AIBC_93169.htm

The dog we borrowed to breed Speck was Casey NASD 59794, a dog bred by Arthur Allen.  We borrowed him from Tom Thurman, who had a sheep feedlot in Leoti, Kansas.  Casey did his best with Speck, however, no puppies were conceived, or at least not carried.  We returned Casey to Tom and later told him we hadn't gotten any puppies.  He told us that Casey had never been interested in his bitch, so perhaps something was wrong with him, but upon returning home Casey found Tom's Dottie in season and promptly bred her for the first time.  A couple of months later, Tom called us and asked us if we were interested in a pup.

We chose a confident friendly pup who we named Cleo.

Welcome to the Diamond J Border Collies blog.  We are L.D. and Paula Bowden, and welcome your interest in our dogs.

We breed and raise small numbers of Border Collies in Nevada.  To us, herding instinct is the number one criterion.   We are particularly happy with and interested in Derek Scrimgeour's bloodlines and have been infusing them into our bloodlines.  We also support Derek's training theories and philosophy and are trying to become proficient in his methods.

We are concerned about genetic problems in Border Collies and DNA test our dogs for CEA and get OFA hip certifications.   

We do not breed for conformation, coat, size or color.  We feel if our dogs hold up to hard work, long distance running and fast, close work without problems, their structure is good.  We also feel Border Collies immediately descended from hardworking ranch or farm dogs or from successful open trial dogs are most likely to have structure that will hold up.  No dog is perfect, but we try to match dogs in breedings to create sound, healthy pups that will have sheep herding talent.

Our background includes managing cattle ranching operations and raising our own sheep.  We had seen some good Border Collie stock dogs and bought our first BC in 1989.  Speck came from Albuquerque, the result of a backyard breeding, but she turned out to be a tremendous help in the work that we did.

Speck had some good breeding, with names of some notable early Border Collie people and also Bosworth Coon on her papers.  She was a very biddable dog, if rather sticky, but of course, we knew nothing about training a dog so she did very well for just figuring things out on her own. Speck worked for us and was part of the family for 12 years. We bred her once but she didn't conceive and we then spayed her--however, that led directly to our second Border Collie.