The reds...

For those of you that don't know my history with the reds... I thought that I would give you some background...

I have always loved the ee-reds (black based, NOT liver), and I always dreamed of getting them into South Africa. BUT I am very fussy with the lines that I have - I am 100% set on the Australian lines - purely because I LOVE the combination of look (style of BC) and the pure workability. Many of the modern English lines are heavy set and have lost their 'spark', and I am not at all interested in those.

At one time I was offered an Australian import on a co-ownership, and said yes. I got the little girl at 7.5 months, and everything seemed great (except for the fact that she had been cooped up all that time, and was very needy). She showed great promise but ended up a bit too small. The co-owner started pressurising me to breed her, and so I did the testing. Unfortunately, she had mild hip dysplasia and severe elbow dysplasia :(. The co-owner and I couldn't agree on anything. and I couldn't send her back to be a 'breeding machine', and the dog and I began to clash, so my best recourse was to rehome her to friends that would spay her give her a nice life. This is Fly:

All the ee-reds that I looked at importing were not quite what I had in mind, and I eventually gave up hope and fell in love with a black and white border collie in the USA. I contacted the breeder and got on her list. When the time came, I managed to get a lovely female pup from her. We chatted extensively and I told her about my obsession with the reds, and she mentioned that my pup's grandfather carries ee-red, and that he has produced ee-red! Imagine my delight that my puppy had a 25% chance of carrying ee-red!!! Later, in SA, I sent off her blood for DNA testing and lo and behold, she had inherited the gene!! I was quite ecstatic.. to say the least! This is Chakotay:

But my problems were not over.... the ee gene is recessive. It is a mutation on the base colour (liver or black) that needs 2 copies to be expressed. So......... I needed another carrier, or an ee-red male.. so the thinking cap went back on. I had been on lists for a while when I saw a litter was due from a stunning boy that I had always admired. I contacted the owner of the bitch and he promised me pick ee-red male. The litter was born in Romania, and I was so excited - it took forever for him to reach 4 months to be able to come to SA.. the day finally arrived, but my disappointment was immense.... he came in with an undershot jaw, wry mouth and missing teeth! I was both devastated and horrified, not to mention angry! This boy cost me almost R30 000, and I could never breed with him. However, on assessing him, he looked like an excellent worker! I couldn't bear to send him such a long way overseas again, so I looked for a working home for him in South Africa. He is now in a great place, with a fabulous trainer, doing Obedience, Working Trials and Dancing! This is Stirling:

Then, when a friend asked me about the reds, and expressed interest in importing one, I immediately contacted my friends overseas that had the right lines, to let them know to include me in their correspondence when they had litters with export quality ee-red boys in them. A breeder in Italy came back to me, saying she may have something for us, and we waited in anticipation. We had a choice of 2 brothers, and eventually decided on one, and he came to SA to live with Johlene Lenaers. This is the most gorgeous Sunny:

 Finally I was able to put Sunny to Chakotay for her third litter to get the first official ee-reds born in SA - more excitement.. until we had a very difficult time with the delivery. Chak had to be rushed off for an emergency caeser. She had a very small litter of 4 pups, but 1 didn't make it. So out of the remaining 3 pups, 2 were ee-red. Here they are: Rogan and Red:

I was very pleased to get these 2 babies! Some of my Mackland's carry red (down from Chakotay), so it was great to start planning!

Next, an owner of a Mackland girl asked to use Sunny, and she got a lovely litter of 6x reds in Cape Town (Wylwind).

My latest is the Exclamations litter (Red x Rush) where we have 6 stunning reds at Mackland.. I am SO proud!

Here is Mommy Red:

And the dad that made this litter possible, Rush:

Our breed standard says that a border collie can be any colour, but white may not be predominant, and the extended standard describes ee-red as "pale gold to rich ginger".

I am looking forward to seeing these pups grow!