Dog Breeding
Breeding Border Collies or Golden Retrievers
Breeding "Border Collies?"
Border Collies are pure breed that must be KC or ISDS registered
All the previous pages assume that you have a pure border collie or golden retiever bred bitch, where the border collie is concerned this means a border collie bitch, registered with The Kennel Club or the ISDS. However, many of those who ask us for advice on breeding simply have an unregistered bitch without any papers bought from an ad in the local papers from a breeder whose name they can't remember. Although you must have your adult bitch eye tested before breeding from her, the most important eye test for border collies is that done at 6-12 weeks of age with the rest of their litter, after 12 weeks CEA (Collie Eye Anomaly), which is the major eye problem in border collies, can be very difficult or impossible to detect. However an affected or carrier dog or bitch can still pass on the condition and produce blind puppies, unless you know that your bitch was tested with the rest of her litter between 6-12 weeks of age and unless you also know the results of those tests you are taking a huge risk with the health of any puppies. If you do breed from a bitch who was not litter screened and sell puppies without warning prospective owners that your bitch may be affected by CEA (albeit not visibly at 2 years) you could be sued by puppy buyers under "The Sale of Goods Act" if their puppy turns out to be affected by CEA. Also before any responsible Border Collie stud dog owner will allow you to use their dog they will want to see your bitches pedigree, litter screening (6-12 week eye test) certificate and hip score certificate, if you don't have any or all of these you will certainly be refused stud service by all but the most disreputable stud dog owners. If your bitch does not have a registration certificate from the KC or ISDS she is not legally a Border Collie (however similar she may appear), she is what is referred to as a "working sheepdog" which means a collie-type dog of uncertain breeding or a collie type crossbreed, if she is not registered you must not try to advertise or sell any puppies as "Border Collies" or you will be committing an offence under the "Trade Descriptions Act".