Jan- your right- and I have heard this not from my Collie's breeder- my girl, Lassie- who has breed Collies for 40 years for working ability, health and normal eyes but from breeders who are showing in the breed ring and are breeding for normal eyes, health and their peers don't even want them to advertise their dogs as normal eyed for fear that buyers won't want to buy from them. We got our King from a friend in NY- who main concern was to breed collies that would be healthy, wonderful pets not show dogs. The reason she wanted to do this is because a show breeder sold her a female Collie with a fancy champion pedigree- she went blind from CEA and produced a litter of puppies that had to be put down beause they were blind at birth from CEA- all but one which they placed as a pet- they did not know that Clovis was going blind when she was bred. The stud she was bred to was from the same kennel. It was a very sad thing- Colleen knew nothing about CEA until this happened- she h!
 ad Clovis
 spayed imediatly after. She is the one that educated me about CEA. She searched far and wide to get Cousteau who looked like he stepped right out of a photogragh of the early rough collies imported to this country. Great dog in temperment too and normal eyed.Many of the people who show dogs in the breed ring and get championships on them are not concerned about breeding for normal eyes or working ability. I did try showing King in the bred ring but most judges did not like his old fashioned looks- one judge from Canada did for the very reasons that the American judges didn't like him. I realy did feel llike Terhune trying to show Lad.

Hazelanne

jan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
At 1:01 PM -0700 7/1/05, Annie Prokop wrote:
>Well- frankly there are a few of us out there that are doing just that- a
>few big breeders- I can think of our too- Holmhaven, Wolfmanor and
>Rainshade

I know, I know there are breeders who are selecting for all the right
things, but within the collie world you know as well as I do that
unfortunately you guys are the exceptions that prove the rule.

I only know the broader "collie" world but what we face with CEA and other
hereditary problem every purebred dog breed also faces with one bug-a-boo
or another. We have eyes, someone else has skin, or dramatically increasing
cancer rates, or severe temperament anomolies.

And we can blame the breeders - but the systen is also at fault,
that it rewards people who make poor short sighted (excuse the pun)
decisions rather than lok for the long term health of the breed they
supposedlyc are about. And it is the buyers fault too, for not really
learning before they buy and too often choosing looks over all else.