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Meet Our Dogs
At Crown Thistle Collies, we take great pride in breeding superior quality, rough coated, farm raised
Collie dogs that
make exceptional pets and faithful family companions. Crown Thistle Collies
are renown for outstanding social
character, easy
trainability and quiet, gentle confidence. Our Collies absolutely excel in versatility programs
and we have many special
Collie dogs in therapy training programs around the country which include mobility support and companionship for children
and adults with autism.
Our ideal far exceeds the norm. We firmly believe that personality potential is the
direct outcome of very
careful breedings (high aptitude evaluations a must), genetic diversity, early Collie puppy imprinting
and positive puppy pre-school training.
Our results are unsurpassed and each of the Collie dogs we breed produces pups that exemplify
the beauty, style and
traditional elegance that is the hallmark of Crown Thistle Collies. As such, allow us to
introduce to you some of the rare
jewels, the amazing Collies of Crown Thistle at Quaker Farm!
Crown Thistles Lassie (100% European)
Lassie (shown left and above) exemplifies the sweet nature of the classic Collie and she is extremely
gentle and trustworthy
with with children. She has a soothing and generous demeanor that people find relaxing.
Lassie has a high task comprehension level. She is very social and easy-going with strangers
and is a non-barker.
Lassie is an exceptional therapy and emotional support companion dog. Lassie is also an exceptional mother with
deep, tender nurturing instincts. She has a very nice, thick, long rough coat and her
Task Comprehension rating is 4 repetitions. Lassie was featured on Animal Planet for the herding demonstration
and
as a reading dog for children. Lassie is also featured in an online children's story series about life on a farm
at Quaker Hill Farm,
"Lassie Saves a
Lamb, the Story of Orphan Annie.
Crown Thistle's Willow (50% European)
My companion and singing partner, she is the warm hearted Lady of the house with a charming sense of humor!
Willow demonstrates extraordinary abilities in herding and participates in evening livestock round-ups here at the farm.
She is nobel,
confident, outgoing and exceptionally intelligent. She has a beautiful, non-matting, heavy rough coat.
Willow is trained as a Search & Rescue canine for the Alcona County Mounted Search & Rescue Posse.
She rates at 4 to 5 repetitions for Task Comprehension.
Willow and I sing a duet together,
"How Much is that Doggie in the Window"! Willow was featured on Animal Planet for the
herding demonstration, dog nutrition, versatility demonstration and more on Dogs 101. Willow is also
featured in the online children's
story series about life on a farm at Quaker Farm,
"Lassie Saves a
Lamb, the Story of Orphan Annie.
Crown Thistles Skye Lark (100% American)
Skye is a stunning Sable faced white rough Collie. She has an outstandingly calm, non-barking nature
and is a wonderful friend of children! Skye is a frequent participant in public demonstrations and enjoys working in a wide variety of settings as both a demonstration dog and a visiting therapy dog.
Skye's Task Comprehension Rating is 4 repetitions.
Skye's Memory of Quaker Farm (50% European)
Memory was born of a Skye and Jesco (see Jesco below) breeding. She is as gentle and as quiet
as her mother Skye, and as regal as her sire. Her rough coat is thick and lovely. Memory is dependable, self-assured, and
thoughtful. Because of her elegant and self-contained nature, while in the house,
one would never get the least notion that she is as capable on the field herding as she is.
Memory is always intently willing to listen and do what is needing to be done. And at the end of
any day,
no matter how long that working day may have been, Memory is most content to simply lie down upon
the feet of
someone she loves. That is lovely for we adults in winter, however, for our youngest grandchildren it
can be a bit overwhelming to be enveloped in a thick cloud of silky-soft fur when Memory decides to
curl herself around a toddler with doting affection!
Crown Thistles King Arthur (100% American)
Our proud and noble senior sire - a true friend and joyful comrade! King plays an important role at our farm. In the great tradition
of his highland ancestors, King is guardian to our herd of Saanen & Oberhasli dairy goats. He loves his life as a true
working, herding farm Collie and
meets his duties with pride and enthusiasm! He can often be found proudly overseeing his flock and trying to
maintain regal dignity while baby goats climb up on him and jump off! His dependable, gentle nature and
enduring patience with
the antics of youngsters is remarkable! He has a beautiful, heavy rough coat.
King's Task Comprehension level is 4 - to 5 repetitions.
"Jesco" (100% European)
Jesco is one of our gorgeous sires from Germany. Pictured here at just over a year old.
His babies are everything we
hoped for in our breeding program. Jesco is very quiet and has a self secure nature.
He enjoys quietly keeping the company of his family.
He loves learning new commands and is trained for tasks in
both German and English; a bi-lingual Rough Collie!
Jesco has a thick, long rough coat of exceptionally quality. In some
places it measures over 13 inches.
He has a fantastic herding instinct and often works the herds here on the farm.
His Task Comprehension Rating is 4 to 5 repetitions.
This is Jesco, the dog above, as a puppy.
Crown Thistle's O Danny Boy (100% European)
Fast, strong and very able, Danny is a "one-in-a-million" sire with a stunning rough coat. He has a calm,
charming demeanour that makes you feel special just to be in his company. He was completely house
trained by 9 weeks old and leash trained by 10 weeks, mastering the commands "sit", "stay" and "come"
at the same age. Due to his willing nature and keen steadiness, Danny is trained for
Canine Search
and Rescue, crisis relief and visiting therapy dog.
Danny is pictured here shortly after being filmed for Animal Planet.
His amazing coat measures 13".
This is a picture of Danny (the dog above) when he was a puppy.
Crown Thistle's Stormy Blu of Quaker Farm (100% American)
Stormy is a rare and precious gem. She is steady minded, intelligent, confident,
calm, careful and willing. Stormy
is one
of our full time livestock guardians and herding dogs, and she does her jobs effortlessly
and well. The sheep and dairy goats
are quick to comply with her direction, they know better than to be contrary - she manages them so
smartly.
Stormy was the first blue merle Collie that we ever worked into our breeding program.
Blue merle was
never a color that we sought for color sake because we think that being smart and capable is far more important
than being fashionably colored. However, Stormy
displayed so much early promise (which proved itself
as she
matured) that we decided to use her and we are really glad we have - her puppies are truly amazing.
Stormy is one of the many Collie dogs here who make life on the farm manageable and we are keenly
aware of - and deeply, deeply grateful for -
the value of their dependable agricultural work and vast contribution to the well
being of our lives in so very many ways.
Stormy's puppies out of our
European sire are just as smart and easy tempered as their parents. We have one of
Stormy's daughters (Tori below) who is a promising, if not somewhat
of a remarkable "over-achiever" who keeps us
on our toes.
Stormy is being trained under
harness for mobility assistance work which she will no doubt excel at as she does everything else.
Crown Thistle's Tori-Adorable of
Quaker Farm (50% European)
Pictured here at 7 months old, Tori is the image of her mother Stormy Blu.
As brilliant and willing as her parents, Tori was
leash, crate, house, stair, ramp and car trained by 10 weeks old.
There are no tasks that daunt Tori, and she is "adorable" at everything she does!
She is a clever girl
with a winning personality; she turns heads where ever she goes and loves everyone she meets.
She learns very quickly and problem solves like a genius. Her brilliance has been amazing
to work with
though at times a real challenge to harness. She was nearly 7 months old and just over 35 pounds
before
she finally out grew
her ability to wiggle her way through the 6" x 8" squares of strong livestock panel fencing -
a contortionist feat if ever there was one. Her slow, careful, deliberate and determined technique
was amazing to
watch as her preoccupation with the feat continued long after she appeared to have grown far to big to accomplish it.
Family and friends who saw her manage this seemingly impossible task were speechless with amazement.
Tori never wanted to go anywhere in particular beyond that fence, just to the other side where
she would then stand in triumph and glow at her accomplishment, always looking for approval for being so
marvelous, and who could deny her?!
Her many talents and focused sense of sheer determination make her a serious candidate for search and rescue
training as an adult. She
will be a wonder to work with and we look forward to it. For now, as she blooms and grows into adulthood,
Tori contents
herself with "the taunting of the
cats" (who give as good as they get!), and keeping the company of the baby lambs whom she loves.
She
especially enjoys her regular weekend travels and overnight stays with her "foster mom" who
assists with her training.
Crown Thistle's Scotch Tartan Legend
Crown Thistle's
Scotch Tartan Legend
Scotch Tartan Legend (a.k.a., "Scotty") is a hard working, courageous and highly capable working dog at our farm. He has a strong drive and
is very focused on team work with us when out in the fields. His most earnest desire is to be pleasing and to do a good job, and he absolutely
relishes the praise of a job well done.
Scotty is full of
big-hearted character, cheerful charisma, and he has a cheeky sense of humor. He loves children, farm animals, and cats -
though the cats do not have mutually affectionate feelings towards him or his attentions!
His favorite toys are frisbees and rope toys and our big tug ball. His favorite way to relax is to get a complete back scratch followed by
a body massage - which he only considers finished when he finally dozes off!!
Though Scotty is purposeful when working with us out doors, he is very laid back when he is in the house.
Crown Thistle's
Moher Cliffs Murphy
75% European
A little bit about Murphy. Murphy is very special to us for many reasons, not the least of
which is because he is
the grandson of our famously talented Willow, who was filmed working at Quaker Farm for Animal Planet.
Murphy is steady, focused
gentle, strong, and an enthusiastic people-partner who seldom ever barks - unless there is something
important that he feels we need to know. Murphy is so reliable, that he is highly
trusted everywhere he goes.
COLLIE BOOKS and STORIES
|
My Best Friend Sharon, 
An Inconvenient Ruth 
Quaker Farm Story Collection 