I do not when a breeder knows his/her breeding so well, so you in advance can tell if the puppy is being good or not. After 5 litters I can generally tell if the puppy will be: big/small, light/heavy boned, will its face be filled or "mousy".The most important is - in my opinion - the dogs body: outline, bone structure, angulation etc. And of course its face. It is the first that "catches" on a sheltie - the sweet expression. The body must carry the dog through its entire life, and if you want a working sheltie, then the body must be able to cope with it. There are especially one thing which has been very obvious at all our puppies: it is the temper, they have a lot of common characteristics, eventhough they have different fathers and has been raised in different homes. E.g. the growling noise when the dogs are petted is a typical "Ophian-brand".
As Ophian - breeding must fulfill my own ambitions of eager and work happy shelties with skills for agility and obedience, I am very particular with my puppies/dogs temper. I cannot go to the World Championships in agility with a good agility dog if it is nervous, because then it would not be able to cope with such an experience. Therefore I would prefer other breeders to be more careful with the temper of the mothers to be, as they are the ones to characterizee the puppies during their first time of living. We must be careful not to get into problems: beautiful dogs, but where the happiness for working and skills to do so has been replaced by coat and nervousness. A sheltie can be reserved, dedicated to his/her handler, but NOT nervous or afraid of other people.
My personal ambitions for Kennel Ophian is to get more beauty-/agility-/obedience- titels to Devin. My next dog will be a puppy after Eilish - otherwise a possibility could be, if a lovely bitch wants to Devin to be the father of her puppies!
Eilish and Bozo did not succeed in making any puppies for us though several matings. Eilish has be "diagnosed" peregnant every time but she just not gives birth to anything.
We have frozen Bozos sperm for future use. We just loves his "here I am" attitude.
It is definitely also my plan, that my next dog should be a nice and wel-behaved bitch - not one of these "stupid", girl-happy males, which during an obedience test flirts with the bitches outside the ring. But also because the kennel no longer has a bitch to breed from. But you never know what can happen - I have previously claimed that I would never own a male dog, and now suddenly, males are a considerable part of my family:-)
I have invested in a new bitch from Finland (Sunsweet Geena Davis), daughter of INTCH FINCH SCH DKCH NCH NORDCH ESTCH ESTV96 VV97 Bermarks William ("Dog of the year 1996-2000"), a lovely male with gorgeous colours and a very charming temper.
Yes, he looks quite like Devin quite a lot - and that is why I think it could be interesting to mate her with Devin - this is the nearest that I can come on "mating" these 2 beautiful males.
As Eilish did not succeed in making puppies with Bozo, we have mated Geena with him instead, and the result can be seen on these pages, too.
Type wise I like "the English type" the best, but as England is not yet open for exchange of dogs, I have no immediate intentions to use dogs from there.
This page was last updated on April 18th 2003
