Bordertrix border collies, cockapoos &               an amazing sheltie

I have loved dogs since forever and never had a dog of my own until I was married. So in 1995 we welcomed our working type, springer spaniel, Tipsy (KC Name: Kerry Pippin) to the household.
She was very hard work in some respects but her legacy of being willful, taught me so much in her 14 and a half years.
Her whole life had revolved around accomplishing everything at break-neck speed, so this made her ideal for agility. It took us 3 years to get a clear round, but from then on we were usually placed at every show attended with lots of high places and trophies, until she reluctantly retired at 12 years of age. 

When TIps was 9 years old, our first border collie, Sunnie, was ready to take on a more competitive agility career with me, so let my 7 year old daughter, Hayley, run Tips at agility. Not really expecting them to get anywhere - due to Tips' exuberance, I was shocked when I actually witnessed Tips SLOW DOWN and wait for her to catch up!  For all her stubbornness, Tips loved both my girls and Hayley won lots of rosettes with her too.

Enter Sunnie ( Belgarath Dark Angel at Bordertrix). Such a loyal girl, not overly confident in life but beautiful inside and out and very good at learning new tricks. Sunnie tried hard at agility and was certainly the very opposite of Tips, steady and accurate. This saw us place regularly at agility, especially on trickier courses when the faster dogs missed turns etc. She was absolutely my dog with a beautiful, glossy coat that she passed down to her children and grandchildren. 

In 2005 I decided to breed Sunnie and went about getting all her health tests sorted and spent hours looking for a stud dog to compliment her. Jed (Brooksbid High Society) was the chosen one and in February 2006 Sunnie gave birth to 5 healthy puppies. I was terrified and elated at the same time but the experience proved to me that I could do it and do it well. Sunnie had another litter to Sorcerer's Apprentice At Shepherdspal, which gave us Jazz's mum, Tessie. 

We kept Skye (Bordertrix None But The Brave) from the first litter, our little blue and white, perfect, feisty and determined puppy. She was just amazing at everything, much more confident than her mum and tried her little heart out at whatever we asked of her.
I allowed Hayley to run her at agility as the plan was for Hayley to qualify for junior finals. Tips had retired by then and Sunnie wouldn't run for anyone but me - so it was the right thing to do. 
Well Skye did not disappoint us and qualified Hayley for loads of agility finals in YKC and the agility circuit. She also qualified for breed showing at Crufts in 2008 and showed her socks off on the green carpet, I was so proud of Hayley and Skye that day.
In 2009 Skye was mated to the wonderful Bekkis Virtuoso, a true working gentleman who gave us 7 wonderful puppies in 2010. This mating gave me the next generation and my next agility partner. 
Skye went on to have 2 further litters to Laetare Unleashed, Clay, and, finally, Woolram Lothario, Sketch, both Bekkis Virtuoso sons.
Her final litter is a story in itself but the most important thing is that this produced our Boo (see below). 
I could go on about what Skye achieved during her life forever, so, for now anyway, I'll stop here.

From Skye's first litter we kept Buddy (Bordertrix Maestro) who was my blue boy, dog in a million. He was a big lad, made it to Crufts too but was much taller than his class mates. I didn't care, he was the most beautiful mover there and he continued to win at agility, with high numbers, from his very first season.

It was April 2012 and I had decided Hayley needed to bring on her own dog and stop stealing mine. She had always wanted a sable sheltie, so after contacting a number of breeders in early 2012, a lady got in touch to say she had mated her sable girl. I waited quietly, hoping that this was fate, she only lived 6 miles away from us. I knew Hayley would prefer a bitch puppy so when she got in touch to say she'd had 3 - well - that was it!  

So, enter Lottie (Lanteague Lotus (AWD) who has been the absolute dream package for Hayley. They had a fabulous agility career, ending with competing at championship level in agility. She was our first dog to make it to Crufts to compete in agility. Though she might look like a princess, she was super-speedy, unbelievably fast and accurate, getting her was very definitely the right thing to do. I don't regret one moment of making it happen.
 
Buddy sired 3 litters in his lifetime, my Jazz, Bordertrix Carousel, being his daughter and so precious to me. Jazz is just nuts, a total workaholic but loyal and loving too. She reminds me so much of Sunnie but a zooped-up version. Jazz's mum is Tessie from Sunnie's second litter so she is very much the Bordertrix line. Jazz is very sweet in temperament but a total workaholic and loves to train. In 2021 she earnt herself the title of Novice Champion of UK Hoopers. See her page for more information.

Sadly, Buddy was diagnosed with lymphoma at the tender age of 4.5 years and lost the battle. I felt so cheated for him, he was in his prime and had never been ill. This was the worst time, my lowest point ever and it took me months to learn to live without him. 

Two weeks after we lost Buddy we were asked to take Boo (Bordertrix Sensational AW(S) back from her owners, she was 9 months old. I was so determined not to be won over as I was still grieving for Buddy but Boo was determined she was staying and set about making it impossible for me to let her go. Boo is quite possibly the most cuddly dog that has ever lived. She was very like Buddy in build and loved to compete in agility and hoopers.
After reaching grade 6 I asked Hayley to take over handing her in agility, less than a year later they made it to grade 7 and then championship classes. As hard a decision as this was, i knew that realistically I couldn't remember the more complicated courses, giving her the right commands and keeping up with her, all at the same time.
Hayley's ambition for Boo was to achieve her silver agility warrant and run her in a Champ show - and has achieved both. 

In 2018 we bred Boo to the fabulous Percy (Minkynips What Yer Fink) a slate merle with tri-colour, who Hayley and I had spotted at Crufts. His colours are amazing but his conformation was outstanding and I'm a bit OCD when it comes to construction. Boo had 8 puppies from this mating, not one of them was black and white and, quite honestly, we could have kept any one of them. 

Flint (Bordertrix Feelin' Groovy AW(P) was our keeper, a beautiful tri-coloured, blue merle. He has inherited Boo's cuddly-ness but also has amazing trainability in anything he tries.
Due to time restraints due to studying for a Masters in 2022 Hayley competed in jumping classes only with Flint until July 2022. He had always won consistently high numbers but went from grade 2 - 7 in less than 12 months. He loves to train and compete with Hayley and she has big ambitions for their future. 
Flint, and brother Bodhi, (Bordertrix Rhapsody) have been fully health tested and are available for stud to health tested border collies of good temperament. We will advise of puppies available from our boys on their pages.

So how did cockapoo, Zenii (Zenii's From Heaven From Bordertrix), happen? I still find it hard to believe that she is at Bordertrix, but fate played a hand and I haven't regretted one moment. The trouble with owning border collies is, you just don't trust that any other breed will meet their versatility - but Zenii has proved to be on the same page despite only being pint-sized.
I wanted to downsize - as I'm getting older (doh!) - and had decided on a male sheltie -  BUT - the pandemic struck!  No one was breeding and a few disappointments later, a chance comment from my dog training colleague, and I quote,
"We never see a bad cockapoo, do we?"
Now, I am not an impulsive person, I certainly wouldn't look to buy a puppy off an online selling page - but having researched cockapoos for an acquaintance, I was already clued up on what to look for and, more importantly, what to avoid! 
I studied that little face on the screen, rang up and collected her the next day. This is so out of character for me but I strongly believe it was meant to be, hence her KC name. I believe she was a present from my late mother - who would have adored her. 
Zenii had puppies in January 2023, see her page for more information.

And now we have come full circle and welcome Rioja, Langamay Sparks of Colour For Bordertrix, to our family. The future is looking very golden (lol) and I can't wait to see what we can achieve together. This perfect, tenacious, young lady shows lots of promise and has the most wonderful temperament.