FOXGLOVE FARMS COLLIES
Toledo, Oregon

Julia began breeding dogs while in her late teens. She's an antique now! Her first & greatest love has been the Lhasa Apso, as she enjoyed a magical childhood friendship with a fantastic Lhasa-girl ("Happy"). Naturally, Julia endeavored to capture that elusive magic again when she reached adulthood, & it happened when Julia acquired her foundation dog/best friend/sidekick, "Hound". Hound was a flawless, gold & white parti-colored boy with a fantastic scissors bite & luxe quality throughout. He was one of those souls that packed a knock-out punch!

Hound lived for nearly 2 decades & was the conduit in establishing Julia's respected "I Ching Lhasas". He left a majestic legacy of phenomenal Lhasas who reside all over the US. In the course of Julia's Lhasa breeding, she imported a fantastic Russian girl of Hamilton lines...& then deftly added "Wally" (a sweet soul with a nose of proper length (so important) into the genetic mix. The results of her selective Lhasa breeding have been marvelous (see the slideshow below) & our tiny, ever-metamorphosing nucleus of Lhasas remain with us to this day...uncanny, clever & chary as ever...

Situated in the charming coastal town of Toledo, OR, our classic, heirloom Collies reside along the Yaquina river in our century-old home. We enjoy living connectedly with our precious animal family & have a new sphere of adventures revealed at every sunrise...it's a stationary voyage! In establishing our family of antique-type Collies, we sought the gracious expertise of Laura Van Embden (foundress of Van-M Collies) & her daughter Ellen Van Embden (foundress of 'Twas Collies). For ourselves, the Van-M phenotype was the iconic look we desired...after-all, the Van-M Collies have been bred for nearly 7 decades, the dogs themselves are living history!  The Van Embden ladies presented us with their very best dogs & my, do we feel fortunate! Beautiful, sane, healthy Collies with proper spring of rib, big bottoms, lovely coat, a charming eye, & a merry countenance...sheer perfection!

Not stopping there, we also sought some very fine & true farm Collies, as we wanted to add some 1st generation flock-savvy into our genetic recipe. In doing so we achieved:  great coat texture, proper length of tail & ear...& correct velvety eyes of regular size. As a former shepherdess (Julia enjoyed shepherding a large flock of registered Jacob sheep)...Julia understands the subtle degrees of flock dogs. Ears must function & funnel sound properly...tails must be of proper length to be seen by the flock in times when the dog must give an alert...or is herding/moving etc.. Coats must be of correct texture so as to have burs slide out easily & mostly, the dogs must possess a willing demeanor. One capable of reasoning. Finally, without proper orbital structure & correct size of eye, a pastoral breed won't be able to see anything. As the pastoral race is one of acuity, watchfulness, movement & direct connectedness with the flock as a flock-minder, the size & function of the eyeball MUST allow for vision (peripheral, direct & all things in-between)! It is the goal of the Foxglove breeding program to avoid absurd trends at all costs...& we know that the deeply-set raisin-eye (as we call it) is a caricaturistic trend borne entirely from ignorance. 

The genetic testing of our Collies has been extensive (performed by Pawprint & Embark), so that we have the best possible window into who our Collies are under the hood. We love ensuring that our indelible footprint leaves a clean campsite & as breed stewards, it should be no other way! Knowing that our puppies will be revered family members with a platform of perfect health from which to write their own stories is our privilege. & we offer our cherished wee ones to families who have an ethos similar to our own.

While we don't require fancy homes for our puppies, we DO require a large, well-fenced, grassy, shaded backyard that attaches directly to the puppy's prospective  home. We want our Collies to be able to roll in the grass, in their own domain & to be.

​When not playing with our dogs & chickens, Julia is designing attire at her business Go In Beauty.

Many thanks for connecting with Foxglove!