A little bit about our dogs....

Jenny is the farm collie for Top Hill Farm in Roseville, Ca. She manages a flock of chickens, keeps vermin off the farm, annonces strangers, watches over litters by other animals, from cats to chickens and is your general all-around family farm dog. Everything she's learned is mainly from genetics. We just help her figure it out. She comes from generational farmers near Yuba City, Ca who've bred their Scotch Collies for generations to other old type collie dogs on nearby farms. Jenny has a very light coat, which is appropriate for our extremely hot summer weather and mild winters--which I'm sure you're well acquainted with. As a young dog 3 year old dog she still has a few more years growth on her coat, but it will not fill in a whole lot more. She sheds very little and has what I would describe as a 'single' coat with no secondary fluffy coat underneath.. Her eyes are a bright amber and are large and round. She is light boned and sure footed. When required she has much of the focus you see in the AKC's Border Collies however her lines where never bred for the intensity needed by a full-time herding/driving animal that the BC's were. She loves all babies, human, kittens, baby chicks/ducks and people. She is leery of strangers at first, and alerts when cars come up the driveway.

Oberon, is our  (Carsey's) dog and comes from a farm in the Los Banos area. We know very little of his background. I have seen his mother, who was still a pup herself, and his father was one of their other farm dogs. All of them were again, farm dogs bred by farm folks who didn't care about fancy titles or pedigrees. Oberon was the result of many months of intensive research I made to locate a dog that would meet the needs of our family. I wanted a dog ready for action on the agility field but also able to relax until it was time to go out. We are a low energy couple, and knew we couldn't handle a high energy dog. I wanted a dog that hearkened back to the dogs of my youth. My favorite family dog was named "Rinny". She looked typical to the 'collie dogs' that I had seen and known around the other farm families in Sacramento Valley when I was young. They looked nothing like any existing breed. The dogs needed to look similiar to an Australian Shepherd, Border Collie, Golden Retriever, and English Shepherd but not fit into any of their descriptions. It took almost a year before it became clear that I wasn't going to find a 'purebred' dog breed that would fit. The closest I came was English Shepherd, but

He's grown into the perfect dog even though he'll be 3 in June and still has a lot of time to mature. We are currently moving to Pacifica, but he's grown up living in a 4th floor apartment, with trips to the farm on the weekends as well as of course lots of dog park trips.  His ability to adjust to whatever the situation is makes him a true gem. He has an intense natural desire & passion to understand human communication and will sit and stare at you while you talk trying to pick out words he understands. He will truly be one dog in a million. He want's to know what YOU are doing and wants to be part of it, a key component for a good farm dog. He has lived with 3 guinea pigs who roam the house on occasion. His prey drive is low and was easily trained that the guinea pigs are part of the family and to be gentle with them. He patiently sits and waits for them to come to him. This was NOT something I trained him to do. He's never even considered snapping at them and even shows this continued gentleness when I sit for tiny birds. I had a pair of parakeets for over a month, and when they were out walking around the house. However, he will go digging for vermin when encouraged although I'm not sure what he would do if he ever dug one up.