About Us

Nederlandse Versie Klik hier !

Let’s introduce ourselves.
We are Marko and Natasja van Blanken- Schipper (54 and 55 years old)
and we live in the city of Alkmaar. 45 minutes from Amsterdam.
 Alkmaar is famous of his cheese market which is held on the beautiful Waagplein every Friday morning.
 It is visited by many tourists from all over the world. Furthermore,
Alkmaar is close to lovely villages like Schoorl and Bergen and close to beaches,
dunes and forests where it is great to walk with your dogs.

We live on the outskirts of town with 6 collies in our home.
 They are  Murron, Ygraine ,Elif,Teagun,Vianne and our dog Liam.
So with 6 collies in total all the dogs are sure of the attention they deserve
while we are able to bred our lines. We also have 3 bitches in partnership,
one is the bitch Grace of My Life the Midland Valley how is a great grand daughter of our dog
Ch. Sacrafice Cold as Ice and her Grand mother is our bred Jelly baby of the Lovely Bears
 how is also the mother of our Eternal Circle de Midland Valley (Murron). Grace is now with pension.
Also the bitch For en Eternity of the Lovely Bears ( Adele) how is the daughter of our
BW'14- Winster '16 and Belgian, Dutch and International Ch. Someone Like You of the Lovely Bears ( Elif)
live in Partnership and she is also litter sister of our dog Liam ( Rumour Has It of the Lovely Bears)

We had the badluck she had a stroke and we only show her now........

Sinds 2021 we also keep the blue litter sister of Vianne in partnership.
 She is Killer Queen of the Lovely Bears ( Eevy)

Our hobbies are the dogs of course, gardening,Fitness and
training with our collies in Obedience , Ballance and Coordination Training, Brainwork and Showtraining.
 
We train and show our dogs ourselves and gave for many years also lessons in
showing dogs and Agility training.

Marko with Biba, Elif, Murron, Ygraine and Bibi

Marko with Ygraine,Elif,Teagun,Liam,Murron and Vianne february 2022

Marko is a gardener who maintains grounds of commercial and public property and
Natasja works 31 Years part- time in a specialized pet- shop.

We love hiking with our dogs.
 We try to take a holiday every year, where we can make great tours with the dogs.

Natasja  with Biba, Elif, Murron, Ygraine and Bibi

Our love for the collie began in 1986 when we got our first named Bo.
Very sadly he was stolen from us out of our home .
After a year of searching and feeling terrible about what happened  we bought another collie, Daisy.
When Daisy was just over one year old, we brought a second collie into our home , Shadow
(Night shadow du Jardin de la Vigne) a Tricolour dog.
In the meantime we became a member of the breeding society The Dutch Collieclub.
Through them we got our third collie. 
 Soon after came Dillan ( I'm mister blue of Paddington Station), a Blue Merle dog.
After having participated in several shows with Dillan we got the urge to become breeders ourselves.
We decided to add a sable female, called Pebble's (Don’t Fool Me of Paddington Station).

After having acquired the necessary diploma’s and having requested a name for our kennel,
we searched intensively for a suitable partner for Pebbles.
Soon after we were expecting our first litter.

Don´t Fool me of Paddington Station ( Pebble´s 11 years old on the picture )

22 - 6 - 1997       †7 - 2 - 2012

The first puppies were born on March 26^th in 2000 and we decided to keep one of them:
 Sammy- Jo (Royal Highness of the Lovely Bears).
So, Sammy-Jo is our first self- bred female.
For two years in a row she was in the top 10 of best self- bred collies,
 something we are still very proud of.

In 2005 our first tricolour puppy bitch  Black Surprise of the Lovely Bears (Aimie )
daughter of our Feet of Flames of the Lovely Bears ( Bibi) ,moved to France.
She was our first Lovely Bears puppy to go abroad.
She lives at her father’s  place with her owners, the Ventroux family of kennel Midland Valley in France.
In 2008 the bitch Jelly Baby of the Lovely Bears is also going to kennel Midland Valley in France.

Black Surprise of the Lovely Bears

In Januari 2010 a blue merle daughter of Jelly Baby of the Lovely bears came back to Holland.
Eternal Circle de Midland Valley (Murron)
After her pedigree she have 5 generations of our collies and our dream come tru.
With her we hope to started our blue lines ...... and after years we owned now 3 generations out of her.

Multi Champion  Eternal Circle de Midland Valley (Murron) almost 4 years on the picture

In 2017 Dallinaire Noble Touch (Teagun) al the way from Serbia come to live with us.

Since 1987 we are member of the Dutch breedersclub S.H.V. "de Collie Club".
We bred strictly according to their rules and regulations.

Our puppies are raised in our living- room.
At the age of 7 weeks we always take the puppies to the busy shopping mall.
They get familiar with all sorts of sounds, noises, people etc.
We also make sure they get used to loud noises outside the house , like traffic, trains and lorries.
New owners must continue this process.
If socializing is not done properly a dog can stay frightened the rest of his life.
In their first year puppies go through several phases until puberty has passed at age one!!!

All our dogs are tested for HD (hips) and Cea/Pra (eyes) ECVO test
After chipping at the age of 5/6 weeks the puppies are tested for eye abnormalities.
We want to meet or speak to future owners in advance.
You want to know where your puppy is coming from, we want to know where he is going to...

Would you like to read more about our collies, please click here: Our Collies

 Please enjoy your visit to our site!

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