Having longed for a Rough Collie throughout childhood, I purchased my first one, 30 years ago. By some strange miracle and much to my delight, the litter was blue merle [the advert hadn't said the colour]. This was the colour I was, and still am, most intrigued by. She was a lovely nature, but not even a reasonable looking collie, but sealed my love for the breed, and colour.

I started to show locally rapidly realising; I was wasting my time with this dog, so set about producing something better. I now knew what it was I wanted, and although I can only keep a maximum of three [as they live as pets] we have had a good deal of success. Progress was slow, even after I purchased a Cathanbrae bitch. My first litter was born in 1977, and made reasonable headway at local shows. Having decided I would like to breed for Championship level, I purchased a little blue bitch from my dear friend, Sheila Stoehr [Pippersette English Rose at Linamac], who when mated to Percheron Benjamin Black at Amalie produced, my first reserve ticket winner, Linamac Forget Me Not at Amalie.

In 1992 we mated Linamac Sea Spray to Ch. Pelido Blue Bolero. Yes, a blue to blue mating, [the only time I have ever done this], but I was lucky, and in this litter 7 were superb blue colouring, 1 tricolour, no whites at all.

CH LINAMAC GENTLE MIST

LINAMAC CRYSTAL MIST

We kept two blues, our one and only male, Ch Linamac Gentle Mist, pet name Duke, [Res CC Crufts 1994] and a bitch, Linamac Crystal Mist [Res CC Crufts 1999]. Sophie didn't get to many shows, because we were showing Duke. She produced our second Champion, Ch. Linamac Dodgy Diamond at Damos, when she was mated to Damos The Blacksmith. Two others from the same litter were successfully shown, Linamac Mistress Ruby and Linamac Just Chintz.

CH LINAMAC DODGY DIAMOND AT DAMOS

Duke's granddaughter, Linamac Gentle Breeze, took the CC at London & Provincial Centenary show 2007, which she won from the veteran class, which made that a very special day as she was retired from showing. Unfortunately she only had one litter, [two dogs], she became ill and I didn't get the chance to breed from her again.

LINAMAC GENTLE BREEZE

I picked myself up and purchased a super colour blue bitch called Camanna Call Me Misty at Linamac, who we love dearly, but she isn't keen on being shown I mated her to Jopium Rock DJ [such a sweet natured dog], I retained Linamac Cinders, a very confident loving bitch. She has just produced a very promising litter to Camanna Coast to Coast at Bahatiview, [Leo]. We are very excited about them.

Camanna Call Me Misty at Linamac, has also been mated to Ch. Camanna The Copyist. We await their arrival shortly.

CAMANNA CALL ME MISTY AT LINAMAC

LINAMAC CINDERS

Our new hopefuls.......
Linamac Liaison and Linamac Leona have been retained out of Camanna Coast to Coast and Linamac Cinders.