I have a friend who currently has a springer. He lost his other one last year and he is now considering getting a pup. Obviously he’s looked online and shocked himself to death at the prices. I’m going to email the breed clubs for him too but does anyone know what you should be paying for a decent collie or springer pup and also what the health test requirements are? Any breeder recommendations would also be great. He’s happy to wait.

Ta muchly in advance x

Not sure if this helps or not but the deciding factor for us in selecting a breeder was that she had an active Facebook group for owners and prospective owners of her dogs. For the months we were on her waiting list we saw updates from current owners, including seeing one litter born and raised then going to their homes. It was really reassuring to see that the breeder responded and was active on the group when owners had questions, and of course see photos & updates from all the happy healthy dogs she's produced. I know lots of breeders have Facebook groups for owners so I'd definitely look out for that and ask to join before buying a puppy.

By collie do you mean rough collie? Or border?

I don't know of price is dictated by type as both have working and show lines, very different to each other in looks and character.

> By collie do you mean rough collie? Or border?

Thanks HeatherE - border collie.

I wondered this too suejaw

Ok in that case I do have a price that might help, recently bought a BC pup from agility & show lines for £1250. I think most good breeders aren't going above that. I was on her waiting list for 6 months before the litter was born, I think we got quite lucky there though due to the number of boys in the previous litter - we were expecting to wait longer. He's got a lovely temperament, very capable of being calm despite his general love for zooming around at top speed.

For BC's there's a useful genetic database called Anadune, you have to request access but it's free to join and easy enough to request access. You can look the dogs up there and check that they've had all the relevant genetic tests including breed specific ones like CEA, and sometimes they've had extra tests like seeing if they carry certain recessive colour genes which might be of interest depending on if your friend is looking for a specific colour. (That said, we were looking for black & white, but when the litter was born and we were given a choice between a black & white and a tricolour we actually decided we liked the tricolour better so you never know!)

Thankyou HeatherE. Would you mind sharing the breeder please? PM if you prefer.

Very interesting website heatherE

Their is also a database for fitting BC/WSD useful for checking lines that have produced seizing dogs

Plus of course the KC health testing page checker

Is this something bc breeders have done or are there other databases for other  breeds apart from mykc ?

Thanks Ann

It was originally set up by the pastoral health group, when they decided to stop the fitting database it was set up by a group of owners/breeders concerned about the occurance of seizures/fits in BC/WSD. Because a lot of WSD as well as BCs with seizures these are included in the newer database.
It is interesting to see there are some dogs that appear several times in pedigrees. Of course as owners submit the information, there are some notable omissions because of owner/breeders being in denial. The very well known Obedience dog who produced fitting puppies in every litter is not there(including 3 in one liter) for example

Thank u ann . Always interesting to learn things

Hi,
I’m not sure how useful this info may be but we found our springer via the regional FB farmers page. Health tested and his dad has a field trial merit (definitely an award for field trial but I can’t remember exactly). They can’t advertise the litters but if the question is asked you can be directed to those with current litters - often see collies mentioned and people want them registered and health checked.  The prices weren’t too inflated, although that may have changed, we paid £800 last year for our pup.
Hope that helps.

Thanks CW85 will have a look. Can you remember what the page is called please?

I looked on farmers ads South West I think as we're Devon but if elsewhere I'm guessing there will pages for other areas.

Great thankyou