Hidden Orchard Farm
'Hidden Orchard Farm is a small homestead farm located in Graham, Washington. Besides our old-time collies, we have horses, cats, chickens, ducks, geese, a couple of obnoxious and hilarious turkeys who think they run the place ... and one sulcata tortoise. The dogs intermingle peacefully with all of the stock, protect the farm, discourage vermin, and help manage the poultry.
While herding breeds have been our passion for some time, we first discovered farm collies and old-time Scotch collies in 2017. We were instantly smitten, and began searching for an OTSC pup. It was during this search that we realized that we wanted more than simply finding an OTSC to join our farm and become part of the family. After talking to breeders and learning more about the breed, we knew that we wanted to join in the efforts to preserve, promote, and improve the OTSC breed. We shifted our priorities to include a female that we could use as the foundation for our breeding program. In 2018, we acquired Mo Nighean Dubh, Monie for short. Her first breeding in 2021 was the culmination of years of planning and the beginning of Hidden Orchard Farm's Old-Time Collies. |
Our Old-Time ColliesOur dogs are more than just farm hands; they're part of the family. One of the things that makes old-time collies so special is the way that they can go from a high drive activity like working stock or hunting rats to joining you on the sofa for a movie and popcorn in an instant. OTSC people call it an "off-switch". Unlike many herding breeds, old-time collies know when they need to be "on" and when it's time to be calm. This is why they make such excellent family dogs. They can play a rollicking game of fetch in the yard with the children one minute, and take a quiet nap in the nursery the next.
One of our goals at Hidden Orchard is to maintain these desirable facets of OTSC temperament while introducing the necessary genetic diversity to promote good health and longevity in our pups. We are vigilant about testing for and selectively breeding against genetic health problems that plague the herding breeds, such as collie eye anomaly (CEA) and multidrug resistance mutation (MDR1). In the end, we want all of our pups -- the ones we keep and the ones we share with other families -- to be happy, healthy, useful dogs that represent the best qualities and maintain the breed standards of the old-time Scotch collie. |