Eriphos Farm

"Where Every Animal Is Special"

Border Collie Puppies

Please read the following information to learn about our breeding program. Information about upcoming litter at the bottom of the page.

*All photos on this website are thumbnails. Feel free to click on them to enlarge.*

 Our puppies receive only the finest care from the minute they are born. The puppies live in the house and are considered part of our family until they go to their new homes and even after. They are always welcome back in our home.

    They are named the day they are born and are weighed immediately. We hold them frequently each day as the first part of their human socialization.  The puppies are weighed weekly and a report is updated. Although they can not see or hear us, they can smell and touch us, and we believe this is mandatory for a properly socialized puppy.

When the puppies are three weeks old, they are moved from the bedroom in which they were born to the living room, where they stay until they go to their new homes. We begin to play with them more, although we still just sit and hold them frequently.  This is the age where we start introducing the puppies to new experiences. We allow them to walk over different "terrain" (carpet, linoleum, plastic, puppy ladders, etc.), play with them in puppy-sized tunnels, and help them develop problem-solving skills through activities such as placing them under a blanket and encouraging them to nose their way out. 

We love playing with our puppies and play several times every day with each puppy. With three children (ages 22, 19, and 12) the puppies definitely get the required interaction. The youngest child is home schooled, so someone is always home with the puppies.

   At age four weeks, we begin house-training the puppies, taking them out to our fenced front yard several times a day, especially after eating, waking up in the morning, and after naps. Now they are very playful, our most favorite age. They love toys and playing with us.  At six weeks of age, our puppies receive their first puppy vaccine and begin very gentle obedience training. Using puppy kibble, we teach them to "sit", "down", and "come". The longer they stay with us, the more we teach them, commands such as "stay". We believe every Border Collie should have at least basic obedience training and are dedicated to giving our puppies a good start. We do not use correction with our puppies, as they are too young to completely understand what they are doing. We simply try to show them again. They do learn quickly; however, their memory and attention span is very short, so we found it best to work with them only until they complete the exercise correctly, then lavish them with praise. We work for very short times (no more than five minutes), several times a day. We feel this training, although very gentle, works quite well for the young puppies. While we want them to obey us, we have seen too many ruined Borders because of harsh training.  By the time they go home, they at least know to sit on command, if not "down" and "come".  Weekly weighing is still in the puppy schedule.

At seven weeks, the puppies make a trip to Animal Eye Associates to have their eyes checked by canine ophthalmologist, Dr. Ben Johnson. After they pass the eye test, they receive an application for CERF (Canine Eye Registration Foundation) to be sent in by their new owner, if wanted.

The puppies are ready to go to their new homes at eight weeks. We carefully match each family to the puppy, as we want each puppy to have the perfect home.  When a person contacts us about our puppies, we ask them many questions and try to pick a puppy that we feel would fit into their family well. When they come to see the puppies, we let them play with our puppies as long as they want, helping them to see the differences in each puppy. When the new family picks out their puppy, they leave a non-refundable deposit. Everyone is welcome to come visit their puppy. We are happy to answer any questions you might have; again, we want perfect homes for our puppies. When the puppies are eight weeks old, their families pick them up. With each puppy goes a complete, up-to-date puppy record, including weight, vaccination records, etc, training tips (for both agility and obedience) general information about the Border Collie breed, and much more. We also send the food that we feed, Royal Canin Medium Breed Puppy, to provide a smooth transition to the new food. After the puppies are in their new homes, we love hearing about them and seeing pictures. We feel that staying in touch with the new owners is the best way to keep up with our puppies.

Any puppies residing here after eight weeks will continue their training. We start them on heartworm preventative at ten weeks. The puppies are always loved and cherished, no matter how long they stay. Their training continues to build upon itself for as long as they are here.

We are now registered with the Missouri State Department of Agriculture as a hobby or show breeder. In the past few years, Missouri has been seeking out all dog breeders. The breeders are then classified, and large, commercial breeders are required to be licensed. The "hobby" or "show" breeder classification is awarded to those breeders who:

Registering as a hobby breeder is not much more than a voluntary act that simply means that we are now on the books in the State of Missouri as raising puppies on a very small scale with the purpose of showing and improving the breed, and we do not sell to brokers.

~*~*Please note: As of January 1, 2010, we are required to charge a 5.975% sales tax on any puppy sold for personal enjoyment or use*~*~

Please click the thumbnail above to review our health guarantee and contract.

  Dixie's Marti and Blackeyed Bill "Chewy" are expecting their 2010 litter March sixth.

       These puppies will be out of two OFA and CERF certified parents. Both parents are OFA certified good hips and normal elbows as well as CERF certified eyes.  Marti also has OFA certified normal patellas.  Puppies will be medium sized and medium coated. We are expecting black and whites, black tris, blue merles, and blue merle tris. These puppies should be high drive and excellent herding and/or agility prospects. The puppies will have two  puppy vaccinations and several dewormings before they go to their new homes. They will come with a puppy record book,  written health guarantee, be vet checked, and have CERF eye exams. The puppies are $550 ($582.86 including Missouri state sales tax) and sold with ABCA (American Border Collie Association) registration. We are taking deposits on the litter and have third choice available.

See Our Border Collies for more information on Marti, and Contact Us to learn what puppies are available.

Sire to Planned litter:

Blackeyed Bill "Chewy"

Blackeye Bill is owned by Caryn Jobe, of Imperial, MO.  "Chewy" is a beautiful blue merle male. He has a wonderful friendly temperament. He is a very out going boy, having never met a stranger. He is heavy built but very athletic as well.  Chewy has agility training and loves to play ball and Frisbee. He has a nice herding background pedigree.

OFA: Good (Hips)  BCO-6365G24M-PI

           Normal (Elbows)   BCO-EL1014M24-PI

CERF: Passed, certification pending

Pedigree: