Border Collie Breeder · Development Breeder · Border Collie Puppies · NZ
Pine Tree Hill Farms Breeding Program
Our Breeding Program
At Pine Tree Hill Farms, I am deeply committed to promoting the health, temperament, and long-term wellbeing of every dog within my breeding program. My goal is not simply to produce puppies, but to thoughtfully preserve and strengthen the qualities that make the Border Collie such a remarkable breed.
Each breeding decision is made with careful consideration for health, temperament, and the long-term future of the dogs we produce. The program is guided by the following principles.
Preserving Breed Characteristics and Diversity
Maintaining the unique characteristics of the Border Collie is a priority. Careful selection of breeding dogs allows us to preserve the intelligence, athleticism, and thoughtful nature that define the breed, while also maintaining healthy genetic diversity.
Health-Focused Breeding
The health of our dogs is central to every breeding decision. All breeding dogs undergo comprehensive Orivet DNA health testing, along with ongoing evaluation of their physical health and soundness. This rigorous approach helps reduce the risk of inherited conditions and supports the long-term wellbeing of future generations.
Temperament and Early Development
Temperament is just as important as physical health. Border Collies are highly intelligent and sensitive dogs, and producing puppies with stable, thoughtful temperaments is a key priority.
All puppies raised at Pine Tree Hill Farms participate in structured early development, including Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) and the Pine Tree Hill Puppy Curriculum™, which supports early learning, confidence, and positive behavioural development during the most important stages of early life.
Supporting Lifelong Companionship
Our responsibility does not end when a puppy leaves for their new home. Families receive training guidance and ongoing support to help them continue building on the foundations introduced during the puppy’s early weeks. Our goal is to help each puppy grow into a confident, well-adjusted companion.
Responsible Breeding Practices
Following veterinary guidance and industry standards, females are first bred on their second cycle, typically between 18 and 24 months of age. This allows them to reach appropriate physical and emotional maturity before breeding.
Females in our program are never bred beyond five years of age, ensuring their health and wellbeing remain the highest priority.
In recent years, emerging research in canine reproductive health has informed updates to our breeding practices. Studies suggest that breeding healthy bitches in consecutive cycles, followed by a rest cycle, may reduce the risk of certain reproductive diseases such as pyometra and mammary cancer.
For this reason, Pine Tree Hill Farms may utilise carefully planned back-to-back breedings, always guided by veterinary pre-breeding health checks and the overall health of the individual dog. Each dog is evaluated as an individual, and breeding decisions are never made without considering their physical condition, recovery, and wellbeing.
Our goal is to minimise health risks while ensuring that our breeding dogs remain strong, healthy, and well cared for throughout their lives.
A Lifelong Commitment to Our Dogs
At Pine Tree Hill Farms, our breeding dogs are first and foremost family members. They live with us as part of our daily life and are never rehomed once their breeding years have finished.
This commitment is one of the reasons we intentionally keep our pack of Border Collies small. Maintaining a smaller program allows us to provide each dog with the individual care, attention, and full retirement they deserve.
Our Philosophy
Responsible breeding requires thoughtful decision-making, ongoing education, and a genuine commitment to the dogs themselves.
By prioritising health, temperament, and structured early development, we aim to raise puppies who are not only physically healthy but also emotionally balanced and well prepared for life with their future families.
At Pine Tree Hill Farms, we are proud to contribute positively to the future of this extraordinary breed and to raise Border Collies who will become valued companions for years to come
One great article reference:
Back to Back Breeding and Pseudopregnancy
The Australian Journal of Professional Dog Breeders
February 5, 2011 By Dr Kate Schoeffel
It is frequently claimed that breeding dogs on every heat or “back to back breeding” is bad for a bitch’s long term health and well being. However the research in canine reproduction shows that not breeding a dog when it comes into heat can in fact be bad for its health. Scientist have shown that pseudopregnancy [‘phantom pregnancy’] increases the risk of mammary cancers which are the second most common cancer in dogs after skin tumors and are 3-5 times more common than breast cancers in women
1: Pseudopregnancy often occurs when a bitch is not bred. She will show signs such as nesting, weight gain, mammary enlargement and lactation – usually about 6 to 12 weeks after oestrus. Pseudopregnancy represents the extreme of the changes which normally occur during the oestrus cycle and it is suggested that it is a hang over from dogs evolution from wolves. Subordinate nonbreeding pseudopregnant female wolves in a pack can help to raise pups by nursing the litters of other females”
2 In 1994 Donnay and his associates showed that there is a relationship between the number of pseudopregnancies a bitch goes through and the development of mammary cancer
3. Verstegen and Onclin (2006)1 have also studied canine mammary cancer and found that a large number of bitches presented for mammary tumours also show pseudopregnancy, that a large percentage of these females had frequent pseudopregnancies and that the bitches with recurring pseudopregnancy at each cycle tended to develop mammary tumors significantly earlier than other animals. Both of these authors say that there is need for more research but clearly bitches which don’t breed are likely to become pseudopregnant and pseudopregnancy increases the risk of cancer.
Skipping cycles in breeding has been linked to mammary cancer Pregnancy protects against life threatening uterine diseases. The most common uterine disease in the bitch is cystic endometrial hyperplasia. It is linked to several serious uterine diseases including the potentially life threatening disease “pyometra”(literally – a uterus full of pus) which affects nearly one quarter of dogs under 10 years old which are not desexed
4 . According to canine reproduction specialist Dr S. Romagnoli “bitches whelping regularly throughout their reproductive life almost never develop pyometra, while those who whelp rarely or never in their lives have a greater chance of developing this condition”. Furthermore a standard textbook of veterinary internal medicine notes that uterine diseases are less common in kennels where bitches are bred and conceive regularly indicating that pregnancy has a protective effect on the lining of the uterus or “endometrium”
Given that artificially restricting bitches, which haven’t been desexed, from breeding is bad for their health, it is not surprising that many breeding dogs bred have reproductive problems. If they are show dogs they often don’t start breeding until they are three years old, and have finished their show career, and then kennel club rules and even government regulations require that the bitch is only bred on every second season. Frequently older bitches need veterinary intervention to reproduce, and good bitches may end up being bred well beyond 6 years of age when their fertility is beginning to decline.
No responsible breeder who cares about their dogs would breed their bitches until they are exhausted, and rules certainly need to be in place to ensure that irresponsible breeders don’t exploit their dogs, however the current regulations in place in some states do not take into account the biology of the bitch. Breeding should be regulated by limiting the number of litters a bitch can breed or the age at which they should be desexed and retired. Breeding dogs regularly while they are young,followed by desexing and rehoming them early is in the best interest of the bitch and a good pet breeder can use this knowledge to work with the natural biology of their animals. Breeders must be aware of and comply with any government regulations regarding dog breeding in their state and unfortunately in Victoria, NSW and QLD current regulations do not permit this approach to dog breeding.
Some year back, at an AKC Dog Breeding Discussion held at Michigan State University with key note speaker Dr. Claudia Orlandi Ph.D. (AKC’s breeder of the year and author of The ABC’s of Dog Breeding) shocked many breeders when it was disclosed that there have been scientific studies to show that it is detrimental for dams to skip heat cycles. It was shared that once you have begun to mate a dam that you should NOT skip any heat cycles until she is completely finished breeding. A dam is said to be “finished” breeding when her litter size is drastically decreased. The study involved following females that were bred every heat cycle and females that were bred every other heat cycle. After they were “finished” breeding, the dams were spayed and their uterus dissected.
Those showing most stress, and damage of the uterus were the females that were bred “every other” heat cycle. Part of the rational that skipping heat cycles is harmful stems from the fact that with consecutive heat cycles there is no “flushing action” of the uterus, which normally occurs by having a litter of puppies. The female will go through Estrus no matter if she is bred or not and by breeding a healthy dam back to back, can lessen the chances of the female experiencing pyometra, infections and false pregnancy. The choice to breed or not, should be contingent upon the goals the breeder has and for sure the mental and physical health of the female, above all else.
1.J.P. Verstegen III and K. Onclin. Prolactin and Anti-Prolactinic Agents in thePathophysiology and Treatment of Mammary Tumors in the Dog. NAVC Proceedings2006, North American Veterinary Conference (Eds).
2.Canine Pseudopregnancy: A Review (Last Updated: 23-Aug-2001). C.Gobello1, P. W. Concannon2 and J. Verstegen III3, Recent Advances in SmallAnimal Reproduction, Concannon P.W., England G., Verstegen III J. andLinde-Forsberg C. (Eds.)
3.Donnay I, Rauis J & Verstegen J – Influence des antécédents hormonaux surl’apparition clinique des tumeurs mammaires chez la chienne. Etudeépidémiologique. Ann. Med. Vet. 1994, 138, 109-117
4. Simón Martí Angulo Clinical aspects of uterine disease in the bitch and queen.Proceeding of the Southern European Veterinary Conference Oct. 2-4, 2009. S.Romagnoli, How I Treat… Pyometra. Proceeding of the SEVC. Southern European Veterinary ConferenceOct. 17-19, 2008 – Barcelona, Spain
5. Davidson AP, Feldman EC. Ovarian and estrous cycle abnormalities. In: EttingerSW, Feldman EC (eds) Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine. WB Saunders,2004
6. Johnson CA. Cystic endometrial hyperplasia, pyometra, and infertility. In: Ettinger SW, Feldman EC (eds).Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine WB Saunders, 1992, pp. 954.
