Border Collie HQ is an offshoot of Field Stone Border Collies Kennels. Breeding Border Collies became my objective after a serious illness in the height of my career as a Registered Nurse, Nurse Educator in Higher Education and as a Military Nurse.

One morning I rolled over in bed as the alarm rang incessantly, telling me to get up and get to a military assignment I was in the middle of, and I noticed something. The center of my vision in my left eye was blurry. Ok. Maybe it was just waking up and getting going that would make that spot go away. I’m a nurse; trouble shoot from the bottom of a problem up.

Well, the spot didn’t go away. I made an appointment with my Ophthamologist, so he could tell me it was all in my mind and not really a problem at all. Didn’t go like I expected. He told me everything looked good from his standpoint; no obvious issues as he examined my eye. He sent me to a Neuro Ophthamologist for a deeper exam and evaluation. No worries…maybe it’s just age. I was in my early 50’s then and didn’t think ageing happened until you were about 60 or so. Wish I was kidding on that.

The Neuro Opthamologist was great. Best of the best, in my experience in the medical field. She examined me, said we would do an MRI just to check all the boxes and told me not to worry until we were sure of what we were actually looking at. So I went from her office to the MRI and got it done that day. At that time, it was common practice to give the patient a CD with the study on it, really knowing they didn’t have ay idea how to access the data or interpret it. Fair enough. I took my CD home, opened the file and started looking at the anatomy. Remember I’m a Nurse? Well, my civilian job was teaching Nursing Pathophysiology and Anatomy Lab at the time, and I’d been doing that for a long time, plus I’m an Operating Room Scrub Nurse. The CD showed a distinct problem in the base of my brain. My heart sunk. I thought “I’m just going to wait until the Doctor gives me her impression, because I am obviously not seeing this right”.

When I saw my Doctor she surprised me by telling me I had a skull base brain tumor that had grown around my optic nerve and was creating the blurry spot in the center of the vision in my eye. Ok. To be honest, as an OR Nurse, I had thought long and hard about the surgeries that I never wanted to have each time I scrubbed in to a surgery. First, no brain surgery, second, no eye surgery and third, no GYN surgery. I had a long list, but those are the top three. I was pretty shocked and scared.

Just to be clear, I was on orders at the time the brain tumor was found. Many years ago when I started my career, I was an active duty Air Force Enlisted person Operating Room Technician. After my active duty time, I got out and went into a branch of the military for prior service individuals that were backfill reservists called “IMA’s” or Individual Mobilization Augmentees. They were a unique Corps of all prior enlisted people who could walk into an active duty position as needed and not need much training to fill in the gaps. They had already trained and done that job in their Active Duty life and were “part timers” now, but were required to also have civilian jobs in the same field so as to remain competent in their “part time” job in the military. During my time as an IMA, I went to college to become a Registered Nurse and applied for a Commission, which I received after being deployed for Desert Storm as an IMA. In my path after IMA, I was hired as Flight Nurse in another Unit and then an OR Nurse in the Air National Guard the last couple of years of my military career. I retired from the Guard after receiving a civilian disability due to my brain tumor.

Let me get back to the diagnosis, though. I was stunned and very apprehensive for what I knew was to come. At the time of my diagnosis, I was a Guardsman and an Assistant Professor of Nursing teaching full time. I had been divorced a couple of years earlier and was alone with my favorite dog of all time, Max the Border Collie. It was just us two…

Max and I had a great life. We did almost everything together, but he was not capable of taking the lead through me having a brain tumor. My son Mike stepped up and took the greatest care of me during it all. I had the surgery and it went amazingly well due to the care I had at the best hospital with the best Surgeon, Anesthesia providers, OR Nurses and Staff and a fantastic Neuro ICU and Stepdown. I’m not going to say it was easy because it absolutely was not. The vision in the center of my left eye never came back, my left eye muscles were affected by nerve damage, the left side of my head has nerve damage and the surgery itself left me with several subtle and not so subtle deficits that lead to my disability. But I still had Max on my side.

And what a warrior he was for me. When I returned home after the surgery, Max did something he had refused to ever do before…he jumped on the bed and stayed with me as I laid there and healed. He walked me down the hall in to the bathroom or the kitchen to make sure I would not fall. He did not leave my side for months. And when I finally did heal enough to resume a life, he was there watching me, with me all the way. His service, unprompted, made me realize what a role a Border Collie could play in the healing and rehabilitation of people like me. Field Stone Border Collies was born.

And here we are. When I started to think about how I could help others in my or a similar situation, knowing at the time that I was not going to be able to go back fully to the jobs I had previously, and perform at the levels I had been, I formulated a plan. What if I could breed dogs like Max to help people like me? What if I could help train and provide those dogs to people that needed them? Well, that was a big wish. But I did my research and made a plan. Max and I found our first Border Collie girl Riley, then a second Border Collie boy Quinn…and the rest is history. And what a learning adventure it has been.

I’ve had dogs all my life. I’ve had rescues, purebred GSD’s and just plain old everything dogs. Border Collies are a special breed and it takes a lot of study and patience to learn about and care for the breed. I found that if I could tap into their genetics and relate to them in that way, we would be very successful. If I didn’t and I insisted on my human way alone, I might get compliance…but I’d probably get more pushback than be able to work with them as a team. We moved forward and our first Riley x Quinn litter was whelped, and then moved on to their forever homes placed with every day people who love them and care mightily for them. The forthcoming litters and subsequent acquisition of two more Dams and two more Sires were the learning field I needed and Field Stone Border Collies became a solid kennel with a solid breeding program. But…..

After that first litter, I had a phone call from an old friend I had texted a few years earlier to keep in touch. We had known each other when we were in our late teens and our early twenties, introduced by the Air Force. Back then, we had been interested but moved on to other lives. Now, the minute we saw each other again, we knew we were in the right place at the right time. He asked me. I said “you bet”. We were married and wound up with four Border Collies, a Red Bone (Cooper) and a Black and Tan (Henry). Happy, happy family; plus all the humans associated with both of us; as kids and grandkids. Happily ever after.

Max and Henry passed in the first six months of our being together. It was devastating. We had moved into his house a few miles away from the one I owned, moving Field Stone Border Collies with us. We’ve been here ever since and seen multiple litters, multiple owners and multiple Sires and Dams (and a new Great Granddaughter). And loved them all with our whole hearts. The end of the adventure came when I became ill and was hospitalized for five days. We realized that we were not going to enjoy breeding BC’s, or be able to physically sustain breeding going forward. BUT, we were going to be able to use our expertise to further help other people and their dogs. And that is where Border Collie HQ comes in, dovetailing into Field Stone Border Collies LLC.

We are here because we have something to offer and because we want to help you using the information we have amassed over our lengthy time with dogs, as breeders and as Border Collie advocates and behavior specialists. Hopefully, you will trust us to answer your questions, make suggestions, give you resources and solid information about the things that are important to YOU and YOUR PUPPY or DOG.