Welcome to "Willosyam"
We are a mother and daughter partnership and jointly own the kennel name Willosyam taken from the name of our now departed blue merle working sheep dog Willow and the Cumbrian word for home Yam. We live on the west coast of Cumbria on the edge of the beautiful Lake District in the UK and have had working sheep dogs and then Border Collies in our lives for over 15 years.
We became interested in showing our dogs after a trip to Crufts in 1999 and then spent the following 12 months going to Championship shows with family to watch and learn before getting our first KC registered bitch and starting to show ourselves.
We bred only occasionally and our aim is to produce Border Collies that have excellent temperaments and meet the breed standard with health as a priority. We choose not to breed on from carriers of the known inherited diseases and will always support efforts to investigate any of the health issues that may be found to affect the breed, having experienced some of these ourselves.
As well as the Borders Joanne developed an interest in Rough Collies and for a while we were joined by two. She also handled for others occasionally, the highlight being handling the dog CC winner at SKC in August 2004 under Steve Hall. Family commitments intervened but she is now looking forward to showing again, this time with our latest breed the Lancashire Heeler.
We first noticed this vulnerable native breed while at a local open show and upon further investigation we discovered they are a hardy breed that would run with the collies and are full of character so when we heard of an exceptional planned litter we decided to contact the breeder and express our interest in a pup. We were lucky to secure the pick of bitches and in 2011 we were joined by our first followed recently by a second.