The most famous dog we bred is VX OTCH Heelalong Chimney Sweep UDX, AX, AXJ, ROMX, to whom our home page is dedicated. Although Sweep, herself, only whelped two litters of puppies (with Rock as the sire), in 2003 she lead the ROMX list proving that she was not only the top winning obedience border collie of all time, but she was also a top producer of performance dogs. In 2002, the AKC honored Sweep by inducting her into the Dog Museum, Hall of Fame, the first border collie to be so honored. When the border collie became an AKC recognized breed in 1995, we were convinced that the breed would change substantially, and it has. Many breeders are breeding for looks only, and the ROM statistics bear this out. Many of the leaders of the ROM list have mostly produced breed champions, with few puppies with titles at both ends. At Heelalong™ we still breed border collies that look as they did before AKC recognition. The dogs we have bred, that are on the ROMX and ROM lists, are there mainly because of performance titles earned by their puppies, although some of these same dogs went on to earn breed championships, in addition to their performance titles. Below are two pictures of a group of Heelalong border collies, taken almost 15 years apart. As you can see, the dogs we breed have not changed substantially in looks.

1988, before AKC recognition (left to right)

• OTCH Starfire’s Midnight Skye (Cindy Siereke) Rock x Magic (breeder Janie Johnson)
• OTCH Tystar Cruise Control (Nancy Little) Rock x Sharry (breeder Mary Wharton)
• OTCH Heelalong Sable on White (Chuck Kline) Bandit x Meg
• OTCH Heelalong Sudden Impulse UDX, NA (Sue Mills) Bandit x Meg
• OTCH Heelalong DeCider UDX (Noel Kujowski) Spider x Meg
• Heelalong Lucky Strike UDX ( Sharon Anderson) Spider x Meg
• OTCH Heelalong Pippin UDX, TD, Sch 1 (Shirley Tipsword) Spider x Meg
• Heelalong Austin City Limits UD, OA (Tom Turner) Spider x Pebble
• OTCH Heelalong Sharp as a Tack UDX (Tom Little) Spider x Pebble
• OTCH Marshview’s Heelalong Joe (Lyn Carden) Rock x Meg daughter

2000, after AKC recognition (left to right)

• OTCH Heelalong Jedi Knight UDX, MX, MXJ, PT (Jann Cooper) Igniter x Lava
• Heelalong Jeepers Creepers UDX, AX, OAJ, PT (Jann Cooper) Kite x Fluff
• Ch. OTCH, MACH-2 Heelalong Hi Flying Red Kite UDX, HSAs (Kay Guetzloff) Pippin x Lava
• Heelalong Panda NA, NAJ
• Heelalong High Chaparral UD, AX, AXJ (MaryMac Gardner) Igniter x Lava
• Ch. Heelalong Energizer CDX, MX, MXJ (Lee Olson) Igniter x Lava

After 7 years not breeding any puppies we finally have two new border collies living at Heelalong. These two puppies are Heelalong bred, out of a bitch by the name of Heelalong Off On Katydids Hop CD, MX, MXJ, co-owned with Cathy Ottman of Bancroft, WI. Katy goes back to all our great dogs. The puppies’ sire, ADCH MACH-2 Topshelf’s Rapid Attack, also goes back to Heelalong on his sire’s side. Torch and Swift will be carrying on the Heelalong line through future generations of Heelalong Border Collies.