We would like to welcome you to the Wiccaweys Rescue Border Collies and Working Sheepdogs website. We do hope you enjoy your visit.

Wiccaweys are dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming of Border Collies & Working Sheepdogs.

All dogs that come into Wiccaweys as rescues or for rehoming become part of our family. The dogs are socialised in a home environment, either with ourselves, or with one of our wonderful foster homes.

Border Collies do not fend well in traditional kennels, and the sight of a BC bouncing of the roof and walls of a kennel can send a prospective new home running in the opposite direction! This is a great shame, because in the right environment, that stir-crazy dog is probably a fantastic dog. All the dogs who come to Wiccaweys receive some basic training, and if they like the idea of it - they get to have a go at some basic agility - all ready for a lovely new active and loving home.

Of course, the Border Collie is not the ideal dog for everyone, and one of the greatest myths people have is that they are easily trained. In the right hands, yes a collie will learn quickly - but it also means that a Border Collie will pick up bad habits just as quickly. A bad habit learnt in 5 mins can take up to 6 months to train out again.

You have to remember that the Border Collie is a working dog, and they have an instinct to herd. This is stronger in some BC's than others. An unchannelled herding instinct can result in nipping ankles, bicycle, jogger and car chasing, for example.

Exercise is nothing to a Border Collie - they were bred to be permanently 'on the go' and 'alert' at all times. A working Border Collie can run all day, and still be ready to go should his master need him.

Can you live with a dog who will easily do that lovely 3hr plus walk you take him on, and then chucks a tennis ball or toy at you 5mins after walking in the door?

Border Collies can do the exercise bit with their eyes shut, so to speak - it's the mental stimulation that they need to keep them sane. Can you provide that?

Can you share your home with the dog that leaps up as soon as you move? "What we doing, where we going, what we doing?"

The dog who does exactly the same as soon as you walk through the door? He doesn't know if you have had a hard and tiring day - he needs his body and brain exercising - "Come On, come on - lets go.....lets do stuff.....where's my ball....where's my ball......"

Can you cope with the destruction that may have been caused because he didn't have enough to keep him occupied while you where away?

Will your neighbours put up with the howling and barking of a bored collie who has been left all day while you are at work?

Are you prepared for when the cute little fluffy puppy grows up and turns into a whirling dervish, knocking young children off their feet in his hurry to be doing something?

These are quite often the reasons that BC's end up in rescue - that cute little pup has turned into a manic, active dog that needs something to do - he needs to use his brain! If they are not mentally stimulated as well as being exercised, then they will provide their own entertainment - whether that be re-decorating the house or re-designing the fixtures, fittings and furniture, or using that extremely strong herding and nipping instinct on the kids, cat, local jogger or just the nearest moving object..... the list could go on.

Many Border Collies are wrongly accused of being snappy or vicious, when in fact, all they are doing is following their natural instinct to herd. This instinct channelled into something such as obedience, agility or flyball can produce a wonderful friend and loyal, faithful companion.

The main thing to remember is, when you decide to take a Border Collie into your home, you are taking a Working Dog into your lives - not an easy pet dog.

Above all - ask yourself WHY do you want a Border Collie and ask yourself; what can you offer the dog, not what can the dog offer you?

Believe us, the dogs you see on television on programmes like 'One Man and His Dog', and those on the television coverage of Crufts competing at Obedience, Agiltity and Flyball will be nothing like the dog you will be taking into your home. Years of knowledge and patience goes into achieving that kind of rapour, understanding, respect and trust between a person and their Border Collie.

We like to find our dogs homes where they can reach their full potential, and be loved at the same time.
Whilst we like them to go to working homes (agility, flyball, obedience) we want them to go to homes where those activities are carried out for the enjoyment of both the dog and the handler.

We are not interested in homes where the dog is just wanted to provide another rosette on the wall for the handler, and we are not interested in homes where the dog will spend all day sitting in a crate at a show to be allowed out to do their competition, and then put straight back in the crate.

We do not want to hear from homes where negative reinforcement methods will be used for training. We hate the use of check and choke chains, and we totally disagree with, and are against, the use of any type of 'shock' collar.

There is little point in ringing us to enquire about a dog if one of your first questions is going to, "what is the dogs parentage, is there hip displasia PRA or CEA in the line, what is the dogs hip score, are they eye tested, are the puppies likely to be the result of an incesteous relationship...", or even if you are extremely overly concerned about looks.

These dogs are rescue dogs, most of the time when they arrive, we will have little or no history at all on them. They come to us from so many different situations. That is why we assess them with a great deal of care, either with us here at Wiccaweys in Northamptonshire, or with the help of one of our wonderful foster homes.
We provide the potential adopter with all the information we have, and the details on the homes needed page will sum up the dogs personality and attitude to life.

The fact of the matter is all the rescue dogs need homes, whether they are big, small, fat thin, handsome, pretty, ugly, big eared, bold, nervous etc..etc.. Because we carefully assess the dogs as part of the family, we get to know them very well and we know their personalities and what home situation they are going to thrive in. Please do not be offended if you ring up about one dog, and after a long chat with us discussing your family life, situation etc we point you towards another dog with us. We do our best to match the right dog to the right home - if the personalities don't match - what good are good looks anyway?

Rescue dogs are not a 'cheap option', and we endeavour to find them loving active homes where they will be allowed to florish and become the best dog they can possibly be. Loved and respected by the new guardians for the dog they are, and most importantly - be a cherished family member.

We hope that gives you a brief idea of what we do and why we do it, and what we are looking for from a new home for our rescue dogs.

If you feel that you would like to offer any of the dogs a home, please contact us for a chat in the first instance.
All potential new homes will receive a homecheck and adoptees are required to sign an adoption agreement.

Please note that Wiccaweys does not have kennels, this is our home and we are not open to the public. Meeting any dog is strictly by appointment only.

As mentioned previously, we do have extra special people who offer foster homes to the dogs, so you may have to meet the dog at his/hers foster home. We have foster homes in Northamptonshire, Warkwickshire, Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Wales, Cheshire & Shropshire.

We work closely with friends and colleagues at other rescues up and down the country, and from time to time you will find details of collies at other rescues needing homes on the site.

Wiccaweys Rescue Border Collies and Working Sheepdogs receives no funding, other than the kind donations people give when adopting a dog from us. We are always grateful of any help that people can offer, whether it be time, blankets, toys and food, and of course donations to continue our work.

If anyone would like to make a donation towards our work, please visit our Make a Online Donation page.

We also have a Ways to Help Wiccaweys section, and we would be extremely grateful if you can spare the time to take a look there.

You will also meet the older dogs who are residents at our retirement home, which we affectionally call The Rainbow Bridge Departure Lounge - flights are delayed as long as possible! They are all characters and now much loved members of our family. If you are interested in sponsoring one of our Golden Oldies, we would love to hear from you - and they would be very grateful.

For those wonderful people who have already taken a Wiccaweys dog into their lives and homes, we have section dedicated to you and your new family member, The Wiccaweys Owners Club, we would love for you to send stories, photographs and updates that we can share with visitors to the site.

There is also our BLOG, which will contain the latest news, gossip and information and a section with details of events that Wiccaweys will be holding and attending with the Wiccaweys stand. If you can come along and say hello, We would love to see you!

Please feel free to pop in on our dogs who are also featured on the site. I do hope you enjoy your visit, and that you find it interesting, informative and entertaining. If you have any comments, or would like any further information, or you need help, please do not hesitate to contact me at the email address or telephone number shown on the contacts page. If you could, please take time to sign our guest book.

Sarah, Paul and all the Wiccaweys Dogs and Volunteers.