We are Marko and Natasja van Blanken-Schipper (55 and 56 years old) and we are moving to France in September 2022. We were both born in the Netherlands, but the last years it became too busy in our country. So after already many years of loving France we decided to move to it permanently to enjoy its nature, the peace and quiet and the many lovely things it has to offer. First of all Murron, then Ygraine, Elif, Teagun, Vianne and our male Liam. With 6 collies in total all the dogs are sure to get the attention they deserve
The bitch 'For an Eternity of the Lovely Bears' (Adele), who is the daughter of our
BW'14- Winster '16 and Belgian, Dutch and International Ch.Someone Like You of the Lovely Bears (Elif), lived till now in partnership (she is also litter sister to our dog Liam - Rumour Has It of the Lovely Bears). She will stay in the Netherlands with her co owners when we move to France and enjoy her life with them. Sinds 2021 we also keep the blue litter sister of Vianne in partnership being 'Killer Queen of the Lovely Bears' (Eevy). She will also stay in the Netherlands with her co owners and we agreed that they will do a litter for us and an offspring of that litter will come to us in France later. Our hobbies are the dogs of course, gardening, fittness and training with our collies in obedience, balance and coordination, detection training and showtraining. We always train and show our dogs ourselves and for many years also gave
show and agility training. Our love for the Collie began in 1986 when we got our first one named Bo. Very sadly he was stolen from us out of our home . After a year of searching and feeling terrible about what happened, we bought another collie, Daisy. When Daisy was just over one year old, we brought in a second collie called Shadow (Night Shadow du Jardin de la Vigne) a tricolour male. In the meantime we became a member of the breed club the S.h.v De Collieclub. Through them we got our third collie. Soon after that came Dillan (I'm Mister Blue of Paddington Station), a blue merle male. After having participated at several shows with Dillan we felt the urge to become breeders ourselves. We decided to add a sable female, called Pebble's (Don’t Fool Me of Paddington Station). After having acquired the necessary diploma’s and having requested a name for our kennel,
we searched intensively for a suitable partner for Pebbles. Soon after we were expecting our first litter. The first puppies were born on March 26th in 2000 and we decided to keep one of them: a bitch called Sammy-Jo (Royal Highness of the Lovely Bears). Sammy-Jo is our first home bred female. For two years in a row she was in the top 10 of the home bred Collies, something we are still very proud of. In 2005 our first tricolour puppy bitch 'Black Surprise of the Lovely Bears' (Aimie) - daughter of our Feet of Flames of the Lovely Bears (Bibi) - moved to France. She was our first Lovely Bears puppy to go abroad. She lives at her father’s place with her owners, the Ventroux family of the Midland Valley kennel in France. In 2008 the tricolour bitch Jelly Baby of the Lovely Bears also joined the Midland Valley kennel in France. In Januari 2010 a blue merle daughter of Jelly Baby of the Lovely Bears came back to Holland being Eternal Circle de Midland Valley (Murron)
In her pedigree she has 5 generations of our Collies and our dream come true. With her we hoped to start our blue lines ...... and several years later we own now 3 generation going back to her. In 2017 Dallinaire Noble Touch (Teagun) came to live with us all the way from Serbia. She had her first litter in 2021 sired by our dog Rumour Has It of the Lovely Bears and we kept Somebody to Love of the Lovely Bears and Killer Queen of the Lovely Bears. And now we are heading towards living in France and we hope - after first establishing our new life there -.to start breeding again next year in 2023.
