The Blind Collies of Westminster

There were two blind double merle Collies represented at Westminster this year but if you blinked you would have missed them.  I don’t blame you, neither one was actually AT the event, but they were both there in spirit: one was only briefly mentioned as the sire of Best of Breed winning Wyndlair Cherokee Vindication, and the other flahsed on the screen during the Purina Pro Plan advertisement “Inside Every Good Dog is a Great Dog.”

You can read the entire saga of the Wyndlair blind double merle Collies in these posts, their story is now well known and documented:


The other blind double merle Collie is a bit of a mystery.  His or Her story is not well known and I’m not sure there’s a way to find out.  But it doesn’t matter. The other blind Collie didn’t win any awards yesterday and won’t be seen in Best of Show today. He hasn’t sired any litters and his owner won’t be paid exorbitant stud fees to pass along his dysfunction. No one will ever clap and cheer for this dog and it’s unlikely any of us will ever know his name. But this dog is special for one reason: someone out there actually cares more about the dog than what they can exploit it for.  This dog is loved.

I don’t know who the woman in the video is, I don’t know her name or how she came to find this dog, or even if it’s really her dog.  It could be a therapy dog going to visit a retirement home or it could be her companion of many years. But in the two seconds she and this dog appear on screen in the ad that ran twice during Westminster it is blindingly obvious that she cares more about this dog than anyone cared about Wyndlar Avalanche.

This double merle blind collie appears at the 0:45 mark in the Purina Pro Plan advertisement.

Watch the video and pay close attention around the 45 second mark:

..

Rewind it a bit and watch that part again. The woman leans over, caresses the dog’s head with both hands and whispers in its ear.  You can’t make out what she says, but I’d like to think it went something like this:

You are not blind, the people who created you are blind. They cannot see the damage they have done to you.

You are not deaf, your breeders are deaf. They cannot hear the words of reason asking them to stop.

You are not a monster.  They are monsters, evil and unrepentant.

They tried to leave their mark on the breed, but they left only a stain upon you.

I’m sorry what they did to you, I’m sorry I stayed mum.  I didn’t speak up yesterday, before this act was done. But this I pledge to you today: I will not compromise; I will not let them deafen you or hollow out your eyes. I will not waste tomorrow, I’ll learn from my mistakes.  I’ll end their acts of savagery however long it takes. 

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About Christopher

Christopher Landauer is a fifth generation Colorado native and second generation Border Collie enthusiast. Border Collies have been the Landauer family dogs since the 1960s and Christopher got his first one as a toddler. He began his own modest breeding program with the purchase of Dublin and Celeste in 2006 and currently shares his home with their children Mercury and Gemma as well. His interest in genetics began in AP Chemistry and AP Biology and was honed at Stanford University.