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Mainline Border Collie Centre The home of TLC ~ Thinking Like Canines & The Sheepdog Experience

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Meg - 1979 – 1992

Nine National trials

English team 1983

The first of our Main Line of dogs and the inspiration for MBCC

Barbara Sykes MBIPDT (Member of the British Institute of Professional Dog Trainers)

The Mainline Border Collie Centre is run by Barbara Sykes who has been working, training and trialling dogs all her life. Born on the farm in Yorkshire (on the edge of the famous Ilkley Moors) and brought up with collies, her experience and understanding covers a wide range of topics, including several years shepherding.

A National and International sheep dog triallist, Barbara is no beginner when it comes to competition and is respected amongst the predominantly male participants of the trials circuit.

With her dog Meg, they both had eight consecutive years competing in English National trial events and were part of the English team at Aberystwyth in 1983.

Mainline Border Collie Centre was founded in 1983, during which time it has helped both owner and dog with handling sheep, basic obedience, problem solving, canine behaviour and to understand the dog and relate to its way of thinking, plus countless other related topics.

Mainline’s own Border Collies work sheep and yet are trained to a standard where they have appeared on televisions popular childrens' series ‘Woof’, ‘Out of Sight’ and Prime time viewing ‘Peak Practice’. Some of the media representation for Mainline include tabloids, magazines, TV appearances and TV programmes. However the main function of MBCC is for the welfare and future of the Border Collie.

Barbara herself is not just a farmer and shepherdess but also a canine behaviourist and tries to help people to understand not just how to teach a dog to be obedient but how to communicate with it and understand its needs as a dog – hence TLC-Thinking Like Canines was born.

Golcar Farm is a working farm, you will not find pretty tea rooms and gift shops but you will see farming as it is and dogs that live for work and fun. Dogs with a sense of humour living on a farm that is waiting for you to visit.

Letter from Barbara to our site visitors

Border Collies have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and during the latter part of the twentieth century the breed has diversified into so many different disciplines and lifestyles that it has become known as the Versatile Border Collie.

Opinions vary greatly about the breed, how it works, how working dogs live, whether they should be in pet homes and, probably the one very close to my heart, can working dogs live inside? My dogs cannot all live inside, there are far too many of them, but the golden oldies do, young dogs do and any infirm or problem dogs do. My dogs are a part of my life, they work, live and laugh with me, they have a wonderful sense of humour and incredible loyalty.

As well as a love of the breed I have a great respect for it and if I can bring people just a little closer to the heart and soul of a collie and its heritage through words, books, or this website then I will consider some of the love given to me by dogs repaid.

Border Collies are a breed of integrity, loyalty and great freedom of spirit and this is far more important than any trophies or medals they can earn for their owners. Our ancestors worked hard to give us a loyal and true working partner and it is my belief that to ensure we preserve this heritage for generations to come we must eliminate the great divide between the farmers dog and the companion dog, they are one and the same. Good owners and cruel exist in both, competition addicts and loving handlers exist in both, outside accommodation and bedside exist in both but there is only one Border Collie and this is what Mainline Border Collie Centre is about.

It matters little who the owner is or what their lifestyle is, what matters is the amount of love and understanding they are prepared to give, for you can guarantee that for every little bit you give a Border Collie you will get over a hundred times back and that is worth nurturing for generations to come

Barbara Sykes

Mainline Border Collie Centre

This site and all its contents are copyright to Mainline Border Collie Centre 2004