Sitting here a the end of June, it was nice to go back to the visit I had with Bobbie Fairbanks back in February when the weather was cold, the dogs had coat, and all the shows were majors. I 'm sure will also appreciate her taking her time out to be interviewed and share some of her thoughts, ideas and photos.

Bobbie Fairbanks with Ch Azalea Hill's Shawn, Ch Azalea Hill's Strike Force, Ch Azalea Hill's Canebrake Cameo & Ch Azalea Hill's Mr Christopher

I have known Bobbie Fairbanks for over twenty years and we both got started at about the same time. She has always been very generous with her time and expertise helping novices. I can remember when I was first starting out, barely employed, and destitute, and Bobbie would be there to help out, whether it was to help me with entry fees, take me to shows, or offer bed and breakfast at her home. Greenville, South Carolina is a very convenient stop between Virginia and the southeastern states and Bobbie always made her home available to anyone passing though, so you could always count on meeting someone interesting there. Even as I recollect back to the interview, I remember Bobbie taking her time out to list her champions and make notes ahead of time while recovering from a badly broken and still painful left leg.

It seems that success follows Bobbie and her husband Richmond everywhere they go. Before they became interested in showing Collies, they were competitive water skiers, with Bobbie being ranked third in the nation overall, and first in ski jumping at one time. Both have judged the national competition. Until recently, Richmond was a wholesale Azalea grower supplying such large retailers as K-Mart and Winn-Dixie. Their beautiful home and grounds were a sight to behold in the early spring wiht his inventory overflow! Bobbie didn't mention this, but it is my understanding that she was also a successful sales rep for Moore Business Forms. The Fairbankses have one son, Ricky and two grandchildren.

Bobbie feels very strongly about pet overpopulation and limits her breeding program to no more than one litter per year. The use of their males at stud is very limited also- to no more than one or two quality litters per year. The fact that they have a number of champion dogs and bitches that have never had a litter makes their record truly an accomplishment, with many litters of multiple champions.

Without checking out the statistics, suffice it to say that the Azalea Hill Collies have done it all. Their first litter produced five champions with a sixth in the repeat. Ch Azalea Hill's Mr. Christopher and Ch Azalea hill's Magnum Force were all breed Best in Show winners with multiple group firsts and specialty wins. Ch Azalea Hill's Lucky Lady won eight groups, Ch Azalea Hill's Top Man was Best of Breed at the CC of A and was the top winning Collie in the country in 1980 and number 7 in 1979. Ch Shadow Hill Stormy Sea CDX won multiple working groups and was ranked 5th in the country. Ch Azalea Hill's Canebrake Cameo (Number 1 in 1986) was both a multiple group and specialty winner. Azalea Hill's Honey Love shared the top producing bitch award for 1980 for her four champions. I could go on and on, but it's better you hear it from Bobbie herself.

NMcD

Who was your first Collie?

When I was young, I was living with an aunt, and like everybody else, we had a farm Collie. I used to look at the Dog World and see that picture of Ch Tokalon Storm Cloud, the one of him looking over his shoulder and I just admired him, and throught that when I grew up I would have a dog that looked like that one day.

Time went on and we got married and we had other interests, but finally one day I said I want to look for a show Collie. So I set out to look for a Collie and I went to shows for about two years to see who was winning and who had Collies that i liked. This is something I would recommend for anybody- to see what you like- before you buy anything.

CH AZALEA HILL'S ROSEMARIE

Nobody ever does that!

At that time Dr. Jay Hammett in Gaffney had a lovely blue bitch that just swept the Florida circuit one year and most of his bloodlines were from Glen Hill and Shadowmont. Anyway, I went to him and said I would like to buy a puppy, preferably tri-color. He, like so many people siad, "oh, yes, I'll keep you in mind," but, I called him about every six months or so to remind him that I was waiting for a Collie. Finally one day, I called him and he said, "well, I have a litter"- I believe it was a co-owned litter- "I've been to see the litter and it looks really nice and I'll pick you out a puppy". I called him in a week or so and he had two puppies, one was a tri male and one was a sable bitch, and of course you know, being partial to tris, I picked out the tri male. That tri male came home and he became our Shadow, Ch Shadow Hill's Stormy Sea CDX. He was not a fast-maturing puppy, but had a pretty neck, and nice head and muzzle and when he was mature went on to rank #5 in the nation under the Phillips System winning several groups before the Herding Group was split out. At that time, I didn't even know there were specialties, or even such thing as sweepstakes.

	Ch Azalea Hill's Mr Christopher at 1973 CC of A

Quite by accident, I received a copy of Collie Cues, the address label had gotten lost and the postman, seeing a Collie in our yard assumed that it belonged to me. That's the way I learned about the great wide world of other Collies, other than local all-breed shows. In that Collie Cues was a picture of Enterprise (Ch Two Jay's Hanover Enterprise) winning the stud dog class with some of his offspring at the CC of A. That caught my eye and I read it from cover to cover and subscribed and started reading about Collies and was beginning to think about getting another one.

The next year, Enterprise won the stud dog class again and I read an old article by Ed Pickhardt in Dog World that said the best way to start was to find a top winning line that you like, get the very best bitch you can from it and breed it to the top producing sire in that line. That really stuck in my mind, that Enterprise must be the top producing sire in that line, and so we went to Chicago to see him. I still go to see any stud dog before I breed to him. We were just thrilled to death. The Two Jay's were very kind to us and showed "Prise" to us and to this day, I think he is the most gorgeous dog I've ever seen. They also had several of his champion sons htere, Ch Two Jay's Added Attraction, Ch Two Jay's Enterprise Addition.

What did you like most about Enterprise?

Beautiful face, tremendous coat, sweet personality. I still have that picture of his face in my mind.

Following the advice form Ed Pickhardt, I went to the Chapmans, becuase they had bred Enterprise and it seemed like a likely place to get my good bitch. We apparently caught them at a very opportune moment, which most people don't. They were in the process of getting back Hanover's Love Song that they had sold to someone that didn't work out. She had a five point major reserve under Bill Brokken. They showed us a picture of her and she just looked beautiful. We bought her pretty much sight unseen and they told us they didn't know what condition she would be in.

How did you talk them out of her? They didn't know you from the man in the moon; I think novices want to know who to get a nice bitch from a top breeder.

I think the main thing is to go and see the breeder in person. You know, you get all sorts of strange calls on the phone, but you go see somebody in person and let them know how serious you are. We also took Shadow with us, who went everywhere anyway, and they could see how well taken care of he was. They were trying to keep their kennel very small, too. I guess it was the deal of the century, because Carol not only promised us this bitch, but agreed to keep her for us until she came in season and breed her to Enterprise and ship her to us. She ws by Glenn Hill Wheeler Dealer out of a daughter of Enterprise's sister. Since we were buying her sight unseen, we had to have a lot of faith in Carol. But this was the bloodline we wanted, and how bad could she be, winning what she had won... she had a beautiful flat skull, dark eye and she was linebred on this great dog. So, sure enough, from that litter came Ch Azalea Hill's Mr. Christopher, Ch Azalea Hill's Marianne, Ch Azalea Hill's Touch of Magic, Ch Azalea Hill's Rosemarie, Ch Hanover's Love for Sale and others with points. Ch Azalea Hill's Playboy came from the repeat. It was just a beautiful litter.

Ch Azalea Hill's Top Man CCA BB, 1980

I was showing Mr. Christopher, who won the points at his first show when I met Carol Hook and she and I got to talking and decided to go to the 1973 CC of A in Anaheim together. She, of course, had Ch Tartanside The Gladiator, and I took Christopher. I was standing in the lobby and I saw Pat Starkweather, who also stayed with us who had Ch Glen Hill Ravette Review with her. We ended up rooming together, Christopher won the 9-12 Sable puppy class, Ravette Review won his class and Ch Tartanside the Gladiator was Best of Breed. We had a real celebration in our room and I can remember the dogs drinking from their silver! However, the real thrill for me was that there were only two get allowed in the stud dog class and the Jim's invited Christopher. After seeing all these beautiful dogs and to be the one that was asked to stand up for his sire was the biggest thrill for me. Incidentally, he won again that year.

Carol (Hook) always liked Christopher and she and I made arrangements to breed Christopher's sister, Marianne, to Buster at that time. About a year later, we did do that breeding and along with the litter papers, Carol sent me a note "let's hope one becomes a CCA winner". From that breeding, we got the CCA Best of Breed Ch Azalea Hill's Top Man, Ch Azalea Hill's Shawn and Azalea Hill's Honey Love, dam of working group winner Ch Azalea Hill's Mr. Marcus, Ch Azalea Hill's Windhover, Ch Azalea Hill's Flair and Ch Azalea Hill's Sheyne, Azalea Hill's Princess Feather (12 pts, 1 major), and Azalea Hill's Colleen (12 pts, 1 major). I always considered Honey Love the pick of the litter but after winning a match of about 300 puppies, she was attacked and injured at a subsequent match and would never show again.

As you can see, my line has been primarily Hanover crossed with Ch Tartanside the Gladiator, going back and forth throughout all our dogs. I think we have kept the pretty eye, nice lean head with very flat cheekbones.

	Azalea Hill's Honey Love

I am very concerned with overpopulation. I usually have less than one litter per year. My dogs are not at public stud, but occasionally a reputable breeder will use one of them, and I have been fortunate to be able to get several nice puppies from their litters by one of my males or from a bitch they bought from me. I don't have to be the breeder to finish a dog or to enjoy showing it, because I enjoy showing. Some of these have been Ch Lynloch's Highland Venture and Ch Azalea Hill's Dark Promise from Bob Hawkins, Ch Azalea Hill's Younghaven Prise from Louann Young, Ch Charis Miss B from Georgia Douglas. We've been lucky that many people have trusted us with many of their nice animals.

We got Ch Azalea Hill's Whisperings from a breeding of Ch Azalea Hill's Lucky Lady to Ch Deep River's Time Lord who was by Ch City View's Advantage out of one of Kathy Moll's Christopher daughters, Azalea Hill's Deep River Leah CDX. In her second litter by Ch Tartanside Th' Critic's Choice she produced Ch Azalea Hill's Fascination. We got the Critic's Choice daughter, Ch Azalea Hill's Foxbride Fancy from Lynn Fox. This is basically what I'm still doing.

Please talk a litte about your mentors...

Really, I got the nice bitch form the Chapman's and the dog from Dr. Hammett, but I was pretty much on my own. Not that I expected anything from them, and there have been a lot of people that helped me. Joan Kefeli was a big help to me- anytime I have a problem, I call Joan Kefeli. But I don't think you ought to depend on people and take up their time unnecessarily, I think you ought to do your own homework and read everything you can get your hands on. I find, personally, it's beena big help to me to join an all-breed kjennel club. It's how I have been able, I hope, to promote the Collies in our area by being very active in an all-breed kennel club and trying to get quality Collie judges for our shows.

CH AZALEA HILL'S CANEBRAKE CAMEO

That's right, because I remember when there would never be majors here, but you have four or five points all the time now, especially in February.

We used to have probably five or six Collies in the summer shows, maybe fifteen in the winter and now we can count on having majors all the time. Since there are no specialties between here and Virginia, this is how I have worked with my kennel club to promote the Collies. In addition, these kennel club members have been so helpful to me, if I can't go somewhere, they'll take a dog for me sometimes, and sometimes they will come help you pick puppies, ...now you may think they don't know anything about Collies but someone like Sandra Campbell, she could pick anybody's puppies.

Isn't she a top Basset Hound breeder?

Yes, she's won national specialties in four breeds and had Best in Show with at least four breeds. She bought one English Setter and it went on to win the national specialty when she'd never had one before. But she has an eye for a dog. It's wonderful to have someone like that in your kennel club who will help you.

CH AZALEA HILL'S MAGNUM FORCE

Tell me what is most important to you when you make a breeding, what you will absolutely not accept.

Anytime I do a breeding, (and I don't breed Collies to sell). I always think why reinvent the wheel. There's so many people who have done so much for us way back like Cul Mor and Parader that I don't feel I need to do a lot of experimentation breeding for what I want to accomplish. I'm just taking advantage of this vast knowledge they've given us and if I'm doing a breeding, I'm hoping to get a dog for me that I plan to show, not jsut to get a brood bitch to continue a lien. I want something that will be really pretty; I won't breed bad temperament; I won't breed anything at all that I know has any kind of genetic fault for bad health. I love a pretty eye, soundness, nice natural ears. I won't accept a dog that is rough in head. I want to feel the side of the head and have it feel like it was sliced with a knife because it is so smooth and flat. I don't want those cheekbones protruding at all. I like a nice neck if you can get it. I think in the south, more than in the north, you have to breed for coat. It's a real struggle to get enough coat in the south to compete with the northern dogs. If you want to get a national ranking, you have to compete with the northern dogs. Down here, we get more all-rounders and have to compete against all-breed handlers, so soundness is very important.

Which one would be your favorite?

Oh, my favorite of course was Shadow, I don't know if it was because he was first, or because he was a tri male!

Which was the best, and why?

I suppose as a specialty dog, Christopher, because he had that pretty eye. I always hoped I would win the national specialty, and I always hoped I would do it with him. And yet Top Man was the dog that almost always won. I remember when you showed him at CC of A right after he had just finished, I got several offers from Japan. He made it through several cuts and we hadn't really started specialing him much yet, really didn't start utnil two years later, but they spotted him right off.

What has been your biggest thrill?

I suppose when Top Man won the CC of A, maybe when Shadow won his first Group 1. I can remember, I used to be very thrilled with a point, much less a major. I'm still thrilled to win a major, because I think that's where it's at. It's fun to special a dog and I enjoy specialing and all, but winning a major... It's really been fun, though, and I've really enjoyed it. I've met a lot of interesting people and seen a lot of pretty dogs.

Of course, soem years are better than others. Last year we had little Adora (Ch Azalea Hill's Adora) and she was so much fun and I planned to have her sister our this year. I looked out the other day and her coat was running up behind her like a rope, so that's that for her.

CH AZALEA HILL'S FASCINATION

I have used handlers and that's what it takes when you want a national ranking, but there's nothing like finishing your own dog; I've probably finished 2/3rds by myself. However, if you can't go and the dog is ready and needs to go, you shouldn't let him sit home, send him out with a handler. The thing about sending your dog out with a handler is that you miss the chance to learn so much when you go yourself. I was watching a judge once whom I'd never shown under before and he was new to Collies. He didn't seem to fault close fronts, he didn't seem to fault curly tails and thinking what he did like, I think I know what to bring next time. YOu can save a lot of money if you try to analyze your judges yourself and try to think what they'd like. If you have two dogs and one is big and one is tiny and you know he won't like the little tiny one, don't bring it. If you sit at home, you won't know.

Could you tell us a little more about your daily management practices?

	CH AZALEA HILL'S COURT JESTER, CH AZALEA HILL'S STRIKE FORCE, CH AZALEA HILL'S SHAWN AND BABY CH AZALEA HILL'S MAGNUM FORCE

We have about 18 dogs now, not counting the puppies, and there's only two of them. Most are dogs we're not showing. They're older dogs, because we care very mcuh for our older dogs, they are not put down, they live out an old life...Christopher died at 12, Top man was 12 when he died, Shawn was 14 1/2 (I think she was the last Gladiator daughter). Neither Shawn or Top Man had a grey hair on its head. They're not kept in kennels here. They run in large paddocks up and down the hill there. We have about four acres with three one acre paddocks. Of course, our old ones are very special, they are in the back yard near the house. The younger ones get the furthest away on the steepest hill, to chase each other. I think it's really good for their rears. The medium ones run together; males too. When it rains they're put in covered pens and if it's too hot we bring them all in the air conditioning in the garage or the house. We almost always have one or two in the house. They're treated like family here, and when we do place our puppies, we make sure they go to homes where they are treated like they are here.

I hope you have gotten a few good tips from this interview. As always, Bobbis is still generously sharing her time and experience.