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Barbie dog definition


IronHorse
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Wow, took me awhile to catch up on this thread; I hope Roseanne is still reading...

 

Here you guys have an opportunity to really get through to someone in the sports world who I would bet probably has a large degree of influence on her students and fellow competitors in her area. I think education without attacking is key here and I hope you haven't already turned Roseanne off to "herding" people. She already mentioned she was influenced to actually work her dogs before breeding them - that's a step in the right direction. You're certainly not going to help her, and others like her, really understand your point of view by attacking them.

 

Roseanne, people here are hard-core, which I'm sure you've figured out already. What they may lack in tact, they certainly make up for in passion. They're passionate about preserving the Border Collie as a working dog, and any perceived threat to that makes their blood boil; so please don't take it too personally. Go work your dogs with a USBCHA trainer, you'll learn much more in person than here on these Boards.

 

-Laura & Wick

 

p.s... I've seen Drifter run and it's laughable to think someone would suggest you give up agility and your World Team potential just to do herding. :rolleyes:

 

p.p.s... Any idea where/when the NE Regional will be this year? Thx!

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At 250 posts, this is the longest thread we've ever had. I'm getting a little worried about pushing the size much further. Perhaps we could end it here, and if people have further thoughts to add, they could start a new thread? If nothing else, I think the thread has answered the original question and provided the definition of a Barbie Collie.

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edited to add: Sorry Eileen, apparently you were posting your request at the same time I was creating my missive below. I'll not add any more to this thread's length.

 

Originally posted by rtphokie:

p.s... I've seen Drifter run and it's laughable to think someone would suggest you give up agility and your World Team potential just to do herding. :rolleyes:

Laura,

Despite your little smiley, I expect you're not kidding when you say this. The fact is that none of us hard core folks have said to Rosanne that she should *give up* agility for herding. That's *your* interpretation of what we've been saying (and probably points to one reason we don't seem to get through to the nonherding folk--people are quick to interpret what's being said on the basis of their own life experience instead of just taking what's being said at face value). What we *did say* is that someone who is not training their dog to herd ("do herding") and to do so at a high level should not be breeding border collies.

 

If I were to walk up to you and say I plan to breed my border collies because I *think* they would be good agility dogs without ever having really trained or competed in agility to a high level, let alone Rosanne's level, you would probably laugh in my face, and I wouldn't blame you. I could be offended by that, or I could think, "Hmmm...maybe there's more to this agility thing than I originally thought." If I can see the distinction when the story goes in the other direction, why can't people who mainly do sports understand our viewpoint without getting offended and thinking we're talking down to them or that we consider them irrelevant?

 

How many times have you read on these very boards how much we support people who do agility or flyball or tracking or whatever else with their border collies simply because it gives the dogs a fuller life? And yet we look down on you? I think who we actually look down on are the folks who get border collies as accessories and only do things with them when it's convenient for the human. But I digress....

 

Rosanne herself has said several things (as reposted by Eileen above) that imply that she does get the concept that folks breeding exclusively sport dogs are changing the breed, and not for the better. She has acknowledged that the qualities she cares about (and that have at least in part--one half of the team--enabled her to get to the top levels in agility to the point where she has a chance to be on the international team) come from the fact that border collies have been bred for work first for many years. Why is it then offensive when we then point out that dabbling in herding isn't enough for a person to make a judgment about the breedability of dogs?

 

J.

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I have deleted everything posted after I requested people to stop posting here (except for Julie's post, since she wrote it before she saw mine), and I have locked the thread. All of the later posts were ones that I'm sure people would like to reply to, and it isn't fair that they should feel they can't without violating my request, when the posts themselves violated it. I tried, in fairness, to give the last word to someone (Laura) whom I would have liked to reply to myself. Sorry it didn't work out that way. Feel free to start another thread if you have something that needs to be said.

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