Some background:
Number of dogs competing:
Agility: about 460 dogs, of which maybe 20% were border collies. The youngest was 18 months, the oldest, about 14.5 years old.
Herding: 147 Open dogs, of which 146 were border collies. The youngest was about 20 months, the oldest about 12 years old.
Criteria for entry:
Agility: Each dog qualified by earning a minimum number of points in its regional championship or in the pre-qualifier competition held immediately before Nationals.
Herding: There is no criteria for entering beyond paying the entry fee by the closing date. To qualify for the double-lift final, though, the dog must be registered with the CBCA.
Venue
Agility: The site was a large, multi-use sport field. Competition was spread over 9 rings, each measuring about 75' x 125'.
Herding: The site was a public park. The trial field is an off-leash dog park, and the outrun was quite short - maybe 250 yards, tops.
Here are some of my observations.
Barking:
The agility dogs barked while actually on course. I myself have two that could be considered "big mouths" when they run. Obviously, none of the stockdogs at Kingston barked while working. For in-activity barking, this is no contest. However, the crating area at the agility trial was quite quiet. There was a bit of barking and/or whining periodically, but nothing of any duration. The handler's parking at Kingston was about the same. Many dogs barked when you walked by their trailer or truck but again, it was nothing of any significant duration. For at-rest barking, I'd have to say this one is a draw.
Leashes
All dogs at the agility competition were required to be on leash unless competing, in the designated warm-up area, or at the off-leash area. Everyone adhered to this, except perhaps some of the very small dogs, who were carried in and out of the ring. One was in a baby stroller. <pause for effect> But I digress.
At Kingston, most of the dogs were on leash when not competing. There were some like me who had their dogs off leash in the handler's tent (and in Lou's case, pretty much the entire time we were in Kingston). Perhaps because the trial was being held in conjunction with lots of spectator activities, handlers were more likely to keep their dogs on leash so they didn't get in trouble. I, for example, did leash up my dog and tied him under the grandstands at the pig racing, since the announcer asked that all dogs be kept away from the racetrack.
Grooming and general presentation
Most of the agility dogs looked pretty clean. There were a couple who could have used a date with an undercoat rake, but I am fussy on tufting. A lot of agility dogs had fancy personalized collars, harnesses, and/or slip leads. Many were wearing cooling coats for the walk to/from the ring. That, I found odd. It was very warm, yes, but the walk to the rings is short, and there were lots of wading pools and hoses should you want to cool your dog off.
The herding dogs were relatively presentable too. Again, it wouldn't have killed some of the dogs, particularly the brush coats, to have a rake run through them. but in general, they looked clean. In fact, the judge from Wales, Colin Gordon (author of One Man's Opinion) opined that he was glad to see the dogs in such nice condition. He (probably correctly) ascribed the improvement in grooming and presentation over the years to the rise in the number of woman handlers. Sadly, no dogs wore anything much flashier than a flat buckle collar with perhaps an ID plate riveted on. A few handlers still favour the binder twine leash.
No dogs wore cooling coats. They made do with the stocktank on the field, and the St Lawrence river, just behind the field.Dog fights
I saw no dog fights at either event. There may have been isolated incidents of snarking, but nothing I would classify as a fight.
Loose Dog!!
Yes, there were calls of "Loose dog!" when a dog was spotted walking/running unattended at the agility trial. In fact, one of these loose dogs was my own Wick, who found herself loose when Rex tipped their soft-sided ex-pen. From what I understand, Wick must have panicked at being loose (Rex remained in the capsized ex-pen, completely unfazed), and she was cantering towards the exit, which led to the park's roadways. The calls of "loose dog!" alerted the volunteers, who made sure that she didn't get out of the secured area. She ultimately took shelter in someone else's shade tent, where my friend was able to get a leash on her (I was getting a popsicle and didn't hear the commotion). I can't imagine what would have happened if she had got out, wearing no collar, and in a strange place. I am therefore very grateful that the calls of "loose dog!!" alerted enough people such that Wick could be contained. At agility trials, if a dog is loose, it almost always means that something is wrong. It's not because they can't be trusted off-leash.
At Kingston, one dog slipped under the gate and made it onto the field while his handler was using the loo. The scribe shooed the dog off the course in time, so that the competing dog's run was not affected. In this case, there were not calls of "loose dog!" so much as the hissing of "get that damned dog off the field".
Facebooking
This one wasn't even close. There was orders of magnitude more Facebooking under the handler's tent than at the agility trial. I suspect this is because there is a lot of sitting around, waiting, in herding. Or maybe stockdog people have a more cohesive Facebook community? All I know is that American handlers were drunk with happiness when they found a wifi hotspot. Hey, I can sympathize - roaming charges are exorbitant.
Overall
In my opinion, there's not much difference between the stockdoggers and the sportdoggers and their dogs, at least not at these two relatively high-profile events. Sure, there were examples of total weirdness from both camps, but I consider these outliers, and not representative of the overall communities. And before you label anyone weird, please have a read through Jorgen's excellent blog post, I wouldn't call anyone crazy If I were you. He covers the topic much better than I could.
No, in general what I saw were people who truly enjoyed their dogs, who all spend a lot of time and money on the activities about which they are passionate, and who all are, forgive me, Jorgen, just a little bit crazy. And me? I enjoyed every minute of it, and I'm probably the craziest of them all, since I crammed both events into 1.5 weeks, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
