Kelliwic Border Collies

Do 0 and 00 mean something different (RT or DQ, perhaps)?

Results. International Supreme Champion Richard Millichap and Dewi Tweed 2nd Mark Elliott and Gail

Try this thread.

Results. 1st Amanda Milliken & Ethel 2nd Tom Wilson & Sly

Thanks, Mark and Melanie! Looking forward to any summaries that will be made available.

I am very interested in receiving a hardcopy or ecopy of the presentations and/or speeches if that would be possible. How do I reach out to the presenters? Through the site you posted, Melanie? Thanks,

Oooh! Tommy and Sly! They finally updated the page! I was rooting for Cap (Bran's sire) and Sly (Bran's aunt), so I'm happy!

Seems to me that over the weekend, they've updated most of the way through the order, then haven't updated the last few runs of the day until the following day. I've been refreshing the page and the last two scores have been empty for quite some time. No fair!

There are so many naming sites...Are you looking for Border Collie names? Working Border Collie most often have one or two syllable people names. Sports dog people tend to like "fast" or "crazy" dog names like Rocket or Riot. I like to name my dogs something Celtic-related as a nod to both my and the breed's heritage (Kaylie was simplified spelling of "Ceilidh," a dance gathering/party event, Kildare is named for the county in Ireland, Branwenn is "fair raven" in Welsh). I usually look at baby naming sites and Celtic mythology/legend sites for mine.

If you can, do!

Here is one personal example. My first Border Collie would "smile" at my by showing all her front teeth. I wanted to get that on command, so I started clicking it. There's really no way to lure a dog into doing that behavior, so I had to really get her worked up in order to produce the behavior spontaneously, so that I could click for the behavior when it did occur. What I ignored as unimportant at first, was that she was also doing a little dance with her front paws just before and while doing the "smile." So I was unintentionally also clicking or marking the little dance. I never did get the two behaviors separated. I was at a Susan Garrett clicker training seminar years back. She gave us an example of this when she was trying to train her Border Collie to bark on command (I think). Her dog (Stoni?) also did a few excited backward dance steps as she barked. So now Susan had a dog that barked on command (so she didn't bark when Susan wanted her quiet), but the barking also came with the backwards thing. I believe Susan was able to take the backwards shuffling and put a separate command to that ("moonwalk"). I might not have all the details exactly right as it was over 10 years ago, but that's the general gist of it. If the dog is doing anything else just before or in addition to the behavior you WANT, you may be reinforcing that additional behavior as well, because it becomes part of the "ritual" for the dog.

I like it a lot and use it for training new behaviors (mostly for puppies). Be very aware of the "big picture" of what the dog is doing when you click; it's pretty easy to miss that you are marking unwanted behavior if it's occuring at about the same time as the behavior you want.

Yep, I'm aware the test for "full" champion status has been made easier. I feel I made a couple mistakes with my original post. First, my question was really whether anyone knows if other show-line dogs have been ROM'd for ISDS registration (and not really meant to be a question about full champions, since there appears to have only been one). Second, this is the wrong audience to ask since not many people here follow the successes of KC dogs. So title of my post was meant in fun, but I confused the issue by the term "full champions." However, I'll post the question in a few more show-oriented boards and email groups and see if I get any replies. I assume I won't get any, or will get very few responses, and the problem with that is determining whether the KC people are not interested enough to try, or whether a good-ish number of people have tried with their show-bred dogs but failed. Maybe someone at the ISDS would know.

I was going to post this under JaderBug's Kennel Club thread, but I think it's too far off topic from what she was asking. However, Sue's comments got me curious, and here's what I came up with on quick search. Absolutely. Here's a quote from the Border Collie Club of Great Britain site. The author appears to be Doug Collier.

Even given the camera angle, I agree that they do seem to be big dogs. I've seen a brace demo but never a competition. As far as catching on in the US, isn't the interest rather limited in the UK as well, with low entries, and being run during the lunch break? I don't mean that NA does as the UK does, but it's my impression--perhaps mistaken--that it's just not the popular overseas and therefore not really going to draw significant attention to it?

Kind of a dumb question I'll throw out to anyone looking at the results...does the pen in the photo with Eamonn and Bill seem large? The fence seems rather higher than I'm used to and the whole thing seems bigger than usual (in the northeast anyway). Am I seeing things? Maybe I should get back out on a trial field?

Good thing no one takes me seriously, they'll never include it if they know who wrote it!

When working sheep, dogs are more likely to stop or lie down on balance (in a position to hold the sheep to the handler). When starting young dogs, it is usually the only place they will stop. So when I was even more of a novice handler than I am now, and starting my first dogs, my instructor used to tease me that the blaze on their faces was for me: when I needed to take the dog off the stock, I was to walk straight in at the blaze (to avoid inadvertently being off to the side and off balance ever so slightly, which was likely to cause the dog to get up and flank around again). Seems to work.

Mark, loved your report on the adventure. Funny that I came across this thread just today, when I also heard a story about a rabid groundhog on the radio this morning. (Not common.)

There were 80 Open dogs and over 25 N/N dogs each day but I guess those handlers who are also BC Boards members must be tied up with chores or trialing this weekend, and we'll have to wait for Cheryl or Annie to post to Sheepdog-L. I hate being patient. If I've remembered correctly, Gene Sheninger won Open both days with Jen, so they were Overall for the weekend (lately my memory's been rather faulty).

I was unable to attend the trial in Hop Bottom this year...one of the very few times in 16 years that I've missed attending at least one day. I know results will be posted later but I'd love to hear a report on it (novice and open classes) from anyone who attended. Thanks!

Edit... I pointed out that she currently has pups from Leila, who is barely a year old, according to Leila's page, even though the previous website that Devi quoted from said that the other two litters would be after the bitches are two years old. Decided my first post sounded too snippy. And of course this girl shouldn't be breeding dogs at all, anyway.

SUE! I am so happy for you and Celt! What a grand job he did, and you will both continue to gain confidence by having these successful, low-stress experiences. Well done.

Pulling back the lips so the dogs look like they're smiling in the photos.

This is an interesting perspective. I thought the ability to work and gather at a distance, hill dog thing was how and why the Border Collie was developed. Have you seen the video The Year of the Working Sheepdog? In my opinion, this clearly defines the work for which the breed was developed (in other words, I do not see the dogs in this video as an example of the "exception to the rule"). Some at-hand work is shown, yes...and lots of long distance, potentially hazardous gathers where the dog needs to be sensible and use its own judgement. I agree to a point with JLJ's statement that modern breeding selection is influenced by trials. But I would propose that trials have had some degree of influence on breeding for as long as there have been trials. People often want to breed to the winners, which is natural, I suppose; better to breed to the dog whose work you've seen in person and admired rather than taking someone's word for how good his dog is back home. ETA: JLJ interesting article, thanks for the link to the BC Museum page. It is rather ironic that the dog working at the bottom of the page has its tail low in all the photos but one, and in one other photo it is partway up. I wonder what the registry assessors would think of its style.