Links and Other Stuff
2008 International Supreme Champion Mirk
Video of Mirks run at World sheepdog Trial
Sheepdog Finals USA 2009
Shows ISDS open and international course work
Welsh collies
Shows sheepdogs doing something a bit different
A Giggle
Agility Training
Registry Information
ISDS International Sheep Dog Society
Founding registry for the border collie since 1906 located in the UK.
American Border Collie Association ABCA
Largest registry for the border collies in the USA
Interesting, Funny or Informative Sites
The Truth about the Border Collies
Humor about border collies and their owners.
Little Hats
Great site for newbies to herding!
ISN International Sheepdog News
Excellent magazine from the UK
List of breeders and trial information.
Border Collie Museum
Site with history and lore and interesting information.
Black Dog Farm
Huge number of links about everything
to do with border collies and more.
Purebred Dogs into the Twenty First Century
A must read if you are concerned about the genetic health of our dogs.
Written by Roy Saunders, from the book
"Sheepdog Glory" 55 years ago:
The Border Collie Breed
The Border Collie is never seen at dogshows and unlike
dogshows
he
is not to be judged by any physical characteristics. He
need not
conform to a particular colour, shape or size, length of
muzzle
or
height of shoulder. His coat may be fine long and glossy,
harsh
and
curly, or very short and sleek; all that matters is his
brain,
temperament, reactions to work and the consistency of his
performance behind sheep. If he has a cast, a wide gather,
a strong
eye to single out a required sheep; if he moves freely,
never barks,
never bites; if he is prepared to take orders, is
affectionate
towards those he knows, regards his master as a sort of god
and
the
sheep pastures as the equivalent of heaven, then and only
then can
he be called a first class specimen of his breed.
No man-dictated fashions have governed the Border Collies
bodily
proportions; his outline has been modelled by the bleak
mountain
run
with its gullies, screes, stone walls, wind, rain snow and
miles
of
heather, fern and rock. Centuries of running on wide hills
have
evolved a small lightly built animal with a light well
co-ordinated
frame and a stamina for work mentally and physical beyond
anything
else on four legs.
Despite the apparent insistence on breeding for working
qualities
alone, most Border Collies are in fact of a handsome
appearance.
The
homozygous tendencies are very strong and although greys
and tans
occasionally crop up, about ninety percent of these dogs
are a
smartly proportioned black and white. If the dog is
well-marked
in
black and white in the right places and is generally
pleasant to
look at, it is of course so much the better, but a collie
which
a
layman might find striking handsome would look ugly and
ridiculous
to the shepherd if his head and tail were held high. The
dogs "intelligence quotient" is shown more clearly in the
carriage
of his tail than by any other physical sigh, and it is
perhaps a
pity that we cannot test a child's IQ so simple and with
such a
degree of accuracy. In any case the plain mismarked
miscoloured
sheepdog whose breeding is right can give a stylish
performance
which is fascinating and beautiful and will easily surpass
the
performance of the most splendid looking dog with less good
breeding.
by Baxter Black
Excerpt from Cactus Tracks & Cowboy Philosophy: Commentary by NPR's Cowboy Poet and Former Large-Animal Veterinarian
Just a word about one of the greatest genetic creations on the face of this earth...the border collie.
********
Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive.
Able to leap tall fences in a single bound.
The dog that all sheep talk about but never want to meet. The fur that legends are made of.
Makes coyotes cringe, sheep trip the light fantastic, and eagles soar somewhere else.
Invested with the energy of a litter of puppies, the work ethics of a boat person, and the loyalty of Lassie,
they ply their trade on sagebrush flats, grassy fields, and precipitous peaks from sea to shining sea.
"Away to me!" I command. They streak and sail, zipping like pucks on the ice.
Black-and-white hummingbirds, in out, up down, come by.
Sheep. With head up, one eye cocked over their shoulder asking directions. To the gate through the race.
Mighty dog moves behind the bunch like a towboat pushing barges around a bend.
And heart. Do they try? "Just let me at'em, Dad!"
Stay. "C'mon, I'm ready!" Stay. "Can't you feel me hummin'!
Listen to my heart! It's purrin' like a cat! I am primed! Aim me, point me, pull the trigger!"
"Away to me!" It makes me feel like Robin Hood. He leaves my side like an arrow.
Workin' dogs is like manipulating a screwdriver with chopsticks. Like doing calligraphy with a plastic whip.
Like bobbing for apples. Like threading a needle with no hands. Like playing pool on the kitchen table.
There are no straight lines in nature. Only arcs. Great sweeping curves of sight and thought and voice and dog.
Always having to lead your command about a dog's length.
Sheep bunched like logs on the river. Dogs paddling in the current. Always pushing upstream.
A ewe breaks loose. Then another, amd another.
The logjam breaks. Dogs and sheep tumble about in the white water.
Calm again, they start back upstream.
Border collies.
Are they truly smarter than a chimpanzee? Cuddlier than a koala? More dedicated than Batman's valet?
Can they change course in midair? Drag Nell from the tracks and locate the missing microfilm?
Yes. I believe they can. They are the best of the best, the epitome of "above and beyond the call of duty."
Head dog. Top Gun. I salute you, for man has never had a better friend.
******
Originally aired on National Public Radio on June 28, 1994
Glenfillan Sheepdog Trials
Once it took the field
we forgot its ripsaw profile
and the tail barely a rope fray,
no rudder, and the whole
satchel-with-legs look of it
alongside the Sampsons
and Delilahs of the breed.
Locked in its work trance,
mind over sheep-fuddle,
streaking out low it collected
and bullied them as though
they were stray thoughts
of the shepherd who stood,
cap over brow, canny,
whistling his dog through all
the right moves: when
to charge, lie low, display
just the exact hint of threat
to back that big ewe down,
then go neat-footed, closing
the distance, adjusting
the angle, black-and-white
verb to the flock's blackfooted
milling.
How long after these canids
willingly approached our fires
did it take for some magus
to train one up to these workaday
marathons, this serious play
that involves everything from
pick-up-sticks to a log-roller's
quickstep over the backs
of Charolais built like a herd
of tractors?
Now it has queued
the flock up at the second gate,
walked them through it and home
again to that foxy whistler
who's swapped his Wellingtons
for soft Italian loafers today.
The dog cuts two out of the flock,
melds them in again, heads them
toward the pen while a beauty
without vanity shimmers unaware
of itself over the rough field,
shivers the spine as-applause
like a smattering of stock doves
flying-the white gate closes.
Brendan Galvin