Border Wars Border Wars Analysis of hot topics in the dog world, especially Border Collies. Agility, Flyball, Sheep Herding, Conformation, AKC, ABCA Articles
Make My Day or Make Fido Pay?
2007-11-22 00:50:00 I feel a change in the air, and it's not just that lovely autumn breeze bringing the first snow of the season. It's a mood change, a political change, a rethinking of basic "rights." People around the country are becoming more hostile to each other and towards each other's pets."Good fences make good neighbors" is a time honored cliché and it's almost gospel in the dog owning world. Fences protect us, our dogs, and our neighbors from ourselves and each other. Even better than fences is land. Enough land where you don't have to listen to the neighbor's teenager with horrible music taste, enough land so you aren't a party to domestic disputes, the sex crazed newlyweds with the creaky bed in the unit directly overhead, and enough land where you and your pets are buffered from unwanted confrontation.There have been newsworthy neighbor-dog disputes in the past, but high profile incidents like the mauling death of Dianne Whipple are easy to dismiss for suburbanites outside of the... More About: Make
Third Estate of the Border Collie
2007-11-20 11:07:00 reprint from 9/16/07The First Estate of the Border Collie is as a working stock dog.The Second Estate of the Border Collie is as a conformation show dog.The Third Estate of the Border Collie is as a dog sport athlete.The Fourth Estate of the Border Collie is as a house pet.Purists in the first estate will be pleased with their ranking, but this list is not judgmental, nor preferential. It does not extend from most important to least important, but rather from monolithic to democratic, from specific and narrow to diverse and broad. Fundamentally, the list documents the history of formal organization. You might argue that conformation showing is the most monolithic and the most specific, and you'd be right, but it is far behind trialing in history and in moral ownership of the breed.I firmly believe that the Third Estate of the Border Collie is a significant player in the future of the Border Collie, unadorned with romantic history and unbound by a rigid and arbitrary "breed standard... More About: Ollie
The Modern Language of Dog
2007-11-19 21:07:00 reprint from this blog 8/24/07The Ancient, Modern , and Future Language of "Dog."Part 1. The Ancient. Wherein the Author describes the Border War between Linguists on the history of the proto-word for "Dog."Part 2. The Modern. Wherein the Author describes Dog's omnipresence in modern language.Part 3. The Future. Wherein the Author describes Dog's presence in the babble and first words of children. The primordial connection we feel towards dogs is more than the superficial replacement for meaningful human contact that cat people claim we are experiencing. In fact, recent research shows that owning a pet is actually a catalyst towards greater social contact. But the human-canine bond is deeper than simple coexistence and date-bait. Our relationship with dogs has influenced the very formation of human language. Our growth from vine swinging apes to blog spinning humans has been shepherded by dogs.In the first part of this series I got around to discuss dogs at the end. The takeaw...
Cruze is cute.
2007-11-17 19:13:00 Ok, that last post was depressing, so before you go jump off a bridge just look at this cute puppy picture and all will be well:That's "Cruz," owned by Holly Elliot from Facebook. More About: Cute
Don't Eat the Dog
2007-11-17 11:07:00 Thanks to my new friend over at the Anti Eating Dog blog, I bring you this sad, sad show: Don't eat dog. Come on now, say it with me.... DON'T EAT MY DOG!
Lucky Jack Update
2007-11-17 05:23:00 Lucky Jack , the unfortunate dog who was shot in the head with a blade tipped hunting arrow is on the mend and scheduled for surgery:Here are photos taken of "Lucky Jack" on November 13, 2007 at Dr. Bob's clinic. Thanks to all of you who gave so generously to help Lucky Jack, he has been scheduled for surgery at Louisiana State University's School of Veterinary Medicine where they will perform this delicate and complicated surgery to remove the arrow from Jack's head. The sad part is, the arrow in the head isn't Lucky Jack's only issue:Jack's surgery has been further complicated by the fact that he has Heartworms and suffers from Ehrlichia (tick disease) that can affect his reaction to anesthesia. The medical team at LSU will perform an echo scan of Jack's heart to see if anesthesia can be administered, or if his Heartworm and Ehrlichia must first be treated before the surgery can be performed. The emergency room veterinarians at LSU have treated many dogs who have these co... More About: Update , Lucky
Japanese Jumping Dogs
2007-11-16 08:15:00 Ok, so not everything the Japanese do with their dogs involves bizarre breeding practices and unprotected sexual interactions of kitsch electronics (see last post). Sometimes they get dressed up like Mario and Luigi and put on mini dog circus acts. Both the dogs and the circuses are mini, and so are the Japanese for that matter. More About: Dogs , Jumping
Japanese Humping Dogs
2007-11-16 07:51:00 The Japanese are electronic gurus, famed perverts eccentrics, and if you believe what is said on the Border Collie chat groups, they are also very irresponsible when it comes to pet care, breeding, and dog sports.It seems they have found a way to combine those, erm, talents... into a single product that will surely be making its way into japanophile/techie/dog people's stockings this Christmas.Remember to have your USB Ramdrives spayed and neutered. More About: Dogs
Unequivocal Spin
2007-11-15 20:53:00 Bias in the blogosphere is pretty obvious, and most bloggers wear it like a badge. Most readers seek to find content they are prone to agree with. It's easier to adopt a religion and follow its teachings than it is to constantly consider how each new event or situation fits into your homemade belief system. "I mostly agree with you, so tell me how to think and act."Despite being libertarian and agnostic, I can't say that I am always above this particular coping mechanism. When it comes time to vote, especially on local issues where a bill might sound good but the details are possibly antithetical to my beliefs, I do rely on pundits of known bias to inform my voting choices. If you go right to the high profile conservatives and liberals and see what they are harping over, it's usually easy to discern what is actually in the bill and decide from there.While we expect and allow bias from sources where such bias is evident and advertised, we don't support it from supposedly neutral ... More About: Spin , Vocal
Don't Shoot the Dog
2007-11-13 02:07:00 That's what happens when you shoot an innocent dog in the head with a blade tipped hunting arrow.Amazingly, the arrow missed all the vital nerves, the brain, and the meat of the eye meaning that "Lucky Jack" the dog can make a full and complete recovery if the remainder (read: barbed and bladed arrow head) of the arrow can be removed during surgery.The arrow is currently impairing Lucky Jack's ability to open and close his mouth and is dangerously close to the eye where it still has the possibility of doing permanent damage if left untreated.There is a Lucky Jack Surgery fund that is raising money for his treatment. The cost of treatment at the specialty Vet center at LSU is $5,000.I just gave $(my lucky number) to the surgery fund because it is worth at least that much to me to see this happy and resilient dog get well enough to grow old and fat and loved. Consider donating your lucky number, you just might get it back in good karma. Just look at him in this video and see if you... More About: Shoot
A Dog Named Jeff
2007-11-13 01:20:00 In honor of Veteran's Day:The winner of the 2004 DogHero.com heroic dog story contest was a piece by Wayne McDowell about a Border Collie mix named Jeff . Tissues required.A Dog Named JeffBy Wayne H. McDowellLike a lot of the young men of my generation, I spent time in the Armyand slightly less than a year of that time was spent in the Vietnam War.For part of that period I was stationed a small "firecamp," roughly 200of us or so, and there was also a "camp mutt" called Jeff. Jeff was ofindeterminate breed, a medium sized dog, about 30 to 40 pounds or so. Hewas a black and white dog that always put me in mind of a miniature BorderCollie, but with floppy hound dog ears. He had a single toy, a tennis ball,the old off-white kind. When he wanted to play fetch, he would carry theball around until he found his chosen playmate, then drop the ball at theperson's feet and bark until these slow-witted humans got the idea to throwit for him.Jeff was sort of a camp mascot for us. It was good lu...
Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs
2007-11-13 00:22:00 In Honor of our Veterans, new and old, living and passed:(reprinted from 9/29/07)In a day and age where the ROTC and the Minutemen are invited to speak by a student group at Columbia, then banned by a callow and effete administration kowtowing to another student group of fascist pinkos, it's little surprise that a dictator and terrorist like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is welcomed with open arms even after severe backlash from the Country. Idiot college students (like the girl they interviewed on TV) who think we need "greater dialog" with monsters like Mahmoud should be allowed their wish and given first class tickets to Tehran via Baghdad. Let them "dialog" all they want from the front lines.The terrorist Ahmadinejad was given a pulpit to preach hatred, rebuffed only by the tepid insult of "you must be either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated." PROVOCATIVE or UNEDUCATED!! Oh please! God forbid we call the World's #1 sponsor of terror "uneducated" and "provocative!"I reall... More About: Wolves , Sheep , Shee
An hour of your time
2007-11-12 08:17:00 If you want to know what it's like to experience a first rate lecture, but not feel like you're being lectured, watch this video.If you want a good reason to be motivated and do just one more thing to improve your life or someone else's life, watch this video.If you remember that there are 24 hours in every day and you probably didn't do much in any one of them today that you'd be proud to tell someone else about or perhaps you didn't experience something that you will one day have a fond memory of, watch this video.If you want to feel a little less sad for yourself and a little more happy that not everyone out there is a !@#&*^~, watch this video.It has nothing to do with dogs, or wars, or me being overly self righteous and smug. That should be reason enough.Take an hour and watch this video:Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams1 hr 25 min 21 sec - Sep 24, 2007Description: Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture ... More About: Time , Hour
Dogs and Razvodit
2007-11-11 16:14:00 Sexual reproduction is a union that results in increasing genetic diversity of the offspring. It is characterized by two processes: meiosis, involving the halving of the number of chromosomes; and fertilization, involving the fusion of two gametes and the restoration of the original number of chromosomes. Sexual reproduction (as opposed to asexual reproduction) is necessarily a dilution and a combination because mammalian genetics are a zero sum game (baring rare and disastrous defects): two haploid cells containing half the required genes (a dilution) come together in the offspring to form a single organism that contains the same number of genes as the parents do (a combination).Despite numerous jokes to the contrary, sexual reproduction is not by its nature a degenerative process. Some of the oldest texts from Egypt (as long as we've been keeping records of civilization) decry "kids these days" as sufficient evidence that the end is neigh and all is lost. But we've managed well ... More About: Dogs
Dog Sports on TV
2007-11-11 02:37:00 Animal Planet is going to be featuring Dog Sport over the next five weeks. Sundays at 10 AM.Be sure to catch these amazing athletes and their trainers. Several members of my local Colorado Disc Dogs club will be appearing during the two Frisbee dog shows.The link above has a page with "Remind Me" buttons so you won't forget. First show is tomorrow, Sunday, at 10 AM on Animal Planet.Nov 11, 10:00 am8:00am Mountain(60 minutes) Ultimate Dog ChampionshipsDisc Dog Extreme Games TV-G, CCThe discs and the dogs are flying in Stockton, California. Canines and their handlers compete in a variety of events that show off their speed, accuracy, and style both on the ground and in the air.Nov 18, 10:00 am8:00am Mountain(60 minutes) Ultimate Dog ChampionshipsFlyball Las Vegas TV-G, CCStraight from Las Vegas this lightning-fast competition features dogs of various breeds and sizes as they team up in a race unlike any other. Flyball is the fastest paced and fastest growing canine spor... More About: Sports
Dilution and Reproduction
2007-11-10 22:53:00 "Dilution drives culture." by Ted ByrneThe semantic implication of breeding being a "dilution" of some sort is not limited to the Russian language. "Reproduction " in English is also carries some of the same connotations. Of course it means the sexual act of conceiving and bearing offspring, but when used as a noun it can also mean a knock-off: "a copy--not an original," "a reasonable facsimile in appearance and construction," "made to appear as an older form," or "made to look like an original."Some definitions lean away from the pejorative sense of the word, emphasizing "with no intention to deceive" or "especially when it is significantly faithful in its resemblance to the form and elements of the original," but we all know that reproduction means you can't have or can't afford the genuine article.I'm sure the breed-dogs-for-working-ability-only people would make the argument that if you only know the reproduction, you'll never appreciate the true beauty of the original (worki...
Vodka and Dogs
2007-11-10 09:17:00 So why all the talk about Vodka if Patrick is really looking for a discussion of dogs? Neither he nor I drink (ok, every now and then...but I was voted "most likely to be sober" by my freshman dorm). Well, I think the discussion about Vodka speaks to the dog breeding issue.The diffusion of Vodka from a regional and cultural meme to a global consumable is one example of a product that fits the "Diffusion of Innovations" theory presented by Everett Rogers in his 1962 book of the same name. Rogers' work is based on the "technology adoption life-cycle," which is a sociological model developed by researchers Bohlen and Beal to track the adoption of hybrid seed corn by farmers in Iowa. The technology adoption life-cycle model describes the diffusion of a new technology as influenced by the demographic and psychological characteristics of five defined adopter groups:Innovators -> Early Adopters -> Early Majority -> Late Majority -> Laggards"Fire water" started out as a localized innovati... More About: Dogs
Dog Eats Typos
2007-11-09 10:46:00 And for the final question on the Grammar Nazi Level 1 proficiency exam, can you overlook the cute puppy and baby to find the error in this published cartoon:Hint: You're not proof-reading very carefully. Perhaps your editor needs to be fired.YAY, you win the game of life!Your well deserved prize is to enjoy the splendor that is DogEatDoug. More About: Typos
Razvodit and Vodka
2007-11-09 09:02:00 Once there lived and existed a great learned man with a beard almost as long as God's. And one day the people came to this man and said 'Go to the Lord, and tell him of our misery.' 'I will go,' said the man. So he caught a great bubble, and sat down on top of it, and flew up and up until he pierced the heaven above us. And there he saw God and told him of our misery and God pardoned our sins and lightened our burdens. Then the great bearded man came down from the heavens and the people were happy. And for this, the authorities and the Tsar made this man a very great scientist.Dmitri Mendeleev ponders the perfect Vodka .(thanks to my elite Photoshop skills and a painting by Ilya Repin) Patrick Burns posted a challenge on his blog to discuss the etymological ramifications of the Russian word "Razvodit" which means both "to breed" and "to dilute." As a logophile, verbivore, and lover of etymology; how could I resist?I'm sure Patrick is eager for a piece that discusses show breedi...
Where Are They Now? Pt.1
2007-11-06 07:24:00 Using the great uber-brain of google (and it can be oh so wrong some times), I managed to track down many of the people (or their google doppelgangers) who signed the AKC: Hands Off the Border Collie! petition that is featured in Donald McCaig's book, The Dog Wars.Although McCaig uses the petition to demonstrate the general consensus against AKC recognition back in 1994, the current political affiliation of many of the people on the list is an interesting story that is not detailed in McCaig's book.There are significant defections in both directions: former AKC superstars are now novice sheep handlers and others who were vehemently opposed to AKC recognition because of the ills of conformation now have a resume of Border Collies with show titles.Arthur Allen, President, North American Sheepdog SocietyDeceased.Arthur N. Allen, 92, of McLeansboro, died at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, October 24th, 1996, at Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, Indiana.Mr. Allen was born May 4, 1904 in Hamilt...
It's Hard To Be Humble
2007-10-30 06:34:00 I just ran across this hilarious take on an unnamed Canadian sheeple (or would the singular be sheeperson?) and their bumper stickers. The full post is here. R-rated excerpt below.I'm in my car, sitting in traffic, and I notice the rig in front of me was covered in bumper stickers. Strange, strange bumper stickers....The final one was my favorite. It's off the crazy scale. It reads as such:What? Border collies? You fucking idiot. It doesn't even make sense. Any fucking shmuck on Earf can buy a fucking border collie. You might as well make the bumper sticker say, "It's hard to be humble when you own toothpaste." Makes as much sense. Now if it said, "It's hard to be humble when you own the greatest tits on the planet," well, yeah, I would imagine it would be hard to be humble in that spot. Otherwise it's weird."Hey, I saw you talking to that girl with the great tits. How did it go?""Awesome! She blew me in the bathroom. It was like she had no self-worth at all!""Hey, I saw you t... More About: Hard , Humble
Siding with the AKC
2007-10-08 22:51:00 Faced with the undeniable history of ruining numerous other purebred dog breeds by facilitating and encouraging countless breeders to breed stupidly, why would any circumspect Border Collie owner or breeder side with the AKC over a registry that is 100% Border Collie focused, that owns 90% of the gene pool, and speaks passionately about owning the moral high ground of Border Collie breeding by sticking to a purely herding based standard?Well, because words, be they in pedigrees or mottoes or breed standards, are cheap. The lofty (Platonic) goals of the AKC and ABCA are well and good, but they have little to do with what the registries offer the WIDE middle ground of owners who are interested enough to care about registered dogs and who are active in at least one dog activity, but who are not frequent fliers or VIPs like show breeders or trialers."Merit" is a term that is not universal to any of the four Estates of the Border Collie. The Third and Fourth Estates (Dog Sport and Pet) w...
Versatility "Dangerous" to the ABCA?
2007-10-08 11:34:00 I'd like to bring your attention to the report presented to ABCA members in 2002 when a committee was formed to assess the AKC/ABCA Dual Registration "problem" and advise options for the membership to vote on. In the report, the authors (Denise Wall, Candy Kennedy, Donald McCaig, Eileen Stein, Penny Tose, and Jeanne Weavermake) plead their case for why the members of the Third Estate of the Border Collie are not only casualties of the war, lost and abandoned to the evil AKC, but themselves a "Clear and Present Danger" to the ABCA: A Clear and Present Danger With the AKC’s increased presence in the explosively growing sport of agility, its reputation with uninformed pet buyers who see “AKC reg” as a guarantee of quality, its enormous budget and sophisticated PR staff, and its intent to increase registration of Border Collies, the AKC is a formidable rival. If it keeps its... More About: Dangerous
Capturing the Spoils
2007-10-08 04:26:00 Although the Border Wars are appropriately framed as a fight between the ABCA and the AKC, the Wars are wrongly categorized as a fight over Border Collies or "the future of the breed." The true spoils of war aren't dogs, but people. The numerous people who buy Border Collie puppies and who are mostly unaware or disinterested in BC politik, ethos, and theory but who still buy "purebred" dogs with papers. Papers that cost money.The elite in the ABCA and the AKC fight for those people because the lifeblood of both registries is the money they make from puppies who are registered and sold to pet homes. The AKC could not survive off of Conformation puppies alone, nor could the ABCA off of trialing puppies alone. Both groups must milk the massive Fourth Estate pet buyers for their sustenance. Conformation dogs and Trialing dogs are loss leaders for the two registries, the registries spend and lose money facilitating shows and trials, even with sizable volunteerism and sponsorships.The Fo...
The Spoils of the Dog War
2007-10-08 04:18:00 The small elite group of conformation breeders are Platonists; they believe that the substantive reality of Border Collies is only a reflection of a higher truth, and their activity is the key to divining that perfect essence. The small elite group of trial breeders also believes that there is a higher truth to the Border Collie, that their activity is the key to approaching that truth, and that their philosophy stands above and to the exclusion of all others. But they are not Platonists, as their search is accomplished on a field, not in the mind. The ideal Border Collie is discerned by function, not by a proposed ideal form.This new Plato seemed familiar to common-sensical Victorians. What do we mean when we use the word "table" if not a real object which resembles more or less well the ideal "table"? Aren't our real-world tables imperfect examples ("Platonic shadows") of the ideal?And living, breathing dog -- are they not slightly imperfect versions of the ideal foxhoud or greyh...
How David Slew Goliath, or GO STANFORD!
2007-10-07 04:39:00 STANFORD! STANFORD! STANFORD! STANFORD! The pundits gave us a 0.0457 chance to beat the number one ranked USC, who hasn't lost at home since the September 2001 (also STANFORD!!!!) and whose coach had only lost 12 total games at USC. Make that un-Lucky 13 now.Stanford won 1 (one) game last year. Our quarterback this year is out with a brain virus.And WE JUST TOOK DOWN THE #1 team in College football lead by a sophomore quarterback in his debut start!"Trojans have little to gain against the Cardinal, except rest for some injured players."USC coaches and players refuse to acknowledge it.The record of the opponent, the gargantuan point spread and upcoming games against other struggling teams draw nary a reaction from the second-ranked Trojans.But today's Pacific 10 Conference game against Stanford is the start of a three-game stretch that should allow USC to regain its form, nurse some key players back to health and audition others for what figures to be a difficult fiv... More About: David
McCaig's Dog Wars: The Bad
2007-10-06 08:43:00 Donald McCaig's The Dog Wars is an important book to me, and it should be to anyone who reads this blog as well. I mean, come on, the Dog Wars and the Border Wars.... both about Border Collies... McCaig and I are soooo clever.The pages of insight into the workings of dog registries and the philosophies of the people who run them, both the AKC and the ABCA, are fascinating and informative. The theories presented on why the two camps are so different in their views is also compelling.But as much as I enjoyed the tongue lashing that McCaig gave the conformation cult of the AKC, I must say that the picture he paints of the motivation and beliefs of the trialing community paint a troubling picture for the Third Estate as well.The plight of the Third Estate is to be continually marginalized in philosophical importance by the spin-meisters of the first two estates while they try and sell us (and the Fourth Estate) their numerous culled puppies demonstrating our practical importance to the...
McCaig's Dog Wars: The Good
2007-10-02 19:03:00 With a name like "The Dog Wars " and content that documents the battle between the First Estate and the AKC, how could I not immediately order, devour, excrete and then roll in it over and over and over again like my Border Collies do with anything smelly and gross? Well, that's just what I did. It is not that the book is smelly and gross, it's just very appealing to dive into.I've been sprinkling some of the most interesting quotes from Donald McCaig (author of such Sheep Trialer hagiographies as Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men and Nop's Trials) into my recent posts, and on my second read through I retyped long passages I found worthy of discussing, and there are many.By the time I'm done mining the book for inspiration there will hardly be a passage I haven't quoted and discussed on this blog and you could probably reassemble the book piecemeal.The book is the first and currently only work released by the ad hoc publishers Outrun Press, started by two Directors of the USBCC, Sall... More About: Good , The Good , The Go , The G
Border Collie Flies High, Lands Hard
2007-10-01 19:11:00 Border Collie s are known for their gravity defying leaps and spins on the frisbee field, and on occasion a spectacular crash and roll. But New Mexico Border Collie Jade and his owner Jim Grainger bring a whole new meaning to crash landing:A Taos man and his dog walked away from his fiery aircraft Sunday morning (Sept. 30) after he “controlled-crashed” about a mile short of the Taos Municipal Airport runway. Jim Grainger told The Taos News that he got up to about 8,000 feet altitude just over the Rio Grande Gorge, when finger-sized flames started coming out of the console in front of him. “Fuel ignited in the turbo, burned up the engine, then the plane,” he said after arriving back at the airport tarmac. “The engine ran out of fuel.” Grainger and his Border Collie Jade scrambled clear of the aircraft as it slid to a stop on the sage south of the runway, and they managed to get luggage out of the front and save his passport. “I lost my billfold, glasses and cell phone,... More About: Hard , High , Flies
A Dying Breed
More articles from this author:2007-09-30 15:49:00 It's easy for a young man like myself to surmise that sheep trialers are on whole an aged, if not aging breed. Their ranks are filled with people my parent's age and older, the best of the best collect more Social Security checks than they do oversized prize money checks at trials (not that such photo-op prizes are all that common, most big trials have very nice prizes of polished silver trophy cups, plaques, and belt buckles), and the Nursery division is for young dogs, not young handlers.Sheepdog trialing does not attract many young people, but handlers in their seventies are unexceptional.- Donald McCaig, The Dog Wars p23This isn't too surprising given what it takes to be competitive in this endeavor. You need abundant time to train yourself and your dog. You need sheep and lots of land. You need trucks and trailers and barns and pens and troughs and water and feed. What you don't own, you have to rent, be it in land or training skill, or sheep. All of these things require a ... More About: Dying , Breed 1, 2, 3, 4 |
|
 |
|
 |
