Border collies

mrv

It is odd in some ways that the BCs and aussies stay lean and agile in the dogs that are "job bred" where in malinois the "job bred" dogs are bigger and heavier.

 

Well there is no accounting for what will become trendy in any given breed's conformation ring. Super coat? Loooong heads? Excessive bone? Light bone? Excessive rear angulation? How about almost no rear angulation? Who knows?! I doubt people foreseen show GSDs looking the way they currently do, even when they started to be selected towards it.

 I think it is because of the difference in the job. People tend to like heavier, more powerful dogs (to a degree) for protection sports. For herding a lighter boned, more agile dog may get the job done a bit better. Also working bred BCs or Aussies usually tend to be all BC or Aussie...

Hello! Reviving this thread just kinda to say hi. Successful working Border Collies come in a very wide range of physical body types. It's amazing to watch an event like the North American Sheepdog Finals, where 150 dogs complete the same difficult course. But the dogs have no common characteristic you could point to and say, that is what makes all these dogs able to do this. Because whatever you picked, most likely the very next dog coming off the field would prove you wrong. :) On the other hand, there is most definitely a standard of mental and physical soundness that is necessary. A cool head is probably the dog's most valuable asset after actual innate herding skillsets. I'll sttart posting vids of my youngest in training soon. He's a year old and is advancing about twice as fast as Ted because he's always thinking, not blindly reacting. And yet the moment he understands what needs to be done, he's off like an arrow from a longbow. He also is far more relaxed when necessary. His breeding is a good bit closer to true farm work than Ted's, though there are plenty of competitive laurels among his family tree - and the honors get more significant among his immediate relatives rather than less so.