Friday, April 27, 2007

Whats in a name?


As the owner of two border collie's, I found this article very interesting...

One hundred years ago, in the border country between Scotland and England, the border collie was the humble shepherd's best friend. The dog is still blazingly fast and super-smart. And those are the only facts many fanciers can agree on. The border collie is now at the centre of a David-and-Goliath struggle for rightful registration -- and job description. On one side is the Canadian Border Collie Association (CBCA), the only group allowed to register the dog as a purebred in Canada, with maybe 500 members and one stubborn criterion -- to judge border collies on their sheep-herding abilities. On the other is the 25,000-member Canadian Kennel Club (CKC), which represents almost all purebred breeds in Canada, but not the border collie. The CKC has now been asked by some of the breed's aficionados to bring it into the fold, which would, however, mean dogs being judged solely by CKC standards of looks, agility and obedience, and not sheepherding abilities -- something the CBCA says will ruin the breed.

The current tussle is due to the efforts of a group of border collie owners who want their pets to take part in agility and obedience competitions, which they currently organize privately. Miffed that such contests are anathema to the CBCA, and that they can't show their animals at CKC events, they demanded that the CKC poll its membership about taking in the border collie. If the CKC does so, it would be in a miscellaneous grouping, which is not full recognition. But that would mean border collies not only being allowed to take part in CKC sporting competitions, but also pretty, so-called "Barbie collies" being shown in so-called conformation classes, where dogs are judged only on their beauty and correctness of form. That will spell the end of the border collie as a working dog, says Amanda Milliken, an owner of champion herding border collies in Kingston, Ont. Nonsense, says Paula Elson, an obedience petitioner. Already the battle is "nasty, nasty," Elson says, citing a number of accusatory emails from someone called "The Shepherd." And when the polling ends on April 15, it's bound to get worse.

In Vancouver, UBC psychology professor, dog lover, and author Stanley Coren, while admitting that judging certain breeds on conformation alone had ruined them, gets irritated when he is presented with such an exclusive view. "Dogs exist for a whole bunch of reasons," he says. "We have working dogs, service dogs, pet dogs; we can create whatever the hell we want, and we do." It is important that border collies be registered with the CKC, he says. If they're not, "their visibility drops and fewer people get to know about them and that, to me, is a sin."

Article courtesy of Barbara Righton, Apr 9, 2007, McLeans Magazine. To read the full article, go to: http://www.macleans.ca/homepage/magazine/article.jsp?content=20070409_104108_104108

Sunday, April 22, 2007

The teacher and the student

You always look up to those you admire most...

Puppy Diaries

One week without any accidents in the house! I think we can say Calivin is officially toilet trained. The house has been cleaned and the furniture restored to its rightful place. And a form of sanity has returned to the household, what a relief!

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Happy 10th anniversary

Today the wife and I have been living in the Beach for 10 years! It all started with a tiny one bedroom apartment on Queen street. And when I say tiny, I mean it was really only 2 rooms, a bedroom/bathroom combination and a living room/kitchen combo (the kitchen was so small our fridge was in the living room). There was a great deck which over looked the lake in the winter, but in the summer when the leaves filled in the trees that great view of the lake disappeared. Unfortunately we could only use the deck in the summer. That place lasted a year. Then we moved into the house next door. Two bedrooms, a dining room, living room, separate kitchen and a sun room to boot! Too bad the landlord turned out to be one of the biggest slumlords in the area. But we did live there for four years until they tried to evict us because they wanted to raise the rent. That was the best kick in the ass ever. Because of those scumbags, we were forced to move. And move we did, into the house we bought down the street. And here we have lived happily ever after since 2001. Happy anniversary to us! As far as I'm concerned we couldn't of picked a better neighbourhood to live in for the last 10 years! Here's to 10 more years!!