Hi there,

First of all, credit where credit is due. I have been a member for a little while now and love this board! There are precious few places a person can voice a frank opinion nowadays, and I appreciate and enjoy the conversations here- not to mention all the information ready to be absorbed.

Having said that, I will now put on my thick skin and ask my question. Has anyone out there ever trained/trialed a border collie in a protection sport?

The reason for the thick skin application is that I have just retired my 7 year old female bc from French Ring, and I am quite accustomed to the 'odd' looks I get when folks discover I'm doing this sport with her. While she is certainly not the first breed that springs to mind for Ring (lol) she gives it everything she has. I'm pretty convinced that if I had started her properly as a puppy she would have gone a lot farther than we did (unfortunately I didn't discover Ring until she was about 2 ys old.)

Which is the reason for my question- I would like to find the 'right' border collie and apply all that I've learned, just to see if it would work. As far as I know , there is one trialing bc in Puerto Rico, one in the US, none up here in Canada (since my girl retired), and one that apparently made it to Selectifs in France 2 years ago. (Might be mistaken- wouldn't be the 1st time.) If there are others in SchH/Ring/PSA I would love to hear about it. Thanks in advance for any info.

Heck yeah, there was a SchH III BC at the very first HOT trial in Texas years ago ( I think his name was Lugie, if I remember correctly ) handled by a lady from Arizona.
That BC had the fastest blind serach that I've ever seen, it was like light speed.

I haven't seen any BC's lately at trials, maybe folks from the other parts of the country can chip in here.

Is her name Kathy Luna? - anyway she had the Schh3 BC at the HOT trial, and also her "retired" Schh 3 female BC in the veteran obedience tournament! Louigi I think was the male BC. He was FAST, full of drive and seemed to love the sport! The bitework was all prey, he was not there to fight the man, but he did the required guards, barking, blind searches, bites and outs! It was a lot of fun to watch. There was a SchH3 yellow lab at the same HOT Tournament - he didn't do so well in the bitework, didn't know what to do when the helper really challenged him - he decided to leave. But, until the challenge he was doing a fine job as well. These dogs (the lab and the BC) were obviously working for the fun of it - there was no aggression, defense or fight in them. But, they could do the sport and do pretty well working in prey drive, and they were very fast, athletic and full of spirit.

How far did you get in ringsport? I would like to see that.

Corey, how are you? I've meant to call since I've come home, but with everything and all...as for seeing her BC work, I can attest to it's ability to do FR (I think she would of gone further if the decoy wore a white, wooly suit shouting BAAAA-d dog! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />Talk to you soon!

Molly,
Yep, her name was Kathy.
I don't remember a yellow lab in the competition at all, are you sure it was the first HOT contest?
The SchH III Doberman ( Lori J.'s dog ) failed to engage the helper, it just kept running around the blind going "Lalalalala...I can't see you..." until the Judge, Carla Griffth had to fail the dog. Man, was that a shame, that dog had great Ob and tracking scores going into the final phase. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Yes I remember that Doberman - very nice dog, and he did great in protection in training/warm up! Then as you said - ran 6 blinds beautifully. Including the 6th one with the man in it. Ran around it, then back around it, then back around it.... oh well.
The yellow lab was in the 2nd HOT Championships, sorry. It was Schh3 and had just won it's Regional Championships - whereever that was. Dog's name was Buddy, but registered under "Kody the Boy Wonder" handled by Harry Hamilton. I heard that the dog was also a Narcotics dog - anyway he got 99 in tracking, 93 obedience, ran all the blinds, hold/barked just fine, all obedience was wonderful, and he bit too! Outed - no problem - but came off during stick hits and when the helper challenged him, he literally stood there, obviously not knowing quite what to make of it. He was a yellow lab for goodness sake! He was there because it was fun, he was in play/prey and had no fight (my observation/opinion from what I saw) - he simply didn't have the instinct to engage in fight - maybe the stick hits were harder than he was used to - maybe the presence of the helper was more serious than he was used to. I enjoyed watching him work anyway, nice dog.

Thanks for the replies, all.

Will- I do so love any sentence that begins with a "heck ya!" My girl is pretty careful with her blind searches, but on a 40 meter face attack she's a little bolt of lightning. The bc from the Texas trial named Luigi- he was a SchH 3? Apparently they are having a go at Ring- he was at a trial in California in January.

Laurie- HEY GIRL!!! Thanks for the spanky comment! Talk to ya soon.

Jeff- Regrettaby she only got her Brevet. We trialed at Ring 1 this summer but by that time her age had caught up with her, and her canine teeth have worn down so the roots are exposed. When she started yelping while on the bite I decided to call it quits. Which is a TOTAL stinker because there's nothing wrong with her drive.

I would like an opportunity to have another go at training a bc in protection, and hopefully correct some of the mistakes I made with Barra. (hm..probably a whole new load of mistakes to be made..)

The little Austrailian Cattle Dog in our club just got her BH at a trial in NW Indy a couple of weeks ago. The Judge commented on her individually for her speed and excellent attitude. After she did a demo of the courage test there were lots of ooooos and aaaaas. Some of these little dogs have all the heart as any big dog. She has begun with a little stick work now and no way will that little s#!+ back off.

Yeah, you can't put a price on HEART! My little witch sort of fits the 'spirit is willing but the flesh is weak' category.

Probably just as well Cattle Dogs aren't any bigger than they are...most of 'em have enough bad a$$ attitude for 3 or 4 dogs... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />