Breeder Impressions

[agilityk9trainer]

OH MY STARS!! WELCOME AGILITYK9TRAINER!!!! OH PT'Rs she has the most amazing agility shelties- WELCOME WELCOME!!
That is amazing you see the opposite of smaller shelties verses larger ones. You attend alot more agility trails that I do, and your observation would be more the norm than the my observations would be in this area. Also, the flyball competitions they just broadcasted had some awfully big shelties. Do you find flyball teams using bigger shelties or smaller ones?

We don't have much flyball in my area of the country. As far as I know, there are no shelties on the teams we do have. I have had some people ask me to have Aslan join their teams, as they love to have the fast, small dogs on their teams. The small dogs set the jump heights, so having a small dog on your team means the jump heights for the entire team are lower. Right now, I have no interest in flyball, although I encourage my students who do it to continue in the sport. I can see why it's a big draw for many dog owners.

[borzoimom]

Good point about the jump height with a smaller team member. !

[wolfsoul]

Welcome agilityk9trainer! My best friend breeds shelties. She just had a litter early this year.

These are her dogs' pics, attached..
The blue merle is Can Ch ptd JewelsGlow's Absolute No-No, "Taboo," taken when she was 2 years old. The tri is Sirona's Right on Target, "Arwyn," when she was 5 months. The sable is Jo-Ro's Just in Time AgMX MADC, "Justin." Taboo just finished her agility and obedience lessons and will be competing next year as well as finishing her CH (just two more points!). Arwyn is going to start her show career next year. Justin is almost completely deaf now but he only needs one more leg before he has his ATChC, so Kelly is going to try him one more time before he retires.

She also has a little sheltie that was given to her years ago -- her name is Rosie, and she's maybe 5 pounds. I'll see if I can dig up a pic of her too.

[wolfsoul]

Here's Rosie, and a couple more pics of the others..Arwyn was just a baby (she's 10 months now) and the other puppy with Taboo is Arwyn's brother, Leader. He's going to go oversize, he's already a quarter of an inch away from 16 inches at ten months.

[agilityk9trainer]

Wolfsoul,

Beautiful shelties! Thanks for posting the pics. Glad to see your friend is active not only in conformation, but in performance as well. I loved the registered names matched with their call names! Very creative.

Borzoimom, thanks for the kind words.

As far as pure breed vs. mixed - this does depend on what you want to do with your dog. I want to show in agility in the AKC. I must have a pure bred. In addition, getting a pup from a known breeder of performance lines will GREATLY enhance that dog's chance of success in agility. As many of us live in areas where we are limited to the number of dogs we can own (I can only have four in my city), I need to be sure that the dogs I get can handle the stress of performance, And, for dogs who don't have the emotional constitution to handle the stress, showing becomes almost abusive. My two shelties come from a performance breeder. They were bred to be high-drive, working dogs who can handle the stresses of competition. And, they LOVE it. My rescued American Eskimo, on the other hand, loves agility but HATES to compete. The stress of the show ring is too much for her. She was bred by a BYB.

Now, I'm limited to only one more dog. I plan on getting that puppy in about 18 months. As a professional agility instructor, I am, fairly or unfairly, judged by my dogs' performance in the ring. I really need a good working dog, and my best bet to find that dog is to go back to my performance breeder.

Of course, I'm not saying all rescues are bad agility dogs. I know tons of great agility rescues. But, I know just as many rescues that couldn't handle the stress. I'm just saying your chances of getting a good performance dog from a performance breeder are better than your chances of getting a good performance dog from rescue.

However, were I not showing, you can bet all my dogs would be rescues!!

[borzoimom]

Well- I would still have Borzois. And I want sound genetics so probably still back to a breeder. However- with Femka- we took her. If not showing, they would probably still be show quality dogs. But its hard to say for sure- I haven't crossed that bridge yet.
My real guess is my next Borzoi will be Galinas son or daughter. ( I keep saying "or"... lol verses "and"..)