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!!