Personally I think there is some merit to the idea that there's differences between show dogs and working dogs. It's probably not a coincidence that most of the working ranch/farm dogs seem to be either Border Collies, Australian Shepherds or Australian Cattle Dogs, not Collies or Shelties. I wouldn't however take it anywhere near the extreme that Cali states it. Oz is from a show dog breeder and he's as smart as a whip. I get comments from his agility trainers, about his smartness and asking me if he's from working stock. I've no doubt I could train him to do whatever was necessary on a farm. The caveat though is that we'd both have to be taking a midday nap. I don't see the drive and energy in him that I would expect from a working dog, which is great in my mind. He's a suburban dog. I couldn't live with him, if he had that level of drive. Most of us would probably be driven insane by actual working dogs.

I do get a lil' concerned though, when the main focus of Collie breeders seems to be how their head looks. I think if we really want to see more focus put on ability not just looks, the show format needs to be changed. Maybe it needs to be more like a beauty pageant, where there's a talent section. So dogs would get so many points for looks and structure, but then also points for demonstrating their ability to perform their actual function, like herding. It'd make dog shows more fun to watch IMO. Ah well, just a thought.

Par...