To us humans its sport / hobby but to the collies its work, make no mistake

All the disciplines mentioned have some element or another in the traditional job of working sheep, Obedience in terms of concentration and control is a must, Agility - stamina, distance work as well as close work, even many obstacles are comparable - dogs jumping styles or pens = jumps, climbing steep and sometimes narrow rocky and possibly unstable areas = contact equipment, Flyball for send away and return.
I`m talking about daily sheep working, not just the competition herding people usually only get to see on the telly which does`nt show the general public how much more there is to it.
If anyone has seen `The Year of the Working Sheepdog` the comparable elements involved are more than clear.
[ The DVD is a must for all collie lovers ! http://www.isds.org.uk/shop/index.htm ].

Many collies can`t work sheep for many reasons, all too often being sold off farms into pet homes on estates in the middle of towns where grass is rare enough and the nearest the dogs would get to a sheep is sitting by the freezer containing the latest stuff from Iceland or Tesco`s ! ], to people who think the dogs are all born ready trained

The simple fact is that most collies [ and other dogs ], *need* something to do which the dogs themselves consider their `job` regardless of the human perception of whether its a job or not.

So with the above in mind, my dogs and their `jobs` [ jobs as far as my dogs are concerned and its their `opinion` which matters as far as I`m concerned ]:

Defa, competes in agility and is the best teacher in the world for my students. He is now 12 years old. I did retire him at the end of 2005 from competing but he decided otherwise so he can continue for as long as he wants to provided he is up to it physically and when he is`nt up to it physically I`ll modify things so he can still do something of it to keep him happy and his brain active.
His years doing agility are why he is so fit and flexible at his age now. To quote my vet he`s like a dog half his age physically, and thats with him never having been pushed and pushed because I don`t believe in over-training or over `working` dogs.

Gremlin, she does have a `proper` job as hearing dog to my deaf dogs. She is scared of sheep but has the working attributes with regards to turning my other dogs, bringing them to me, doing obedience elements at distance [ for instance its very useful to have a dog like her who will wait on cue while Defa stops for a pee and must`nt lose sight of her or would otherwise have to stop mid pee to keep up ! ], speeds up and slows down on cue, changes direction on cue, [ same as dogs working sheep need to be able to do instantly ], and so much more.
She is also an excellent guard dog and still enjoys SAR type exercises - she would have been a fantastic working SAR dog but for her age when I got her being a factor in terms of the length of training time to retirement time however she already had the basics for that in place naturally and did save a toddlers life many years ago due to a mix of her natural aptitude and the fine tuning I had done with her just because she enjoyed doing it so much.
She is now almost 11 years old and retirement is`nt in her mindset.

Willow, with his deafness, poor sight, human fear aggression due to sickeningly horrific abuse, and the teeny fact that he considers sheep to just be odd looking dogs whose presence is of no interest to him, a traditional job was never possible but boy would he have made a sensational sniffer dog. So I do set up sniffer exercises for him, [ drop a crumb on a beach and he`ll find it :smt043 ], and we did have a private invite to go to the DAC to hone his skills but the distance from where I lived made it impossible unfortunately. He naturally did something right from the start which most working sniffers have to train a lot on - making a `find`, indicating it, then backing up and waiting rather than ripping in to things to get the item.

Silk, she is training in agility and will be doing flyball for which she has already shown a huge aptitude and again, she will continue doing those for as long as she has the health and the drive when she is older and same as for Defa, I`ll just modify things or her when any element is not in her best interests to continue with in `standard` format.

Fluke is my Lurcher and no he does`nt work in that regard, he has no interest in chasing small furries. I consider hunting to be abhorrent anyway so I`m more than happy about his lack of willing or ability for that particular `job`. He is half collie and his brain is definately collie predominant so he does have a very collie need for mental stimulation and opportunities to learn new things. He also loves agility and has a lovely aptitude for HTM so those are his things to do.

In all cases, my dogs are not doing `traditional` jobs but to them they are getting to use their brains and any natural aptitude they have for their particular areas of expertise and interest, so in their minds - the ones which count - they are indeed `working`

They will continue to do their `jobs` for as long they are willing and able. They are companions to me and each other regardless of whether they can do any activities and regardless of how good [ or not ! ] they might be at them so long as they are enjoying life, and that goes for all my dogs of any age, past, present and future.

How ever anyone else views my dogs` activities is totally irrelevent to me. I`m the one living with them and who does`nt want stressed out dogs climbing the walls with sheer boredom just because they were not suited to their `traditional` jobs.

Quite frankly I believe there would be far less dogs of all breeds and mixes ending up in rescues for being hyper destructive nutters just because owners did`nt give their dogs some direction and opportunities at fun hobbies / sport and because some people don`t realise the massive importance of, [ and even look down their noses at ], the mental and physical well being of the dogs doing these activites, [ which the dogs consider their jobs ], of Obedience, Flyball, Agility and HTM.

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why would anyone moan? Good luck to you both, I am sure you will do just fine, especially with one of Julias.

Great photos all. I have just touched base with a gundog trainer who has suggested I ring him re working Willow. I must say that I am a bit squeamish about it but I know she would love it. I'll keep you all informed!

I always love seeing the photo's of your dogs working Dawn!!
Love the pics everyone else has posted too.

Moobli - I love the expression on your dogs face in those pics!!

Thanks Hevvur, she loves her work, so do the others, but they tend to stick to true terrier work, Breeze is very versatile.
Dawn.

She's a lovely type, best of luck with her, the link you posted has some super dogs there.
Dawn.

I have two working police dogs

A seven year old yellow lab bitch called Saf trained in explosive detection. A four year old Malinois called Blade trained as a Tactical firearms dog, and a four month GSD puppy called Otto who will hopefully become a police dog when he grows up.

I also have a ten year old GSD Jed who was my police dog he has been retired now for about three years, and to finish it off a four year old parsons terrier Millie who although is a pet is a dab hand at hunting

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This is Blade a Malinois four years old and Otto a four month old GSD

I certainly don't have anything against people enjoying obedience, flyball, agility etc with their collies and I have no doubt that the dogs themselves love these activities. I still don't see it as "work" though, sorry.

Also, interesting that the dvd you mention (which I do have, it's fab!) was made by David Kennard who refuses to sell any pups he breeds to anything other than working homes - ie working sheep.

One thing I am afraid I really don't like about agility and flyball is how hyper and noisy the dogs are before their round You never see sheepdogs going bonkers at trials. Just an observation.

Shame the pic is so small, but your dogs look fab. I wonder if you know a mate of mine from Lancs Police - Steve Dawson?