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This is true, but along the way a great deal of versatility has been bred in. The strictly trial dog, and the strictly trial handler, are using only a tiny part of the abilities that characterize the Border Collie.
The breed probably started as many sheepdog breeds, as the guardian of both flock and farm, and was used later to move sheep from place to place. But the small farmer or shepherd had many other uses for a dog, and if he could use one dog for all these purposes he didn't need to feed several. So the farm dog caught rats in the barn, provided companionship on the lonely moors, and even went hunting with his master. It is pretty well understood that both whippets and setters/pointers were used in the early development of the breed.
Glyn Jones, in his training book, refers to his father breeding the sheepdogs with whippets or "lurchers" so that they could help poach game, mainly rabbits, on the protected estate property. Marjorie Quarton talks of sheepdogs used as gun dogs, even in recent times. Eric Halsall describes the work of the hill dog in Yorkshire and Scotland, locating, by scent, sheep buried in the snow after a storm. Unlike some breeds, such as hounds, the working herding dog must work closely with his handler; the ability to form a close, affectionate, cooperative relationship, the ability to learn to understand human speech, have also bred into the dog over all these years.
All of these things are part of the modern Border Collie. All these things make it not only rewarding, but perfectly legitimate, to use the breed for a wide variety of activities. Their speed and athletic ability make them excel at Agility and Fly Ball. Their sharp eye for movement (from the "sight hound" whippet ancestry?) makes them take to Frisbee-catching with enthusiasm and talent. Both Tracking and Search-and-Rescue make use of the same scenting ability that finds sheep buried in snow banks. The communicative nature of the breed makes them wonderful for Obedience; it also makes them wonderful "Companion Animals," for anyone who is willing to put a little effort into the relationship.
There is no need to breed special lines of Obedience, Agility, or Tracking Border Collies. Breeding from working families remains the route to all of these activities, as well as to improving the breed as a working sheepdog. It is easy to see sheepdog trials as a just another form of recreation, as no different from any of these other competitive activities, and perhaps there is some truth in that. But the most important use of the Border Collie, the one to which we must all feel ultimately responsible, is the real working farm job. There is work around livestock that simply can't be done without a real working dog. All of us who use the Border Collie for any other purpose, in the end, must always see the breed as belonging, in a sense, to the true working shepherd.
So I hope I made it clear that all of you out there who want to do something else than herding sheep, you’re also welcome to visit our kennel, as long a you are willing to activate your dog. And letting the dog live the life he or she was made for, and they are certainly not made to live their life`s as a couch potato
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