"Lynn K." wrote in message
om...
"Shelly & The Boys" wrote in message
...

Will you be coming up for the National? I know that I am planning
to go down & watch some herding.

Great! I want to see the C course herding, too. I haven't seen the
schedule yet, but plan to enter Java in obed. & tracking (if
available). More than anything, it's a good excuse for me to visit an
old friend in Bend.

Excellent! I may end up helping in agility, if I don't have much
else going on (hard to say that time of year).
If you haven't been to Bend in some time, you'll be in for such a surprise!
It's grown SO much, even the past 10 years or so. There is a woman,
I'll be darned if I can remember her name (Cheryl, I think?) there that
has GSDs that does herding that I met this past fall at a trial. She's
got a couple of nice working GSDs in herding (show lines type dogs,
IIRC).
Anyway, I'm just very excited to watch C course. They had it at our
(The BSD) National last year in Pennsylvania, and there were a few
entries. But, unfortunately, there's no facility near enough to do so
this year.
I remember asking a friend about B course once, and if it would
be at the National. She laughed, and I wasn't sure why, since I'd
only ever watch B course once (all entries, save for one ACD and
one Terv were Border Collies). She said, "No, no, A course means
'All-breed', B course means 'Border Collie', and C course means
'Continental'." I felt sort of silly, and never asked her if that was
the *real* reason why they were called that, but I thought she was joking.
Shelly & The Boys

Christy try this link it will tell you lots you definitely need to know.
Good Luck http://www.homestead.com/bulldogswor...DOGSWORLD.html
"Christy" wrote in message
...

"Tracy Custer" wrote in message
...
OK, I am a lurker and sometimes poster to this group, and I've come to
learn both here and elsewhere the telltale signs of a backyard or "puppy
mill" breeder: 1)breeding several to many different breeds of dogs
2)no health testing of breeding stock 3)not "showing", competing, and
proving merit of the breeding stock 4)breeding and offering for sale
many, many litters each year 5)not standing by the pups enough to
offer a "lifetime" guarantee to take them back.......the list goes on
and on.

Well, I came upon a kennel site tonight that really has me confused as
to their motives. They breed 3 different breeds - BCs, cattle dogs, rat
terriers (bad), but they report some serious health testing/certs
including OFAs, prcds, hearing, etc. (good). But they appear to be
offering many litters at once (bad). They also seem to show and go for
championships on their breeding stock (good), and screen potential
buyers thoroughly (also good). So what's the verdict on this breeder?
Check out the site at http://www.callmefarms.com/index2.htm I am a
rescuer of australian cattle dogs, and really wish everyone would stop
breeding them so I can catch up ! So perhaps I am a bit biased. But
what, beyond the aforementioned criteria, determines a legitimate,
quality breeder?

I'm super picky, and these folks don't seem to be the most horrible
(though
the working BC folks will definitely disagree) but I personally would not
obtain a dog from them. For one thing, they offer "breeding with
professional studs and dames" which makes no sense (and has an atrocious
spelling error) unless they are offering to actually oversee a breeding of
dogs they don't own? I also don't like to see dogs being sold at two
different prices, one for limited registration and higher for open
registration - that screams "here, start backyard breeding for just a few
hundred more!!" I could also find nothing that indicated what their health
guarantees and contracts were like.
On the other hand, they are doing health testing, though there were only a
few BCs in the OFA registry and nothing on the rat terriers.
I dunno - better than most, but not the best, would be my off the cuff
rating.

Christy