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Recent Battles
Queen Victoria
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Juicing The Sheep
09 April 2009 11:11 AM | No CommentsThe Journal of Queen Victoria Thursday, October 21, 1868 “Juicing the Sheep“ At a quarter to twelve I drove off with Louise and Leopold in the waggonette up to near the “Bush” (the residence of William Brown, the farmer) to see them “juice the sheep.”...
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Queen Victoria’s Border Collies
26 January 2009 4:40 AM | 18 CommentsFor well over a century the “Collie” name has been co-opted by show breeders who have created a monster whose face looks like a door stop with beady eyes set in triangular slits. These same people have co-opted the notion that Queen Victoria was deeply...
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Show Me the Collie
22 January 2009 3:38 AM | 1 CommentHaving established that Queen Victoria’s direct influence on the proliferation of the show Collie is insubstantial at best, let’s explore what impact the Monarchy may have, in fact, had on the culture of dogs during her reign. Five. If the show Collie owes more to...
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The Queen and the Collie
20 January 2009 2:57 AM | 2 CommentsThe old wisdom on the rise of the show Collie is that Queen Victoria met them on a trip to Scotland in the 1860s, became infatuated, acquired them, sponsored them in shows, bred them, and her abundant trend-setting prowess lead to their bountiful rise to...
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The Victorian Collie Myth
19 January 2009 8:03 PM | 5 CommentsThe prevailing creation myth among show Collie enthusiasts is that Queen Victoria’s infatuation with the breed set the ball in motion, elevating the humble farm dog to aristocratic splendor. Queen Victoria saw her first Collies in the 1860′s, and she enthusiastically began to sponsor them,...
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Juicing The Sheep
Archive for December, 2008
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2008 In Review
Posted on December 31, 2008 | No CommentsHere are some fast stats about the Border Wars Blog over the last year: Days in Production: 4972008 Posts: 102Total Unique Visitors: 40,011Returning Visitors: 4,433Feed Readers: 55E-mail Readers: 10Followers: 8Blog Reactions: 36 It’s flattering that my regular readership has grown from 15 a year ago... -
Capturing the Spoils
Posted on December 31, 2008 | 1 Commentreprint from 10/7/2007 Although the Border Wars are appropriately framed as a fight between the ABCA and the AKC, the Wars are wrongly categorized as a fight over Border Collies or “the future of the breed.” The true spoils of war aren’t dogs, but people.... -
Spoils of the Dog War
Posted on December 30, 2008 | 8 Commentsreprint from 10/7/07 The small elite group of conformation breeders are Platonists; they believe that the substantive reality of Border Collies is only a reflection of a higher truth, and their activity is the key to divining that perfect essence. The small elite group of... -
The Dewclaw Debate
Posted on December 30, 2008 | 1 CommentOf all the procedures that are commonly performed on puppies, the dewclaw removal has to be the least controversial. It’s certainly the most minor procedure with the fewest complications and it offers decent benefits. None of the common amputations (ear cropping, tail docking, dewclaw removal)... -
Police Dog Fail
Posted on December 28, 2008 | No CommentsI suppose they don’t use Border Collies for police work because they’re simply not vicious enough and aren’t known for their bite. Or perhaps they’re too high strung for intense urban assault situations. Or maybe, like this police dog, they just like to play too... -
All Hail Cesar
Posted on December 27, 2008 | No CommentsThere are many dog wars that I simply don’t care much about. If you’re going to fight, you should probably fight for a cause that you have a stake in and if you are going to write persuasively, then you should probably pick a behavior... -
Redemption: Eyes Open and Crying
Posted on December 26, 2008 | 3 Commentsreprint from 12/17/2007 I’m not a bleeding heart type. Most people would consider me an asshole. I speak my mind, call it like I see it with no regard for PC pleasantries, and I make an effort to clean my own house before I bitch... -
The Future Language of Dog
Posted on December 25, 2008 | No CommentsThe Ancient, Modern, and Future Language of “Dog.” Part 1. The Ancient. Wherein the Author describes the Border War between Linguists on the history of the proto-word for “Dog.” Part 2. The Modern. Wherein the Author describes Dog’s omnipresence in modern language.Part 3. The Future.... -
Killing for a Myth
Posted on December 25, 2008 | 1 Commentreprint from 2/24/2008 In my recent correspondence with a pet rescuer who has yet to embrace No-Kill, I saw firsthand the phenomenon that Nathan Winograd discusses in Redemption: that we hear so much about pet overpopulation, but has anyone seen it? The e-mailer wrote: [Shelters]... -
The Modern Language of Dog
Posted on December 24, 2008 | No CommentsThe Ancient, Modern, and Future Language of “Dog.” Part 1. The Ancient. Wherein the Author describes the Border War between Linguists on the history of the proto-word for “Dog.”Part 2. The Modern. Wherein the Author describes Dog’s omnipresence in modern language. Part 3. The Future....
Queen Victoria's Border Collies