Champis, the Swedish herding rabbit.

Move over Barbie Collies, there’s a new herder in town that is adorably small, has perfect ear set and has a decidedly fluffy butt.  And he’s not a show Border Collie from Australia, he’s a rabbit from Sweden.

Nils-Eric and Greta employ their granddaughter Hanna’s rabbit named “Champis” on their farm in Käl, Sweden to help herd their sheep. It appears that Champis learned to herd sheep–complete with heading, heeling, eye, and clapping behaviors–from their Border Collie, but this video shows that Champis gets along just fine all by himself and the sheep respect his authority.

"With a rabbit like Champis, who needs a dog?"

Frankly, I’m amazed that the rabbit seems to know what the shepherd wants, just like the Border Collies do; for example, he runs to cut the sheep off from re-entering the barn and he even makes a valiant effort to bring back a sheep that has gone stray, and he’s perfectly willing to stare down a bull headed woolly.

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Read the continuing adventures of Champis the herding rabbit (named after a Swedish soft drink) and his Border Collie friends “Gimmie” and “Fame” on the Gårdsbackens blogg.

This is not an apple, it's a pipe.

It is the nature of Evolution and the human mind to repurpose what exists into what could be: to innovate, experiment, and sometimes to improve. The fate of such change is almost always failure–99.9 % of all species to ever have lived are extinct and 95% of new businesses fail within 5 years–but occasionally unplanned, unimagined, and even unwanted uses and abilities surpass the ability, potential, or popularity of the original.

This isn’t a simple re-purposing, such as using an apple or corncob to create a pipe; such uses don’t surpass the original nor are they particularly exemplary in their new form.  Though I couldn’t resist bringing surrealist painter René Magritte into this thought stream by combining two of his images which both ask about the fundamental nature of reality, representation, symbolism and existential identity.

In branding, especially in branding dogs, I think the community is way too hung up on the past–and often an artificial past–in how we define and value our dogs. We turn them into symbols and representations and we place the story over the existential truth.

Conformation shows are very much about the painting of the pipe versus the pipe itself. The goal of a painting is to exhibit the skill of the artist, not to make a superior pipe. The painting just has to LOOK like a wonderful pipe. Then, as artists are want to do, trends and abuses turn into movements and in some epochs the art is realist, even romantic, other times it’s impressionistic and then downright absurd.

Conformation is all about the change, never about performance.

The trialists are also absorbed in the past, but in a different way; they are fundamentally against the evolution and repurposing of dogs. They find value in the antique nature of the breed and revel in stasis and reenactment. While a performance standard does speak to an existential truth (and this is why we don’t see the grotesque distortions we find from conformation artists), it doesn’t prevent the performance task from becoming obsolete or surpassed in popularity.

Trials are all about performance, never about change.

So what happens when we don’t constrain either of those variables and take a measure of what is produced in an existential, realist, and measured manner?

The Internet is for social networking and porn.

The Internet was funded by the Department of Defense for use by the military.  National defense and elite scholarship were the original use and designing factors governing its design.  Now, the military and elite institutions are taking more and more of their networks offline and spend fortunes putting up barriers to those that are still connected to the Internet.

In reality, the Internet is primarily for social networking and pornography, not national defense or scholarship.  An impartial observer who was not indoctrinated in what the Internet is supposed to be or what it was in the past would hardly notice the national defense and scholarship aspects and would declare it to be a massive undertaking which people use to convince others that they are having lots of sex followed closely by actually viewing images and videos of strangers pretending to have lots of sex.

Last year, social networking surpassed pornography as the most popular use of the internet and more social networking activity takes place over the Internet than any other outlet.  Likewise, pornography is the second most common use of the Internet and more people get their pornography over the Internet than any other source.

These are unintended and arguably unwanted developments in the use of the Internet, but the reflexive superiority of the task and the platform  are undeniable.  It’s not for education or defense, it’s for social wish fulfillment and fantasy.

Love and other drugs: Viagra and Ecstasy are far more popular for carnal pursuits than for their original medical uses.

While we’re on the subject of unexpected innovation for purposes of initiating or aiding sexual activity, here are three examples of other tools (all pharmaceuticals in this case) which have surpassed their initial use in pursuit of that goal.  Viagra was developed specifically to treat hypertension and angina, with zero thought or design given to a secondary use as an erection inducer.  It wasn’t until the drug made it to human trials that it was found to be useless for angina but effective for increasing blood flow to the penis.  That is now its primary use and it is the primary drug prescribed for that condition.

Methylenedioxymethamphetamine was first synthesized a century ago as an intermediary product in part of a Merck plot to plagiarize a successful Bayer drug used to treat hemorrhages.  Its psychotropic effects wouldn’t be appreciated for another six decades after it had been investigated as an appetite suppressant and decongestant like Ephedrine, and later as an analog to Mescaline in a study done by the US Army.  MDMA found its way to the streets by the 1970s and soon into the basket of drugs offered to patients by psychotherapists. Ecstasy was classified as a Schedule I controlled substance by the mid 1980s, but that didn’t prevent its rise to prominence as a recreational drug second only to Marijuana in popularity, passing Cocaine and Heroin as drug-of-choice for first illicit drug experience.

Latisse is a far more popular cosmetic than it was a medical treatment.

Bimatoprost (“Lumigan”) was a rather unremarkable member of a family of drugs (prostaglandins) used to treat glaucoma until it was discovered that a side effect of the drug was the darkening and thickening of the eyelashes.  Rebranded as “Latisse” the drug is now FDA approved for cosmetic use and is being sold as a beauty product.  Its value as a cosmetic has already far surpassed its use as a medicinal drug.  It is the only drug approved for cosmetic eyelash enhancement, so it currently dominates a much larger market than its previous incarnation as one of many treatments for hypertension in the eye.

This is not a phone. It's a clock with some extra features.

Perhaps the most obvious approachable and active nursery for useage drift is the cell phone.  It’s hardly a phone any more, as by any measure what used to be subordinate bonus features are now vastly more popular than the once sole raison d’être of the phone: to make voice calls.  Teens send 6 times as many text messages as phone calls and even the least likely to text adults still use that feature more than dialing calls.  The most popular use of the device is actually to tell the time though, and the ubiquity of cell phones has made the wrist watch an increasingly obsolete tool.  Applications and Games have recently surpassed Internet browsing and e-mail as the largest share of data bandwidth and now people spend more time listening to music on their phone than making phone calls.

We might call it a phone, but that’s hardly its main use anymore.  While there are still single purpose phones in the world, their use is dropping like a stone and the number of cellphone only households has surpassed the number of landline only households and the recession has caused many dual-phone households to ditch their landline to save money.  The landline will likely live on, but only at a fraction of its previous popularity and in instances where the downside of cell phones (reliability, battery driven) make them impractical.

A dog is what you make of it and more people are making sport dogs than working dogs.

All of these tools were manipulated by man into filling a niche use.  So too is the dog a man-adapted tool that has been continually manipulated to fill existing and new human niches.

So what IS a Border Collie then? By far its most popular use is as a pet. Not only does this use easily make up more than 90% of Border Collies, they are quite successful and good pets–easily a Top 10 breed and perhaps as high as Top 5.  This has probably been the case for over a century going right back to the very founding days of the breed as a trial dog. It’s an undeniable truth that despite having the goal of creating winning trial dogs, the majority of puppies in a litter never stepped on a trial field.  This is true for all competitive endeavors, it’s just that all the hype and branding comes from the minority use.

Among the fraction of Border Collies that are trained and compete, there are many times more Border Collies who play Frisbee, Flyball, Agility, and Obedience than have ever entered a sheep or cattle trial; and their ability in all these venues is exemplary.  There isn’t another breed that can hold a candle to the Border Collie at dog sports, they are so dominant that they have been given a Border Collies Only division to compete in.  Participation and growth in dog sports is robust and although some performance events started as a side show to conformation shows, they are now independently sustainable and there are numerous organizations that organize dog sport events that have no connection to and compete directly with the AKC.

This isn’t a “paradigm shift” in the formal sense, as the sport dog in no way precludes the use of the “working” dog despite surpassing it in popularity.  I’ve been accused of putting dog sport Border Collies forth as “the new paradigm” but I make no such claim. Not only is ‘paradigm’ so over-used as to be meaningless, the original definition required a true revolution in understanding such that the use or way of thinking before the shift was eclipsed and supplanted (think “the earth is flat” to “the earth is round;” when you accept the latter, the former is meaningless).

Sport dogs and working dogs can co-exist and the value of the breed stock is not mutually exclusive.  Creating pet and sport Border Collies is not a revolution, it’s a concurrent evolution.  The reality is such though, that the market and demands of the sport world are larger and more intricate than the working breeders can provide.  Thus, breeders can and will continue to breed to a sport and pet standard despite the moral cries from the sheeple that they should not do so.

This is not speculative advocacy on my part, projecting what I wish the reality were, it is a simple observation of the extant truth.

We know that ancient man was picking his teeth with small sticks at the exact same time he began to domesticate the wolf.

The modern toothpick began as a utilitarian tool used by the native Brazilians to clean their teeth. The idea to mass produce these twigs–which had theretofore been whittled by hand–came to a marketing genius named Charles Foster who witnessed their utility and decided he could “sell ice to the Eskimos” by bringing machined and standardized toothpicks to the Brazilians and the world. Today, Brazil exports more toothpicks than any other nation.

While there’s no evidence that chimps cultivated wolves as animal companions, the bond between humans and canids does extend back to our very origins. It is likely that after proto-man held that scrap of meat in the fire with a proto-toothpick, he threw the scraps to his proto-dog. And like the toothpick, dogs were crudely hewn objects of utility before they were standardized by the whims of fashion.

Though readily promoted by manufacturers, usage drift is more often created by consumers of a product. People are natural inventors, and they are constantly finding new uses for common objects of all kinds. The best ideas propagate quickly through the culture and then become embraced by manufacturers as their own. Before there were Q-tips, young mothers wrapped a bit of cotton around the point of a toothpick and used it to clean out baby’s ears and nose. This practice came to be recommended by ladies’ magazines and advice columnists, and led to the invention of the Q-tip itself.

At first, the hard wooden stick terminating in soft cotton swabs suggested the toothpick connection, but today’s Q-tip disguises its origins with a white paper body that blends almost seamlessly into the swab ends. The latest supply of Q-tips bought for our bathroom goes even further in removing the product from its ancestry and infancy. Except perhaps for the ironic admonition to “Keep out of reach of children,” there is no hint on the package that these were once made exclusively for babies. On this “vanity pack,” Q-tips are described as “the ultimate beauty tool.”

Thus, products that result from usage drift over time can ultimately assume an identity that gives little hint of their true origins and once-primary use. The mass-produced wooden toothpick that Charles Forster introduced to Boston in the 1860s has given rise to countless fads, uses, and spinoff products, all of which ultimately owe their existence to his marketing genius, whether we realize it or not.

- Henry Petroski, Stick Figure, Slate 10/31/3007

The process where a technology evolves from the early adopters into the majority often involves friction between the elite early adopters who covet their history with the technology and the exclusivity they have enjoyed. This is evident in the Border Collie world where those who use the dogs strictly for “work” claim to be the inheritors of the storied old ways and the comparatively new adopters who don’t herd or who see herding as a sport rather than a religion are blasphemous corrupters.

I see the broadening appeal of the Border Collie as another example of usage drift. Just like the toothpick, the Border Collie is a technology that has been shaped by growing popularity and changes in fashion. And just like the Border Collie, there is no “ideal” toothpick, despite the brand name that suggests otherwise.

Despite being a rather simple piece of technology, the toothpick comes in many forms and serves several uses. The tapered tooth pick, single pointed or double, barrel shaped for easy dispensing, or the broad flat Jordan for easy manipulation. Smooth, rough, or wax coated; dyed, painted or lacquered; mint flavored. Wooden, bone, plastic, metal, or bamboo; wrapped in paper, cellophane, or naked. Adorned with dental floss or even frilly plastic pompoms.

We use them to clean our teeth, to sample hors d’oeuvres politely, to adorn our drinks with olives or umbrellas, to test the moisture in the middle of cooking cakes, and to construct bridges for science experiements.

Just as there is no singular, ideal use for a toothpick, I don’t believe there is a singular perfect use for the Border Collie. Not even herding and especially not sheep trials. If society has progressed just fine calling the many varieties of small sticks, singularly and collectively the same name, I don’t see any reason to rename the Border Collie. Nor do I see a compelling reason to limit the diversity of the breed by forcing a genetic split by closing the registries or limiting participation to a select group based upon politics.

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Dublin is hinting that he wants a dog bed for Christmas.

I had my laundry neatly folded in an IKEA bag waiting to get put in a drawer and Dublin decided that he really liked the bold yet sleek Scandinavian design and made an ad hoc dog bed for himself. Border Collies sure are clever; he actually used his nose to push up the lip once he got in to provide more support.

I guess I’ll have to get him a legit dog bed of his own for Christmas, but sadly it doesn’t look like IKEA makes dog beds and I don’t think anyone who does will sell me one for the 59 cents that the IKEA tote bag cost.

Nevada the diving Border Collie captured by Seth Casteel.

This charming video is of Nevada, a border collie diver of great skill and grace underwater, beautifully captured by Little Friends Photo.

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Border Collies aren’t traditionally thought of as water dogs, but my current crew loves to play in the water and Border Collies are also excelling at water dog sports like Dock Diving.

Saoirse Ronan and her Border Collie, Sassy

Saoirse Ronan is an Oscar-nominated American-Irish actress and rising star in Hollywood famous for her roles in The Lovely Bones, Hanna, and Atonement.  She packs a lot of screen presence for such a young actress and she often portrays precious youths put into intensely dramatic situations.

But at heart she’s a sentimental dog lover.  She says that the hardest part of acting is being away from her Border Collie, Sassy, during filming.  When Sally went stray, she was found and reunited with Saoirse by an Irish Blue Cross shelter, who also micro-chipped the dog to make sure she’d get home if she ever went wandering again.  Saoirse was so grateful for the Irish Blue Cross’ work that she campaigned for their fund to build a new animal clinic.  What a classy young woman.

THE COLLIE

The life story of the Collie is the history of pastoral life, for from the first day that man herded flocks he had a dog to help him.  There is a similarity in character and appearance between the sheep and cattle dogs of all countries, which points to their common origin, while the cunning and outward look of all indicate their descent from the wild dogs of nature.

Haig ISDS 252, International Supreme Champion 1921

The Collie or Sheep Dog in all countries is considered superior to other dogs in instinct and intelligence, and his countenance discloses sagacity, alert eagerness, and devotion to his master.  There is a great difference between the Collie of the bench shows and the old working Collie of the Highlands.

American and UK Champion Laund Lukeo 1924

The Collie of the bench shows is a fancier’s creation; a more graceful and beautiful animal does not exist.  He was produced from the old working type, but remote crossing and careful selection continued for many years has so radically changed him that he is almost a breed of his own.

The working qualities of the bench show Collie have been so sadly neglected that they are all but lost.  Certainly they are not to be compared in this respect with the Collie of the hills, bred on purely utilitarian lines.  In appearance, however, the bench show Collie is a much handsomer and more attractive type, for the working dog is on the nondescript order.  The latter vary in size and color; some are smooth coated, some are rough; some have prick ears, others half-dropped or drop, while many have what is known as a watch eye.  Some of the best workmen will weigh under forty pounds.  Occasionally you will see among the shepherds large, handsome black, white, and tan specimens with fair coats, but more will be all black in color, smooth coated, and small in size.  The most popular among the Scottish shepherds is the small black-and-white type with medium coats.

- The Complete Dog Book, William Bruette 1921

Sunnybank Lad, Albert Payson Terhune's famous Collie. Early 1900s.

It’s amazing how similar the dialogue is 90 years later concerning collies bred for show and those bred for work, although in this case the cast has changed slightly from “the bench show Collie”–what we now call the Rough Collie–to the show Border Collie and the “Collie of the hills” which is the working Border Collie.

I, of course, wouldn’t agree with the assessment that the overangulated, over-coated wedge head show collie is the most graceful and beautiful of animals, I much prefer old Haig to Laund Lukeo.  Even if we grant collies their unique traits compared to Border Collies, you must admit that Albert Terhune’s famous Lad, pictured left, is a far superior dog to the bench collie of the era.  He has a moderate and proportional head with large gorgeous and expressive eyes.

There is no hind if the “three point” or minuscule almond shaped ”oblique” eyes that are now the trademark of the show bred collie.  This dog’s ears are naturally set at the side of the head, a more pleasant and friendly look to the artificially taped ears of the show version.

The head is also less severe in the taper from snout backward, there’s a good deal of mouth up front.  Many show collies today have severely undershot jaws to accentuate the angle of the head by narrowing the front elevation and to make the profile more shallow.

The show collie pictured above just a few years after the death of Lad has significantly altered conformation, and none of it for the better in my opinion. Lad was an exceedingly handsome dog that a child could instantly fall in love with, I don’t see the same thing happening with the door-stop beady-eyed fashion collie.

Albert Terhune with his dogs Lad, Bruce, and Wolf 1917

If you look at Terhune with Lad and his other collies, you can see that they are clearly of the Old Time Farm Shepherd mold, not of the Highland Rough Collie or even the Border Collie.  To create this look today you’d probably have to cross an English Shepherd with a more moderately angled Rough Collie.  You can find similar looking dogs in the yellow part of the spectrum of Andy Ward’s ingenious Collie Spectrum interactive graphic.

Nancy Telfer and her Border Collies, 1943

Telfer is old Scottish name that has cemented itself in the border region beginning with the Norman conquest, through the era of the Border Reivers along with other Border Collie surnames like Turnbull, and into the very foundation of the Border Collie breed.  The storied Old Hemp was born to Adam Telfer in 1893, and border collies have stayed in the family for generations since.

When Dave at Little Heelers wrote about the Formakin Canine Stars (which also include a couple of talented border collies), he included a video of the dogs in action.  Also on that video site I found a video from 1943 which features Nancy Telfer a Northumbrian trainer of  sheepdog champions:

SHEEP CHAMPION TRAINER – Video – British Pathe.

Celeste killed the Easter Bunny

Sorry folks, Celeste killed Jesus the Easter Bunny, so there will be no magical resurrections from chocolate eggs this year.

Border Collies aren’t really known for their ability to course game, but they are quite fast and Celeste has proven an able huntress.  Above is the first rabbit she ran down in the back yard, but it’s not her most memorable.  While my father was in the hospital for weeks on end, my mother and I would bring Celeste to visit him several times per week.  She had grown to be quite an apt therapy dog during similar visits to my Grandmother.  She has a very motherly and giving temperament and will lick the inside of your wrist as you pet her.  She is very patient and will lie quietly on a hospital bed giving and receiving affection.

Because of the dozens of visits Celeste made to the hospital, she was the most in-tune with what was going on with my father and visits where we didn’t bring her were never as successful as the ones when she came.  So when dad finally came home, the other dogs excitedly greeted him at the door and wondered why he smelled funny, Celeste beat tracks out the back door.  In a few minutes she returned and placed a freshly killed rabbit at dad’s feet, then nuzzled his calf as if to say, “welcome home, here’s some food to make you feel better.”  The border collie version of chicken soup.