> I find it sad that a special type of speed demon is the only type that wins > at top level.
Why? And they aren't that special, they just happen to occur more frequently in dogs that were bred to work, versus dogs that were bred to be primarily companion animals. It's no coincidence that herding breeds excel at agility. They were bred to have a job and when they view agility as their job, they take it very seriously. You can come across dogs of any breed that have similar drive to the herding dogs...but they may not have the natural speed of the herding dogs. Josie, who has tremendous drive, ran a jumpers course last weekend in 4.4 yards per second. Think about how fast that is in your mind (and nevermind that she will turn 11 years old a week from today). And that's not a flat out sprint across a field; her run included jumps, tunnels and 12 weave poles. 4.4 yps is about her top end speed, and she probably averages 4.2 yps on jumpers courses. The top dogs of her height in this country will run well in excess of 5 yps. Josie won the class that day, but that speed would not win at the Nationals. Often it will only be good enough for 2nd or 3rd just in our local area. I would imagine that most of these dogs are probably rather > hard for the average person to live with! Maybe some are, but certainly not all. My agility trainer stayed at my house for two years while her place was being built. She brought her four Border Collies with her. These are very high drive dogs, National Champions, World Team dogs, etc; and they were reasonably unrelated to each other so not from the same line. They were very similar to living with my Cavaliers. They are very loving and very calm in the house. They only want to be close to you and do what you do, just like a Cavalier. It isn't until they have a job to do that they exhibit the incredible drive they have. I also had the top agility Sheltie in the country (last year's National Champion and a two time World Team dog) stay with me for a month or so. She was a delight. Never heard her bark or carry on, and she too was a loving little dog to have around. But put Taz in front of an agility course and you will see what "drive" really means. I sure hope they don't decide to > breed for this trait! > Don't know why, as all of these dogs have far more stable temperaments than many others I have seen of their respective breeds. In my opinion, there are two kinds of Cavaliers in agility. The first is more the norm. They excel in Novice and Open, and will almost always bring home the blue ribbon because they are very consistent. They can get Novice and Open titles with very little effort. They are very gratifying to their handlers and they are wonderful little performance dogs. But it is in Excellent A where the lack of speed, or drive, will show up. Suddenly these dogs that were a nice 12 or 14 seconds under time in Open are only barely making time. And they will often be over time in Jumpers where times are much tighter. And once they hit Excellent B, the placements go away because they aren't fast enough. Getting a MACH would take a very long time as they do not accumulate speed points fast enough. The other kind of Cavalier takes longer to get through those lower titles. They have speed and drive from the beginning but lack some control and tend to be less consistent. I thought Josie would never get out of Open, and she did not have a single perfect score in standard until she got to Excellent. All that speed causes lots of mistakes for the inexperienced dog. But it is this type of dog that serious agility competitors like Anne and myself are looking for, because in the long run they will be the dog that is competitive and oh-so-much fun. Believe me, both of us can tell you that finding a Cavalier like this is very difficult. Betsey Lynch ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author.
