Weekender and proud of it

There are really 3 sorts of attitudes among sheepdog triallers.
1) the “professional”: is really into their trialling. Its all about the sport for them, they love trialling and working dogs at this level, and they train hard and aim to win. They are selective and realistic about the dogs they start, and don’t keep dogs that aren’t likely to make it in trials, or that don’t suit their training and handling style.
2) The “weekender”: enjoys trialling, as something to do with the dogs they have, but doesn’t take it too seriously. They might be a farmer working his every day dogs, or a city-based person who enjoys taking their pet/sports dogs out to train on sheep, but the dogs have a primary purpose other than trialling. Weekenders often train and trial to the best of their ability, and aim high, but success at trials isn’t their primary ambition, and they aren’t going to move on their good farm dog or their family pet because it isn’t top class trialling material. They tend to accept the limitations of the dogs they have, try to work through any issues to get the best out of those dogs, and they may do very well at trials, or not so well, depending on their dogs and how much time they spend training for trials.
3) The “dog lover”: is all about the dogs. Their dogs are incredibly important to them, and a lot of their identity is tied up with their dogs and dog activities. They often get started in sheepdog trialling because of their dogs, and they care a lot about how their dogs perform, not because of competitiveness but because they want their dogs to be appreciated and valued by other people (or at least to avoid the opposite). They trial in large part to prove something about their dogs talent and worth. They often aren’t the most objective in assessing their dogs’ talents or weaknesses.

R is somewhere between the Weekender and the Professional. He really cares most about his dogs as farm dogs, with trialling as something he enjoys when he has time, but he does aim for dogs that can trial, and will move them on if they aren’t right for him.

I used to be a Doglover, and its not always a fun place to be. The reality of sheepdog training is that a beginner will always make mistakes with their first dog- lots of them. Your first dog will be “ruined”. No matter how good it is, it will never be the dog it could have been in “the right hands”. That’s really hard for a Doglover to cope with, and in some cases people seem to be crippled by the fear of it and never get around to trialling their dogs, because they aren’t “ready”, and they don’t want to let their dogs down. I think that’s really sad. For most of us, there are lessons that can only be learned by getting out there and having a go- and probably making a mess of things, but that’s part of the journey. You just have to take a deep breath and jump in.

So now I’m more of a Weekender. I accept my dogs for what they are, and I’m glad they accept my inadequacies (or at least that they can’t talk). I enjoy trialling, and I do want to do well, but our performance on the trial ground is less of a concern than the work we do at home.

Interestingly, I think you can sort agility triallers into those same categories too. There aren’t so many “Professionals”, and those that do exist are kind of frowned on (rehoming a dog because its not fast enough is considered bad form), but there are certainly people who are very serious about the sport of agility, and choose their dogs to be competitive. And then there’s the Weekenders, for whom agility is something they do with the dog they have, and the Doglovers. The Doglovers in agility and other dogsports seem to have subgroups based around individual breeds, doing agility to prove that Ukrainian Weaselhunds are smart, athletic dogs as much as for any love of the sport. I guess I’ve done some time in each of those categories, but in agility now I’m one of the slackest category of Weekenders.

I could be a bit embarrassed about my Weekender status in both activities, but I think its probably a good thing- I’ve got too much other stuff going on to focus on my dogs as much as I used to. I still love my dogs as much as ever, I love working them and for the first time I really need my dogs to get important things done- but I don’t depend on them for my identity or sense of worth. I think they must be happier without that burden.