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Presented by Tom Coen
January 12 and 13, 2008
Article by Marilyn Marlow
Over 30 sheltie and collie fanciers, from as far away as Utah and Ohio, participated in Tom’s exceptional presentation of bringing the history of the breed to life. Through his slide presentation we took a trip back to the beginning of our breed in 1909. Then we were all able to visually see how the dogs of the past influenced our modern day breedings. The knowledge of how far we have come and how the impact of collie crosses influenced this history were especially valuable in our understanding and how we can apply what we learned to our future breeding programs.
After a break for lunch, a breeder panel made up of breeders with 30 or more years of experience, Rick Thompson, Marilyn Marlow, Bob Piccirillo and Marianne Glisson brought forth some great discussions. As long term breeders, the panel discussed the roadblocks we have experienced and what qualities we felt were the most difficult to achieve and maintain as well as the virtues we consider most important in our Shelties.
Many “ah-ha” or moments of comprehension were expressed by both the panel members and the attendees during this time. One of the attendees stated he now realized the importance of breeding for virtues rather than just trying to correcting them by grooming. Other comments from seminar participants included how they now had a better understanding of where we came from, the progress we have made and how much the collies really have influenced the progression of the Shetland Sheepdog.
A virtues match was held on the second day with classes for each part of the dog according to our Standard. Tom assigned guest judges for each virtue to study, and, like a true teacher, allowed the participants and audience to ask probing questions for another great learning experience. There was also an interesting discussion on the different “terminology “ that has come forth that is not in the Standard -- such as “smushy” faces and “corners” of the skull. Everyone had ample opportunity to discuss each detail of our Standard and apply it to each dog for a hands-on experience.
Anyone who is a serious student of the breed should attend this seminar. Thank you, Tom, for bringing your depth of experience to the breed and presenting this seminar to the fancy.
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