Wow what a thread! Zip Tie is cute and looks like a real puppy now
As someone involved in breeding a herding breed who doesn't do herding, I wanted to touch on that. Back when I first decided to breed dogs, when I was a teenager and long before any breedings ever took place I thought for sure I would breed dogs that could do it all. My breeding dogs would do herding, schutzhund, high level agility, high level obedience and be pretty enough to finish CHs easily. It was obviously that GSDs didn't fit that mold when I tried to become involved with showing them but Belgians seemed like they could. And now years later, I still feel that they certainly
could.
However, the truth of the matter is that I do not have unlimited time nor do I have unlimited funds in which to pursue all of these many venues. I tried to do everything with Jagger, including SchH and while it showed me what an awesome, versatile dog he truly is...it made it hard to focus on any one thing for titling purposes. It became obvious that while he loved SchH and I enjoyed it, I would have to give up all of the other stuff I loved and was already involved in to pursue even getting a SchH1. Things like SchH and real, higher level herding tend to easily become all consuming. Unless you're lucky enough to live close to an outstanding club or instructor, it usually involves a good bit of travel time and lessons can be pretty expensive.
With herding, if you have a really strong dog and a dog that isn't a BC, it is not always easy to find instructors that are the right fit for your breed/dog. And it can be extremely hard to get past the "herding as a test of obedience" with a strong dog when you don't have access to sheep on a very, very regular basis (like more than weekly). This is because the dog tends to get so excited by the sheep every lesson, it takes awhile for them to settle enough to work them and even then it's as I said, more a test of keeping control than real life herding. Dogs who live on farms don't react the same way because they see livestock from the time they are puppies. It is much, much easier for dogs with daily exposure to stock to progress and show their real talent.
Some breeds, it is nearly impossible to recreate their traditional herding setting in the US. While herding seems like one set behavior pattern, different breeds have different styles. The terrain, type of stock, number of stock and overall situation the dogs were developed in can make for herding breeds to have drastically different styles and behavior towards stock. PyrSheps lived with a shepherd and his flock and they spent most of their lives together in that setting. The dogs knew their sheep so well that they could pick them out of a huge group on community grazing land when it was time to go. And the sheep knew the dogs so well, the dogs had to have what many would consider an "aggressive" herding style when it came down to the sheep needing to be moved. The dogs had to be able to work sheep high in the mountains, where footing was bad and the sheep couldn't always all stay close together. How could one really truly test that for that here in the US? GSDs were bred to work thousands of sheep in open grazing areas, keeping the sheep within a natural boundary. There are I think two places in the US that offer the true GSD style herding. Many GSDs who are good for that type of herding are just too powerful for the small pen with a few sheep work most commonly done in the US. Not to mention, gripping is essential to GSD's herding style and frowned on by many livestock owners
And Koolies...it would seem near impossible to test their skills at managing hundreds of sheep, working large numbers of sheep in tight quarters, backing and what not in the US unless you found a working ranch that would allow you to come for lessons. And even that wouldn't guarantee you that your dogs could wok in the conditions they would in Australia.
It's a nice idea to say "well if you're going to breed herding dogs, they need to herd". But...it's not always that easy. People involved in dogs tend to already have strong interests in different venues prior to deciding to breed. Most don't want to give up those interests totally and through themselves into something new. A lot of people live in the suburbs and can't have a working farm to prove their dogs on. And even at that, it tends to be a "take what you can get" and the type of herding may be nothing like what the breed was created to do. And...there really is more is more a need for sport dogs in the US than working farm dogs. I think it would be pretty difficult to get real working homes (ie with farmers/ranchers) in the US interested in buying a breed they've never heard of, never seen work and have no experience training. Most people who need dogs for work already have breeds or mixes they use and are happy with. And the truth is, fewer people are using dogs to move stock to begin with. Even working BC people worry about the diminishing need for real herding dogs. It seems most of the Koolies being brought here are being brought here because people like the breed and not as real working farm dogs but I could be wrong.