There are two excellent articles on the Sure Shot Flyball blog about these incredible hybrids. Robbie & Sonya Barton have done a great job of explaining the attributes of these amazing animals. Please see:
Larry
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Designer Dogs in Flyball
August 21st, 2007 | Dogs
4 comments ↓
This seems like a great example of a responsible breeder. On the other side I ran into a border jack at the dog park whose owner was complaining about how much energy his dog had and how hard it was to keep him out of trouble. I suggested flyball and he’d never heard of it. I just wonder who bred this dog as I’ve never seen a border jack outside of flyball, and how could they send him to a non-sports home. I’m not against designer breeds because if you know what you’re looking for in a dog it’s a great way to achieve that. What does concern me is the growing popularity of high needs dogs in incompetent homes. People see a well trained intelligent dog and assume it’s that way naturally. They rush out to get their border collie and then can’t understand why it destroys their house everyday. I can’t even imagine what kind of trouble a bored border jack could get into.
Unfortunately, it’s that way with all dogs. People don’t educate themselves on the breed of dog they get and then wonder why certain traits drive them crazy. The dogs usually end up in rescue (if they are lucky) or put down because the owner wasn’t being smart.
The person at the dog park may have not had an intentionally bred BJ. Since I have been in Missouri, I had “found’ a litter of Border Collie/Fox Rat Terrier(or Fox can’t recall), all of which I placed in flyball homes; a litter of 3/4 Border 1/4 jack pups, 5 of which I got in flyball homes, and a litter of Cattle/Jacks…2 went to flyball homes. Having two very popular breeds as the Border Collie and JRT…accidents are happening ALL over he place!
I have bred a litter of BorderJack/Staffies - and will be doing repeat. My #1 criteria for using my BJ was her temeperment - a temperment that she has handed down to all her babies. They are easy dogs to live with, but turn on when they need to. Shock (border/jack/staf) lays around the house most of the day, is not happy unless she is under the covers at night - but, if I took her out, she would turn on in an instant. In my house, I have 2 BorderJacks, 1 BorderStaffy, 2 3/4border/1/4 jacks and a BorderJackStaf. They are all great pets in addition to flyballl dogs.
I love border/jacks and border/staffies - especially when they come from responsible breeders that do all the genetic testing and place these dogs in the right homes.
however, I hate the term ‘designer dog’. it reminds me too much of a dog that was meant for Paris Hilton. I hope to someday own one of these dogs, but I don’t ever plan to refer to him/her as a designer dog.
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