Linda Rorem - Herding for everyone!
by Inger Scharis
What can you do when you love herding, but there is no excisting club that welcomes you with open arms? Isn’t the answer obvious? You just start your own club! That’s what Linda Rorem in California did back in 1986 when she founded The American Herding Breed Association (AHBA). Torlundablue had a chat with Linda about how it all began.
Torlundablue: How did you get the idea to start AHBA?
Linda: In the early 1980s I joined the American Working Collie Association (AWCA). At the time I had a Rough Collie and a Sheltie. I began herding with my first Sheltie, Pascha, around 1984, and a few years later began working with my second Collie, Chelsea. I continued with my second Sheltie, Cailie, and then the descendants of Pascha and Cailie. I first trialed in the Australian Shepherd Club of America (ASCA), which had opened its trials to other breeds and which around that time began to provide its herding titles to other breeds as well. There were also some local Border Collie trials that I entered with Cailie, and I also trained and trialed a Border Collie belonging to a friend. At any rate, several members of the AWCA, including myself, were interested in encouraging more interest in herding by Collie owners, and set up a program within AWCA recognizing herding titles. Also around that time (early 1980s), I saw a notice for a ”herding instinct test” being sponsored by the Bearded Collie Club of America. In 1984 the AWCA began to hold herding instinct tests for Collies based on this idea. People with other breeds would come to the AWCA tests too. With the interest growing in herding, we decided to form a club that would provide a program for all breeds, with trial titles included as well as test titles.
Torlundablue: Why did you feel the need for a new herding organization?
Linda: There had been a gradual increase in interest in dogs being able to fulfill their traditional roles, as well as a number of articles on programs that pointed out some of the problems involved in selecting dogs based om conformation only without considering function. A number of individuals with AKC breeds (starting with the Bearded Collie, Rough/Smooth Collie and Belgian Tervuren breeders) wanted to find out what herding abilities existed within their dogs and to showcase and develop these capabilities. Neither ASCA or USBCHA provided that venue.
Torlundablue: And you didn’t have any other alternatives at that time?
Linda: No, some of the Terveren people and Collie people active in AWCA, including myself, approached the AKC which didn’t have a herding program at the time. But the AKC program didn’t begin until 1989/1990.
Torlundablue: What is the difference between competing with AHBA rules and AKC rules, according to your opionion?
Linda: AHBA is open at the Junior Herding Dog (JHD) and trial levels to any dog that can do the work, registered, purebreed or not. AKC is more restrictive as to the allowed participants. AKC puts some stock types together in its program, whereas AHBA provides separate titles for ducks vice geese, goats vice sheep. For its championship title, AHBA focuses on competition against the standard – points are based on quality as evaluated against the standard at the advanced level, whereas AKC focuses on competition against other dogs, with championship points based on winning over the other dogs at the advanced level. Overall, AKC’s courses are more strictly limited in form and there is no equivalent to AHBA’s HRD and RLF, which are much more ”free form” and allow a large variation for any given trial as long as the required minimums are met. This allows for use of take pens and gathers within the same trial, or taking stock through a number of chutes or loading in trailers, and working out in the open as well as in arenas. We feel that this allows for a course promoting a focus on practical stockmanship. AHBA’s arena trials (HTAD) have four variations which themselves can be varied somewhat, whereas AKC has has one set arena course.
Torlundablue: Which countries have AHBA today?
Linda: AHBA trials are held regulary in Canada as well as the U.S. There were a couple of tests held in Australia several years ago, and one in Sweden. There have been inquiries from Denmark and Germany, but no sanctioned events have been held there.
Torlundablue: What breeds are most common in tests and competitions?
Linda: Border Collies are most numerous, as they are the most common working stockdog in the U.S. today, followed by a fair number of Australian Shepards, and then Australian Cattle Dogs and Kelpies. There are regular attendance, in lesser numbers, by Rough/Smooth Collies, Shetland Sheepdogs, Belgian varieties, German Shepards, Corgies, Rottweilers and others, as well as occasional individuals of the breeds that are more rare in the U.S. such as Beauceron, Icelandic Sheepdog, and others.