Straight Talk 3

LOCHINVARS FACE

by Bodil Carlsson.

This dog is lovely.

That´s my opinion, and it´s not an unusual one. Many people still feel that it´s the
best-looking Collie ever.

Back in the ´fifties, it was everybody´s opinion. Prizes and acclaim were showered upon this dog, who was Best in Breed at Cruft´s not once, but twice in his lifetime. His owner was offered what was then a minor fortune in American money for him – and refused, of course. Owners of Collie bitches ran to have a chance to use him, his offspring did well in the ring and some were sold abroad....

In short, this is English and Irish Ch Lochinvar of Ladypark. I was looking up photos of old Collies in a Swedish book from ´57 and found him there – of course I did! So excellent a dog was he, so widely known, that he had a place in a chapter on the Collie even in this country.

Then I googled for Lochinvar on the web, and naturally, there was plenty to choose from.
I tried one of the first links to turn up, which turned out to be a Collie history, decade by decade, on the homepage of a very well-known British breeder. And what does mrs. Blake of the Corydon kennel have to say about Lochinvar -

”... who many of today´s breeders say was the greatest Collie of all times. I would argue that as he had a prominent blaze he would not be shown today and indeed would not have had any success at all once this decade had passed in to the 1960´s as it was then that blazes were frowned upon and any collie with a blaze was just walked past in the ring by the judges. How quickly fashion can dictate what can win in the show-ring.”

Well, whatever happened must have happened quickly indeed, if the dog known as the King of Collies in ´57 would have seen the judges turn their backs on him less than ten years later– for nothing more than a streak of white on his face!

Makes you wonder, doesn´t it – just who is acting as “fashion” here?

And why is it suddenly so very important to turn down that white streak?

At least inside the dog world, people still claim that the very point of dog shows is that judges, with their special knowledge of anatomy, can tell whether a dog is properly built for the work that the breed was used for once. Outside the dog world, many feel that this must be a joke. That it´s a matter of competitive kennels, vying for their turn on the market for most popular sire, and needing to outdo each other in the number of CC´s won.

I hope that this is not true. For if that which is judged up or turned down in the ring is decided on by people who are not at all specialists in seeing what is healthy and well constructed, clever and easy to train, but by people who only specialize in the hyped details of the day – then we are all simply better off without them.

Lochinvar is described in a well-known British book on Rough Collies as a dog with a “wonderful temperament” and his older full brother, Ch Lad of Ladypark, as a ”highly intelligent, versatile and active dog”. Lad played the sheepdog in a theatre play and made 144 appearances on stage! Most of us would dearly love to have a Collie with such a character. Whether they happen to have a streak of white on the outside, like Lad and Lochinvar, or not – that is irrelevant.

What is not irrelevant is this:

When the expert judges in the temporarily most “breed typical” traits promoted the Ladypark brothers to be Champions, and sought-after sires, by chance they promoted also intelligence and good temperament in the breed. Genes will pass on to offspring. But what about the goods behind the unstreaked faces ten years later?

I was unable to find the answer to that question. It doesn´t say anywhere I´ve looked - possibly because it was of no interest to judge Fashion. That, however, is just the stuff that is of interest to us who live with Collies!

Now here is a lad, who I for one would not mind at all sharing a long stretch of my life with. I would be very happy if I could look up from the keyboard and meet those eyes.

In comparison, two BIB at Cruft´s are only costume jewelry.