Comments on: Sheep for Their Dogs

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 17:20:52 +0000

Yes, modern dog breeds are amazingly inbred — apparently because breeders have wanted dogs to breed “true” across so many different dimensions at the same time: size, shape, coloration, temperament, etc.

By: ICR

ICR — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:23:39 +0000

To an amazing degree, once you've seen one Border Collie you've seen them all:

There are 643 registered foundation dogs with genetic influence on the current population. 0.01% (25) of all registered dogs determine 75% of the genes in the current population. Effectively the genes of only 8 of the founder dogs determine the genes in the current population.

By: ICR

ICR — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 12:46:48 +0000

You’d think that these “white people” would have smart enough to find out in advance of purchase that Border Collies don’t make good pets.

By: Dregs

Dregs — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 06:11:55 +0000

To continue my admitedly reductionist train of thought in response to your remark: WHAT communities tend to have “small-town values” (which itself sounds like code for…well, you know; kinda like “good schools”) and WHAT peoples tend to have “big-city wealth”?

Maybe any such place “could” develop it, but DO they? I’m sure some places do; but some more than others. Also, it may be that the more salient factor of the two I mentioned is lack of diversity rather than presence of any one race in particular. Nevertheless, regarding dogs in particular, it is a very Western thing to bring out the best in dogs.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:15:45 +0000

I suspect any community with small-town values and big-city wealth could develop something like these sheep-rental operations run on the honor system.

By: Dregs

Dregs — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 05:26:43 +0000

I expected to be annoyed by this article, but I must admit that it left me feeling impressed with what this lady has done. Yes, the impetus was somewhat absurd, but she has created something truly useful out of it: grass-pastured lamb and sheep are being raised, with meat and wool coming from it, border collies are kept from going insane, it has contributed to a real sense of community and cooperation among the people who are doing this, etc.

One other thought I had when reading this, and here I start to think that awareness of HBD is a road to madness: who wants to calculate the racial aspect of everything, no matter how superficially unrelated to race.

Yet, I have to admit that, upon reading the article, viewing the video and slides, and in particular reading this paragraph — “Ms. Soderstrom runs the sheep-rental operation on the honor system. Owners sign in, noting how many dogs they brought. A map on the wall of a shed shows where flocks can be found that day — perhaps grazing in the clover field or the east lambing pasture.” — it struct me how this type of activity is (1) more likely among certain groups than others and (2) more likely to happen in a non-diverse area (it is in rural Washington state).