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No apologies are necessary, I should have said that people tend to call black and white dogs "border collies", and that causes the tendency to register them that way. My own preference would be to do away with breed designations altogether and have one big breed, the Working Collie. Then, each person could chose the TYPE of Working Collie they liked best, whether it be a BC-type, an AS-type, an ES-type, or an OFC-type, etc., whether in looks or working style. Then we wouldn't be arguing all the time over whether some photo or painting was one thing or another. That's how it was before the Victorians invented breeds for show purposes. I agree with this, but the existence of linebred populations or subbreeds give us the homozygosity for the traits we want and the hybrid vigor when we cross-breed, So this can also be a good thing. Trying to arrive at the optimum mate for each dog, I do not intend to confine myself to a single registry genepool. Finding the dogs in the genepools that have the traits I want in all my dogs, or just the correct traits to complement the particular dog I am considering breeding is the main thing to me. The arguing helps to clarify what we mean by certain terms, so arguing can be a good thing, too. Elaine Reynolds [log in to unmask]