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One of the oldest forms of work for the dog has been on the farm, herding animals in general and sheep in particular. Such was the need for the sheepdog that its breeding and training became a specialized activity and the best dogs highly prized assets. Here arguably is the foundation on which modern sheepdog trials is based; as an avenue by which the quality of sheepdogs may be improved, tested and demonstrated (Moore, 1929; Halsall, 1982). Yet the underlying rationale for sheepdog trials may be more simply viewed as a competition between human owners to see whose dog is best (Halsall, 1982). In this way the sheepdog trials are arguably little different from any other sport and the dog is clearly an object within the context of the sport. The trials offer breeders and owners a chance to demonstrate the ability of their dogs and – ­arguably, more importantly – their own skills in breeding, raising and training their dogs. In this way any benefit to the development of the breed actually becomes of secondary importance to the competition and status to be gained by the humans from winning. While the UK was the home of the first sheepdog trial, the exact location has been a matter of some debate though Bala in North Wales is clearly the leading contender, hosting a trial in 1873 (Jones, 1892; Moore, 1929; Drabble, 1989).

While fine in theory, sheepdog trials are arguably limited in their ability to develop a working dog or prove the worth of a dog as a successful sheep herder. Indeed, Whyte (1927: 112) has stated that:

A mere win at a dog trial does not necessarily provide absolute proof of a dog’s usefulness, for he may have been kept for the purpose of trial work only and trained to concert pitch by an expert at the game with an undue sacrifice of time and labour. Great dogs perform their greatest feats not necessarily always on the trial field; but perhaps more often when mustering on the mountain ranges.

Whyte (1927: 115) further questioned the reliance on sheepdog trials as a means of ensuring the breeding of working sheepdogs by asking his readers to: ‘Just imagine what would be the fate of those sheep if left to some of the highly strung, excitable dogs seen competing at dog-trials nowadays.’ This needs setting within the context of New Zealand, which he was writing about, and the fact that at one time sheepdogs in that country were expected to stand guard on untended flocks overnight, or even retrieve lost sheep by themselves during the night.

The dogs Whyte spoke of are sports dogs rather than working dogs and he marks the transition of them and their owners from the arena of work to that of sport. Speaking about the early movement of sheepdogs into the dog show arena Whyte clearly predicted the continued movement of the sheepdog from working animal, through sporting beast and to leisure object when speaking of the creation of the sheepdog as a pedigree animal for show (the rise of dog shows will be discussed in detail in Chapter 3). He suggested that the pedigree sheepdog raised for the show arena and leisured lifestyle would become a poor imitation of its ancestors with all of the beautiful looks that are associated with the Border Collie of today and none of the brains that made it such a useful tool on the farm (Whyte, 1927). Similarly, Moore (1929: 25–26) stated that: ‘show qualities in sporting dogs were practically valueless without satisfactory proof of working merits’. Whether this is the case or dogs have simply continued to change in response to the changing requirements of humans is an important question. The working sheepdog can still be found on farms throughout the world; its brains highly valued, its ability to undertake long, hard work unquestioned, its often mongrel appearance and pedigree of little concern. We may in an abstract sense see all sheepdogs as ‘sheepdogs’ with a common root but in reality today those bred for working, for sport and for show are all very different, and different characteristics are more highly valued across the three groups. The important point is that whether the sheepdogs are working in the fields, focused on trials or dedicated to the show arena, they have all been bred and trained by humans in a manner that contextualizes them as objects for work or leisure.

Whether limited or not in their ability to aid the breeding and training of effective sheepdogs for work on the farm, sheepdog trials have become a popular sport throughout the world. This includes countries such as the UK, Australia and New Zealand, as well as Canada and America (Moore, 1929), with the main focus being those nations with a history of sheep farming. Not surprisingly, trials generated an International Sheep Dog Society in 1907 that had organizing and promoting trials and improving the nature of the sheepdog as its twin founding principles (Palmer, 1983). Under the auspices of this organization, betting on trials was banned (Halsall, 1982). Just as watching sheepdog trials is not related to financial gain, nor is participation monetarily driven, at least directly, with prizes of limited value the norm (Halsall, 1982). Though the potential to earn a profit from breeding a prize-winning sheepdog does need to be kept in mind, even this does not appear to be a leading reason for taking part in the sport. Rather, it seems to be for the joy of proving an ability to breed and train a dog and then to work with it.

By as early as 1877 the Bala trials were attracting over 2000 spectators (Moore, 1929), and from 1976 to 1999 the BBC produced the television series One Man and his Dog, which brought the sport of sheepdog trials to a mass, and mainly urban, audience. Such was the popularity of the show that at one time it attracted 7.8 million viewers (Palmer, 1983). From its demise as a regular series to 2013 the show continued as a series of annual specials before becoming part of the BBC’s Countryfile programme in 2013. A similar programme entitled A Dog’s Show ran on New Zealand television from 1977 until 1992 (Jukes, 2003). Why did people watch these programmes? Was it to see the skills of man and dog or to admire the beauty of the idealized rural landscape? The answer is ‘probably a bit of both’ but the result was that in addition to giving urbanites a glimpse into an aspect of rural life the programme helped to place the sheepdog (also known as the Border Collie) as an iconic emblem of this life and the rural landscape.

The televising of sheepdog trials split opinion, with the purists suggesting that in constructing the trials to meet the requirements of television the integrity of the sport was lost as it became pure entertainment. In other words, they were concerned about the loss of the authenticity of the sport and its dislocation from its roots. While not necessarily disclaiming this, the other side of the debate saw it as a sacrifice worth making to bring an aspect of the rural way of life to an urban population and in the process to bridge the gap between rural and urban dwellers (Drabble, 1989). Today, the sport continues to be a popular one with a loyal fan base and a committed group of participants, though it is best described as a niche sport.

Irrespective of the merits of sheepdog trials it is worth noting the following quotation from Jones (1892: 76), who was writing not long after the creation of the first trials: ‘the freedom from the infliction of distress or pain or death upon any of the animals engaged in the operations – a condition too seldom characteristic of the sports and pastimes in which people take pleasure’. When put into the context of blood sports (as discussed in Chapter 3), which were diverse in nature and still popular in 1800s Britain, Jones’ statement about sheepdog trials can be seen as arguably a major step forward in terms of the rights and welfare of animals (particularly of dogs and sheep in this instance).

Today, the sheepdog is not only used in the herding of sheep for farming and sport but also as a tourist attraction. Across the rural landscape of the UK, where the use of sheepdogs has a long history, operators are now offering tourists the opportunity to see demonstrations of the abilities of these animals and their handlers. In this way not only the dogs but also the shepherds are being reinvented, transforming them from agricultural workers to tourism industry employees. For example, one farm in Inverness-shire, Scotland, offers sheepdog demonstrations with a ‘true native highland shepherd’, speaking of an authentic experience for the tourist. This operator, like the sled dog operators discussed later in this section, recognizes the potential to tap into the appeal of puppies by not only putting on demonstrations but offering the opportunity for visitors to meet ‘friendly Collie pups’. In this way also the nature of the animal is being changed, turning it into an attraction and focal point for the affections of visitors and away from its role as an agrarian working animal. These pups for petting, an activity also offered in at least some of the farms in the UK that have opened their gates to tourists, are representative not of the traditional notions of the agrarian working dog but of the dog as part of the family, as a pet. Visitors to the countryside are now also enticed to learn how to become a sheepdog handler, as farms offer the opportunity to learn the skills that have been associated with shepherding. Such an example, known as the Lake District Sheepdog Experience, exists in the Lake District of the UK where the operator provides the dogs, and the experience is open to everyone, from pure novices upwards (Anonymous, 2013a).

Another company, called Shepherds Walks, offers – unsurprisingly – walking holidays, in rural Northumbria (UK). As shown in Fig. 2.1, the company plays on the notion of the shepherd as the knowledgeable country person, depicting the operator of the walks with the tools of the shepherd: his crook and his Border Collie, which by default must be a sheepdog, irrespective of the lack of sheep in the picture. The notion that tourists who undertake an experience with this company are gaining an authentic one is underlined on the company’s website by the knowledge that when the company was set up by the owner in 1999 he was then ‘a full time Hill Shepherd’ (Shepherds Walks, 2013). In this instance neither the ‘shepherd’ nor the ‘sheepdog’ are really what they are depicted as being. They are not agrarian workers out of a romantic idyll; rather they are operators in the tourism industry, not herding sheep but herding tourists instead, while at the same time feeding off the imagery of both shepherd and dog as quintessentially rural and experts/masters of the rural landscape.

Fig. 2.1. Shepherds Walks tourism promotional imagery (2008). (Photo courtesy of Shepherds Walks, UK.)

The movement from working dog to sports dog can also be seen in the emergence of field trials as a way of training and encouraging the breeding of gun dogs (Brown, 1934). The first of these took place in the UK in 1865, with the Kennel Club becoming involved from 1873 onwards (Moore, 1929). The logic behind such trials is obviously akin to that behind sheepdog trials and has been seen as beneficial to the quality of gun dogs by various ­proponents (Scales, 2000). While largely agreeing with this view, Alington (1929) cautioned that, although the field trials enhanced some aspects of the gun dog, they, have at best done little for and at worst been detrimental to the dog’s nose or game-finding ability. This, Alington argues, is due to the breeding of dogs for trial purposes that has emphasized not chasing animals, and hence means the dogs have little interest in sniffing or hunting out prey.

The popularity of field trials as a sport has increased markedly over the last 150 years. In the UK, for example, Kennel Club records indicate that in 1900 the number of trials held under the auspices of this organization was 11 and by 1950 had grown to 92. The number continued to expand, with 583 trials occurring in 2000–2001 and 655 in 2010–2011. How many of the participants are engaging in the trials purely for the sake of the trials as a sport and how many are participating in order to hone the skills of both dog and human for the hunting season is, unfortunately, unclear.

With the emergence of sled dog racing the sled dog has also witnessed a movement from working to sport dog. The first organized racing event is said to have occurred under the auspices of the Nome Kennel Club in Alaska in 1908 (Hood, 1996). The reasons for the origin of these races are arguably multiple and interwoven. One, in common with that associated with field and sheepdog trials, was the desire among enthusiasts and owners of sled dogs to ensure the quality of the breed (Garst, 1948). In addition, it may be suggested that the racing of sled dogs emerged from competition between different individuals working sled dog teams on the same routes. Finally, it is important to recognize that the desire to preserve a way of life as a part of the heritage of the early explorers of Alaska and the northern regions of Canada has, and continues, to play a significant role in the establishment and continuation of sled dog racing as a sport. Indeed, within the context of the Yukon Quest (discussed below) it is claimed that this event: ‘embodies all of the qualities of the land that northerners love and those that set northerners apart’ (Firth, 1998: vii). This is clearly the case for the Iditarod, a sled dog race that was created to commemorate the transporting of diphtheria serum in 1925 over approximately 1000 miles of largely wilderness to the community of Nome, Alaska (Hood, 1996). The whole mythology surrounding the race speaks of man (European settler) against nature at its harshest (in an Alaskan winter) and the nobility of the dogs involved. Yet the creation of the race owes much to the American political climate during the time of the first race in 1967 and the country’s relation with the then USSR. As Hood (1996: 19) stated, the race was created: ‘as part of the one-hundredth anniversary of the purchase of Alaska from Russia’. A further layer explaining the creation of the Iditarod was the desire to ensure the future of dog sledding and the survival of its history in the face of the advent of the snow skidoo (Hood, 1996). As Coppinger (1977) stated, the preservation of sledding in the face of automation contributed to the creation of an entire sport and not just one race. The desire to preserve the heritage of the sled dog is, however, clearly one that has been controlled and coloured by the white Anglo-Saxon settlers of North America. As such it has largely airbrushed over the reality that the breeding and running of sled dogs appears to have originated in what is now Siberia over 4000 years ago (Coppinger, 1977).

Whatever the origin of sled dog racing, today it is a diverse sport that ­encapsulates a variety of offshoots in terms of the nature of the dog teams, what they are required to pull and how far they are expected to run (Table 3.1). Yet within this mixed bag there are events that stand out as being iconic of the sport. This status is strongly linked to the heritage of the sport and of the earlier explorers of the frozen north of the North American continent. So the iconic events of dog sledding are firmly based within northern Canada and Alaska, ­despite the sport now being popular in almost every corner of the world (­including New Zealand, with its annual Wanaka Sled Dog Festival, which began in 1996 (Ibbotson, 2012) and the Sled Dog Association of Scotland, which was inaugurated in 1991 (Sled Dog Association of Scotland, 2007a)). Furthermore, they are the long- and ultra-long-distance, multi-day events that test the endurance of dog and man (for these events have long been constructed as sites of hegemonic masculinity reflecting the exploration of northern Canada and Alaska by the rugged, outdoors male). That this ignores a strong, though minority, representation of women in these events for a significant period of time is something that would be very interesting to pursue within a gendered framework, but which lies outside the boundaries of this book. For a history of the involvement of women in these events readers are urged to go to the book by Hood (1996) on the Iditarod. What we see running through all of these iconic events is the construction of an image. It is one that is an example of the contested and constructed nature of authenticity, which means the events do not necessarily present an accurate picture but rather one that the organizers and many of the participants (both passive and active) wish to buy into. The Yukon Quest, which is a 1000-mile race that was first run in 1984 (Firth, 1998), fits the iconic image of the sport of dog sledding very nicely as does the Iditarod, which wasfirst run in 1967 (Hood, 1996). As befits an iconic sporting event, both now attract major sponsors and are covered on global television. The result, Firth (1998: vi) suggested, is that many Europeans now refer to the Yukon Quest as ‘winter’s Tour de France’, comparing it to another iconic sporting event in the process.

In an ironic feedback loop the success of events such as the Iditarod and Yukon Quest has morphed them from just sporting events with cultural roots and associated implications into a multi-billion dollar business (Hood, 1996) where once again the dogs and mushers are effectively working. The difference is that instead of transporting goods and people for ‘work’ the participants are now helping to sell dog food to a world market, testing and marketing new equipment to an increasing population of amateur racers and selling all the other brands associated with the events. Even the transporting of people is back on the agenda now for sled dogs, thanks to the success of events such as the Iditarod, as we see tourists paying to be transported along the route of the race in sleds behind the last competitors (Hood, 1996).

Sled dog rides as a tourist attraction are not only restricted to following the iconic races. Rather, they have expanded to become something that tourists can do for anything ranging from a short afternoon break from their skiing holiday in destinations such as Whistler, Canada, to multi-day tours that are often operated as a sideline by those professional mushers who race in events such as the Quest and Iditarod (Coppinger, 1977; Evans, 2008). Examples of dog mushing holidays abound on the Internet across the snowscapes of Canada, the USA and Europe. The dogs have also become a tourist attraction in their own right as some tours now offer people the chance to get up close with the pups in their enclosures as seen in Fig. 2.2. Such an activity, while undoubtedly attractive to the tourist, serves an important purpose for the development of the dog. Through the constant attention they are given by a continuous stream of visitors they become accustomed to the human contact that is an integral part of the sled dog tourism experience, as differentiated from the life of the working sled dog. While it may be argued that only sociable dogs make the grade in this form of sled dog work, it is true that the dogs who get to meet and greet the visitors thoroughly enjoy doing so and love the attention they receive in return.

Fig. 2.2. Puppy petting as part of a sled dog tour.

Today, dog sledding is a popular sport in many parts of the world, with reports of a team even being run on the beaches of Hawaii in the 1970s (Coppinger, 1977), and has its own international organization, the International Sled Dog Racing Association, which was founded in 1966 (Palmer, 1983). In North America the sport features a mix of happy amateurs and a strong professional contingent whereas in places such as Europe it is almost entirely a pastime of the amateur (Firth, 1998). The nature of the races also differs outside of the sled dogging spiritual home, with events tending to be across much shorter distances. This may be a reflection of the amateur status of most participants, the lack of history of sledding as a means of transport, differences in the amount of appropriate available space and different land access regulations. Within the context of this section, the important distinction between sled dog racing in Alaska and northern Canada, and elsewhere in the world, is that in the former it is clearly something that has stemmed from the use of sled dogs for work whereas in the latter it has only ever been a sport. Yet today it is a popular global sport with many countries running their own national championships and the existence of a European Championships since 1984 (Firth, 1998). Interestingly though it has yet to become a sport of the Winter Olympics despite having been a demonstration sport at the 1932 Olympics at Lake Placid (Firth, 1998).

It is interesting to see that sledding today is firmly associated in the minds of many with the Husky. Yet as Coppinger (1977) noted, some of the earliest sled dogs are likely to have been the ancestors of the modern Samoyed, though how much they are comparable to the Samoyed of today is open to debate. More recently, the early outdoorsmen and explorers of Canada and the northern states of the USA utilized basically any dogs they could find that had stamina and strength, with mongrels the most common among them (Coppinger, 1977). Furthermore, it is clear that throughout the history of the sport of sled dog racing almost every type of dog has been utilized either as part of a team or as an entire one, including – according to Coppinger (1977) – Walker Coonhounds, Border Collies, Scotch Collies, Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, Pointers, Dalmatians, Airedales, German Shepherds, Belgian Shepherds, Doberman Pinschers and Weimaraners.

If you visit the dog sled operators of today you are unlikely to find many dogs who would meet the breed standards of a Husky, as defined by the Kennel Club, or any other northern breed. Indeed, my own experience of an operator in Austria in 2013 was that alongside Huskies he was running a couple of Husky/Collie crosses, arguing that the cross offered exemplar strength and endurance as well as being easier to train and more friendly towards guests of the business than pure Huskies. Similarly, the husband of a couple interviewed in Switzerland in 2013 who ran a sled dog tour operation had previously raced sled dogs with a team of collies at one stage and one mixed with 50% collies and 50% Huskies. The picture in Fig. 2.2 also clearly shows that sled dog operators do not always use Huskies though at the same time most advertise their businesses with pictures of this breed. It appears to have been the Europeans who most enthusiastically bought into the idealized image of the Husky as ‘the’ sled dog. For example, the Swiss Club for Northern Dogs, which was set up in 1959, restricted entry to its races to northern purebred dogs only, such as ‘the Siberian Husky, the Alaskan Malamute, the Bearhound, the Finnish Spitz, the Norwegian Elkhound and the Akita’ (Coppinger, 1977: 143).

Even though the search and rescue dogs are clearly working when out in search of lost people, there is a strong element of leisure in the whole experience of these dogs and their handlers, who tend to be volunteers (leaving aside for the moment the whole concept of whether the dog actually ‘volunteers’). With volunteering undertaken during one’s free time, for at least partially internally driven motivations and desires, it has been widely recognized as a form of leisure (Henderson, 1984; Stebbins, 1996). In this way, the meet and greet dogs at airports and their owners may be said to be engaging in leisure as much as work. This neatly exemplifies the problematic state of attempts to view leisure and work as a binary when the reality is clearly much more complex and dependent on the perception of the individual involved. However, in these instances it is not a case of the ‘individual’ involved, but of the individuals involved (i.e. the dog and its owner). Is the activity being engaged in by both felt as work, leisure or a mixture of both by both participants? This is a question that needs more detailed analysis to be able to answer but such work should be situated in the context of recognizing the ‘with’ nature of the relation between dogs and their owners and the social agency and of both.

In the blurring of the divide between work and leisure for dogs and arguably also for their owners (or handlers, given that dogs are not always owned by those who work with them daily) we see the potential for multiple meanings to be associated with dogs in any ‘one’ activity. For example, in the contemporary world of dog sledding the dog can be seen as object, tool, leisured creature (discussed in detail in Chapter 4) and leisure companion to humans. It has been suggested that work, or at least work in a quasi-form through sport, can be utilized as a means of giving dogs a value of self-worth. In an interview with Scotty Allan, one of the great early dog sled racers at the beginning of the 20th century, he stated: ‘Maybe it [the publicity stemming from his races and wins] will bring about a world-wide change in regard to dogs; change useless pets all over the earth into worthwhile, self-respecting animals – give them useful work. Dogs are like humans in that they are better off and happier if they have responsibilities’ (Garst, 1948: 4). This quotation is interesting in many ways for it shows Allan viewed dogs as sentient beings and sought ways to ensure their happiness. At the same time it shows the distain of this outdoorsman for anything so frivolous, in his view, as pets.

Overall, this chapter has aimed to show the diversity of the roles working dogs play in the leisure experience and how many of these roles have, over time, morphed into sport and leisure pursuits. In relation to the dogs, the dominant theme of the chapter has been of them as objects or tools that have been utilized by humans. In this way they fit the conceptualization of dogs as objects that was discussed in Chapter 1 with all the related implications relating to their rights and welfare. Whether these dogs really are only objects or are at least treated as such by their owners will be discussed in Chapter 3.