Occasionally, I see my friends in the show world who have more moderate dogs claim that we "don't need a show line/sport line split" because their conformation champions are doing good at sports. First, let me say, I really like and respect these people and I'm very happy for their success. And they have lovely dogs as far as show line dogs go!
But.
A handful of successful conformation dogs achieving qualifying scores in novice agility doesn't really mean much in the long run. I know people putting novice titles (and above) on great danes, great pyrenees and mastiffs.
Now maybe these dogs will go on and be agility superstars (I hope they do!) but I'm saying that until it happens, it just doesn't mean much yet. Even a MACH doesn't say much really. Any decently athletic dog (which should be every dog in our breed honestly) is physically capable of doing moderately well in AKC agility.
Even the highest levels of AKC agility don't begin to compare to the world stage, to FCI, etc. Just because a conformation grand champion can get a novice agility title (or even an AKC MACH) doesn't mean those conformation dogs are going to be truly competitive and hold their own against border collies at world team tryouts.
When I see THAT happen (and not a one off exception but on a REGULAR basis), I'll agree we don't need a sport line split.
I would LOVE to see judges reward the types of dogs who can be successful on the world stage, but frankly, I'll believe it when I see it. We need to keep things in perspective; AKC agility titles don't necessarily equate to truly awesome agility dogs.
