Becca, great posts. I couldn't agree more.
I think many of you who detest Sporter Collies would be pleasantly surprised with the temperament and soundness of well bred BCs. Don't judge a breed by the extremes - yes, there are ridiculously fluffy show dogs and ridiculously hyper sport dogs and ridiculously useless "versatile" dogs with dozens of titles and no real-work experience or skill. But there are also good, solid dogs that might work ranches or compete in sheep/cattledog trials which award no titles. They're adaptable, useful, not too high maintainance and these are the dogs that I find are often overlooked, yet are the best representatives of what the breed should be.
I have a border collie from some **** good lines, out of dogs that can and do work large numbers of sheep on a near daily basis. They have the drive, energy and stamina to do this. She has international supreme champion trial dogs behind her, and my 10 month old puppy is proving to be a very keen working dog. Yet, Eve is by far THE kindest, sweetest dog I've met. She's sociable enough to be a therapy dog, stable enough to be my service dog and she gets along with everyone she's met. She can live with other dogs, snarky cats and various small critters. I trust her to always be kind to people. I'm not a hardcore working home. I don't have sheep. To be honest, she doesn't have a ton to do during the day except follow me around and keep an eye on me, but she's not hyper or crazy. She's an active young dog, but certainly not psychotic as some describe the breed.
Good working dogs are a balance of intensity and impulse control, and I find that the sport bred dogs seriously lack the impulse control. I have 2 sport bred dogs, and both of them are like this. Dakota is a very pleasant dog to be around and Dash will be too once she matures, but they don't have the patience or self control that Eve does. When these dogs are raised to be as fast and intense as possible, it makes them unbearable to live with. I can't defend the breeding of sport collies, but the dogs themselves aren't terrible until crazy sport people mess them up. I think that's the biggest difference (aside from the deterioration of working ability) between sport collies and working stockdogs -- the people who raise them.
I wish some of you Chazzers could meet my BCs.
There's a reason I'm so crazy about the breed.
Oh, and for the record, I do agility too. It's possible to have a good agility dog without making them psychotic. Dakota is a therapy dog.