How are USBCHA trials different from American Kennel Club (AKC) and American Herding Breeds Association (AHBA) trials?

For one thing, AKC and AHBA trials are explicitly designed so that many different herding breeds can participate in them. USBCHA/ISDS trials, although technically open to all breeds of dogs, are so demanding at the highest levels that few non-border collies would be able to complete a course. But possibly the primary difference is that USBCHA/ISDS trials are strictly competitive events: dogs who compete in them are not attempting to earn titles, as they are in both AKC and AHBA events. If you participate in a trial that gives qualifying legs toward a title, you have the right to expect that the conditions of trial A are pretty much like the conditions of trial B: it wouldn't be fair if your leg was much more difficult to achieve than someone else's leg. And that means that title-granting trial organizations need to minimize the differences between the sheep and the different courses as much as possible. Inevitably, this situation leads to trials on sheep that are very used to dogs, ...  more