American Kennel Club History
American Kennel Club History
History is replete with reference to the Border collie, not always named as such, but nevertheless described in a manner leaving little doubt about the kind of dog described. Beginning with Dr. Caius in 1570, Bewick in 1790 and on through the generations to modern authorities, we find this dog called the Shepherds dog, the English Collie, the Working Collie and finally the Border Collie. Caius mentions him as "not huge, vaste and bigge but of indifferent stature and growth," while Bewick writes of him as a "rough-coated Collie, black with white ring around the neck and a white tail tip."
This is sufficient, it seems to establish the Border Collie as very old in his own right, without intermixture save perhaps with other sheepdog types in surrounding neighborhoods. However, the modern Border Collie, it is said, was developed with the aid of the Old English Sheepdog, or Bobtail, and the Bearded Collie, although in essentials he resembles neither.
The sheepherder of old was not concerned with the appearance or conformation of his dogs. He sought only an intelligent mind, a sound body and an aptitude for handling sheep. Coats, too, did not bother him, and so they varied from short and smooth to shaggy and fairly long according to how the dogs were worked in warmer climes. Color customarily was black with white points including chest, collar, muzzle, legs and tail tip. Tan markings on some specimens were not unusual. Though bred to pedigree on a basis of work and nothing else, the dogs began to develop a more or less uniform appearance; they were medium in size, excellent in balance, with strong, straight legs and tough feet that could negotiate with speed and agility plain or mountainside, rough ground or smooth. And so inborn was their skill in handling animals that with the years the scope of their work was enlarged to include, as specialties, cattle, swine and poultry.
The Border Collie's sight has long been emphasized as especially keen, and thereby hangs a tale which attempted to explain, or perhaps condone, an early prevalence of wall eyes among sheep-herding dogs. Shepherds and farmers believed that one brown eye and one blue eye helped the dog in his work since, they maintained, the dark eye focused better on close objects and the light eye on more distant objects. Make of this what you will. At any rate, emphasis was on the eye, as reported in sheepdog trial records. This is not to be wondered at because by this means the dog was thought to exert his power over the sheep. When, for instance, a dog was excessively domineering over his charges, he was accused of being over-strong in eye. And when he did not exert enough control, he was branded as loose-eyed. However, the dark eye later came to be preferred, with the wall eye considered objectionable.
Sheepdog trials have been held since 1873 in Wales, and since 1880 here in America; and they have continued through the years under the aegis of organized associations like the International Sheep Dog Society in England, the North American Sheep Dog Society in Illinois and The American International Border Collie Registry, Inc. in Runnells, Iowa.
Email: fancyface0@hotmail.com
