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Bearding the Sheepdog
by David Hancock
Charwynne Dog
Features retains the copyright to the below article
and to all photographs, or prints, that are linked to this article.
Permission for reproduction must be obtained from Charwynne
Dog Features.
The two main pitfalls in understanding the pastoral breeds of dog is
to consider them solely in each country where they still exist and to
fail to appreciate that shepherds, drovers, stockmen and farmers
generally had no interest in creating breeds. Pastoral dogs were valued
because of their
performance. Livestock-farming, the rearing, herding and eventually
getting stock to market, was a hard living not a gentle pastime. Before
the days of rail and wheeled transporters, the sheep and cattle, and
therefore the shepherds and their dogs, 'hoofed' it. The dogs were
either robust or they didn't survive. The drovers needed substantial
dogs, able to travel huge distances and protect the stock, as the
bouviers demonstrate. The Lake District farmers needed a leggier dog
than those in Kent; the hill shepherds needed robust, agile dogs with
immense stamina. Function, as always with dogs, decided form.
In time, transhumance led to the development of the mountain
dogs/flock guardians, herding needs gave us the shepherd dogs and within
them, specialists committed to the 'living fence' role, like the GSD, or
the flock herders, like the Bearded Collie of Scotland and some parts of
England. The Border Collie may have got its name, not from the border of
Scotland and England, but from its skill on the borders of the flock.
But the Beardie's name came from its coat and how that affected its
appearance.
The group is represented in most areas of Europe: the
Cao da Serra de Aires
from Portugal, the Briard and the
Picardy from France, the
Pyrenean sheepdog, the
Gos d'Atura of Catalonia, the
German Sheep Poodle, the
Lowland Sheepdog of Poland,
the South Russian Owtcharka, the
Schapendoes
of Holland and, from the British Isles, the Bearded Collie, the Old
English Sheepdog and the now-extinct Old Welsh Grey, Blue Shag and
Smithfield Sheepdogs. This group of dogs is not easy to research;
shepherds did not write about their dogs and those who did never did so
from experience. Much-quoted writers like Stonehenge, in his The Dogs
of the British Islands (1878), and Thomson Gray, in his The Dogs
of Scotland (1891), did not provide much of value on them and
clearly had no experience of them.
In his The Illustrated Book of the Dog of 1881, Vero Shaw
quotes "The Live Stock Journal" of 1878, in which Gordon Phillips of
Glenlivet writes on the 'rough-coated' Collie. It is forgivable to
assume that his words refer to the pedigree Rough Collie, but he was
describing a shaggy sheepdog, not the longer-haired variety of
the Scottish Collie. A precis of his words gives considerable value to
Bearded Collie fanciers. Phillips wrote that: It is seldom if ever seen
pure-bred in the north of Scotland; it is shaggy-coated, thick-skinned,
with short powerful limbs; shepherds prefer it for its endurance of cold
and fatigue and its ability as a driver, considering it the best dog for
sheep; the size of an ordinary collie but a good deal deeper-chested and
flatter in the forehead; a dark grey in colour, short-tailed, at home
among the drift and snow, finely adapted for hill climbing.
He wrote that this type of shaggy-coated collie instinctively made a
wide sweep, with shepherds stating that they can safely trust 200 or 300
sheep 'to the sagacity of this valuable dog, which does not hurry or
push, but drives them as coolly and as cautiously as if its master were
present'. Vero Shaw produced an illustration of the collie described by
Phillips, adding that 'It is impossible to give any standard for judging
this variety. General appearance, tail, strength, and shagginess without
too much length of coat, should be taken into consideration'. Shepherds
were known to refer to such collies as goat-haired collies; goats also
of course having beards.
The goat-haired sheepdogs have long existed as a distinct type all
over Europe, but all lack coverage in canine literature. If you compare
their distribution with that of the big flock-guardians of the high
pastures like the Maremma, the Estrela Mountain dog, the Caucasian
Owtcharkas, the Kuvasz, the Tibetan "Mastiff" and the Bergamasco then
with the various types of Dutch and Belgian shepherd dogs, the Border
Collie, the Beauceron, the Algerian Sheepdog, the
Berger de Picardie,
the rough and smooth Collies and the now extinct Welsh Hillman, you can
soon see how climate, function and terrain determined type. Against that
background therefore, I don't believe there is really any need to seek
an origin for, say, the Bearded Collie in dogs off a Polish ship in the
l6th century or any other foreign ancestry. If you want a long-haired
sheepdog, breed one selectively from the longer-coated specimens of
sheepdog stock! The international distribution of dogs that herd sheep,
long-haired, rough-coated or smooth, demonstrates that the differing
coat-lengths occur naturally and have been perpetuated and enhanced by
line-breeding down the centuries to stabilise one particular coat. In
time a desired coat length can be fixed and the various breeds, or
varieties within a breed, evolved. Not surprisingly, coat lengths can be
linked with specific needs in particular areas and developed with other
breed characteristics. With pedigree dog-breeding being only just over a
century old it is easy to overlook the fact that breed-types evolved in
many cases over at least five centuries.
In some areas where prolonged wind-chill exposure was met, felted
coats like those of the Komondor, the Bergamasco and the Puli were
needed. But the coat texture and length produced was originally always
in pursuit of a purpose and never appearance. The herding breeds were
developed by essentially practical men, in eternal combat against the
elements and wild predators, men who quickly discarded weedy or faulty
dogs. I know of no old print or early photograph or painting which
depicts the longer-haired herding breeds with the excessive length of
coat displayed by many of their successor breeds in today's show rings.
Too heavy or too long a coat is a needless handicap to a working breed
not traditionally requiring to feature such a characteristic.
Early in the last century Mr. H.A. Titley, who contributed so much
to the development of the Old English Sheepdog, wrote: "During recent
years there has been an increasing tendency to over-development of the
coat and especially for show purposes, but it is an adverse handicap for
'working' dogs which are exposed to all weathers, mud, and dusty roads."
Fifty years or so ago James Garrow wrote to Mrs. G. O. Willison, who
launched the show career of the Bearded Collie: "The Beardie was
essentially a worker, famed for fleetness and brains, kept by butchers,
farmers, etc.... The coat should not be overlong and of a raw harsh
texture...Have you drawn up the standard for the K.C. yet? You want to
emphasise the rule on coat." Most of the Beardies I see in the show ring
nowadays display such a length of silky coat as to obscure the natural
lines of the dog's body, which is contrary to the breed standard. The
standard of the Old English Sheepdog places no restriction on the length
of coat at all.
I can find no evidence nor any credibility in the stories that the
longer-haired herding dogs all originated in one country and spread out
from there. I believe it is likely that the herding dogs brought south
by the migrating Indo-Europeans roughly four thousand years ago had the
prototypal dogs and since then they have gradually evolved into the
types and with the physical features demanded by location, function and
local preferences. In Britain, Bearded Collies have been interbred with
the Old English type and the working sheepdogs of the Border Collie type
for centuries. This is not to say of course that in some areas a
definite type was not preferred and kept distinct.
The movement of tribes and groups of people over Europe in the last
two thousand years, especially in the first millennium AD, has led to
the various modern breeds as we know them today emerging in certain
areas. Of course sheep-herding dogs quite often went with flocks of
sheep when these changed hands and, sometimes, countries too. It is, in
my view, quite absurd to claim that the different herding breeds,
especially when they occur in the same country, are completely
unrelated. It is entirely fair however to state that line-breeding for
distinct 'type has been practised for several hundred years in a number
of areas. In the Pyrenean region, the dog from Abrazzie was considered
by Megnin to be the ideal for the standard of the Pyrenean Sheepdog,
with the Bagneres type having the best head, while the thick-set St-Beat
dog was likened to a miniature Bobtail (Old English Sheepdog).
Comparable thinking has led some to claim that Peebleshire is the
true home of the Beardie, Dorset the real home of the Bobtail, The Lake
District the original base for the Border Collie and Snowdonia the home
of the Old Welsh Grey. But Beardies have long been favoured in
north-west England and, being utilised by drovers, could be found
wherever there was a vibrant sheep trade; the Smithfield Sheepdog, the
bigger Beardie-type, being associated with the sheep-market towns and
areas of eastern England. There were differences between the
longer-haired sheepdogs found in the Highlands and those working in the
border regions.
Beardies work in a different style from that of their shorter-haired
fellow working sheepdogs; although they can display the ground-hugging
creeping gait, they are not silent or "strong-eyed" but excel at
collecting and then retaining sheep in big groups. This capability made
them most useful to drovers and butchers. The goat-haired collies were
favoured by renowned drovers such as McDonald of Skye around 1930 then
shepherds like Tom Muirhead of Dunsyre a few decades later. Brian
Plummer, the countrysports writer bought Muirhead's kennel of Beardies,
describing the white-headed ones as willing to 'face the devil himself',
because of their hardness. Now Graham Nicholson's Working Bearded Collie
Foundation is continuing their work. I understand that in the early days
of trying to breed pure Beardies it was not unusual to find a couple of
pups in a litter looking more like Border Collies. The early
registrations of sheepdogs with the International Sheepdog Society
listed rough, smooth and bearded types but farmers often interbred dogs
with different coats and ear-carriage. The Bobtail was also used as a
drovers' dog, like the Bouviers on mainland Europe; I can remember an
old grazier on Salisbury Plain fifty years ago telling me how the
instinctive skills of the Bobtails varied: some preferring to lead the
sheep, others to drive them as a flock and some to guard a flank. This
instinctive behaviour occurred in young untrained dogs.
Other bobtailed dogs, somewhat smaller than ours, are the Berger des
Pyrenees, the Gos D'Atura of Catalonia (recently recognised by our KC)
and the Polski Owcaarek Nizinny or Polish Lowland Sheepdog, although
some specimens in these breeds which are born with tails can be seen
undocked. The Cao da Serra de Aires from Portugal, known as the "monkey
dog " from its heavy eyebrows, beard and moustache and the Catalan
Sheepdog both feature the full tail, the latter breed carrying it gaily
when working. The Portuguese dog, the Schapendoes of Holland and our own
Bearded Collie are astonishingly similar in appearance, a significant
fact if one day gene pools need enlarging.
I understand that every Bearded Collie registered in the world can
be traced back to just twelve dogs, a small genetic base. This fine
breed will need wise breeders if it is to retain its characteristics,
robustness and virility. Already in Canada I've seen the breed described
as having set a record for "the breed ruined in the shortest possible
time". It is surely vital to breed every ancient breed true to its
heritage rather than for those who see only cosmetic appeal. The Beardie
should be a medium-sized dog not a rival to the Old English Sheepdog.
The Beardie should be long-backed and its eyes should be visible not
concealed. I like the phrase used in outline description of the breed in
Our Dogs of December l7th, 1898: "The face should have a sharp,
inquiring expression". Facial expressions can tell you a lot about dogs
as well as people! Soppy-eyed dogs shouldn't be tolerated in a working
breed and neither should excessively-heavy coats.
A decade or so ago, I was told of Cumbrian sheep farmer Malcolm
Ewart of Barkbeth Farm near Bassenthwaite Lake who worked Beardies on
grazing stints on Skiddaw of around 3,000 feet. He had a waiting list
for his pups, so highly were his dogs rated as workers. But his dogs did
not feature the length of coat seen on show ring specimens in the breed.
Show breeders may not want their dogs to work on Skiddaw but if they are
true Bearded Collies they should be physically able to do so. Beardies
are clever dogs and this, together with their determination and
tractability, has led lurcher breeders to utilise their blood, as have
Deerhound breeders of old. Both the Pyrenean and the Catalan Sheepdogs
are renowned for their cleverness and responsiveness to training.
We should value the herding breeds for their unique service to man and respect their
historical role and form by breeding dogs still able to carry out their
original functioneven if never required to do so. The
longer-haired herding breeds have coats which can mask a score of faults
and show ring judges of these breeds have a more difficult task. Unsound
movement is less easily screened from someone with an eye for dogs,
being probably the worst fault in a working breed and such breeds demand
more practised, more widely experienced and enlightened judges than the
ornamental breeds. This particular group of herding dogs readily arouse
our affection; it is even more important that they are afforded our
respect, respect for their true type and correct conformation.
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