Alertness wrote:
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I recall reading something similar, that the smooth and the rough variety might have been separate "breeds" (or rather varieties produced for slightly different working functions) in the very early days before they became "breeds" and pedigrees were written down.[/ |
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Hello Alertness - thanks for your message. I have to admit that the evidence is conflicting as to whether the smooth and rough collie are varieties of the same breed or two separate breeds. I realise, that there is no proof either way, but although it is mainly conjecture, reading I have done leads me to come down on the side of there being two distinct breeds. But as you say, it does somehow boil down to the definitions of "breeds" and "varieties."
That said, I have just looked at another book in my library called:
Old Farm Dogs by David Hancock. It is published by Shire Albums in 1999. ISBN0 7478 0429 X
He talks about different varieties of sheepdog living in both Britain and Europe. He emphasises the fact that sheepdogs were bred very specifically in small areas for very specific needs. He also points out that sheepdogs also had to be versatile dogs carrying out other roles than that of sheepdog. After all, how many dogs can a farm support? Different roles that a dog could fulfill would be to control, drive, herd, pen heel or even pin cattle, sheep and other farm animals and also to hunt. The book is illustrated with photos from any time from the 1800s to the early 1900s. In one photo, a group of farmers have been fox hunting and a collie is a member of the team. Multifunctional!!!! David Hancock points out that climate also played a large role in the selective breeding of farm dogs.
So many breeds have been lost says Mr Hancock- the building of the railways removed the need for drovers - perhaps if our smooths were drovers as is often claimed, then we owe their survival to showing. I remember that, as a child, living in Birmingham, we always referred to the Welsh Collie (is this the same as Welsh Hillman?) - Scotland was far away for us - Wales much nearer - the farm dogs we knew of were Welsh collies.
Where is he now? Ha ha - I have just found that the Welsh collie is alive and well - just Google "Welsh collie"
Many other types of sheepdog are mentioned - a Cotswold bearded sheepdog, a Scottish black and tan, a Blue Shag, Welsh Grey, a Black Merle, and of course, the Border, the Bearded and the Old English, the Corgi and many more. Among so many, the smooth is only briefly mentioned.
Finally in this book, is a very is a very interesting speculation. The lurcher is a collie greyhound/ cross which is bred and used today. Two of my friends have had lurchers for many years.The book says quote "Drovers needed to feed themselves on their long journeys and used a sheepdog cross greyhound, known as a lurcher, to fill their pots with meat. The smooth Collie is considered by some experts, to have developed from such a cross.
If any of these other lost farm dogs had been picked out as show dogs, their story would have been different.
Sorry to go on at such great length. Hope that someone will want to comment and add to this subject, which as usual, started out as a very different topic.
Dianne