THE COLLIE
The life story of the Collie is the history of pastoral life, for from the first day that man herded flocks he had a dog to help him. There is a similarity in character and appearance between the sheep and cattle dogs of all countries, which points to their common origin, while the cunning and outward look of all indicate their descent from the wild dogs of nature.
Haig ISDS 252, International Supreme Champion 1921
The Collie or Sheep Dog in all countries is considered superior to other dogs in instinct and intelligence, and his countenance discloses sagacity, alert eagerness, and devotion to his master. There is a great difference between the Collie of the bench shows and the old working Collie of the Highlands.
American and UK Champion Laund Lukeo 1924
The Collie of the bench shows is a fancier’s creation; a more graceful and beautiful animal does not exist. He was produced from the old working type, but remote crossing and careful selection continued for many years has so radically changed him that he is almost a breed of his own.
The working qualities of the bench show Collie have been so sadly neglected that they are all but lost. Certainly they are not to be compared in this respect with the Collie of the hills, bred on purely utilitarian lines. In appearance, however, the bench show Collie is a much handsomer and more attractive type, for the working dog is on the nondescript order. The latter vary in size and color; some are smooth coated, some are rough; some have prick ears, others half-dropped or drop, while many have what is known as a watch eye. Some of the best workmen will weigh under forty pounds. Occasionally you will see among the shepherds large, handsome black, white, and tan specimens with fair coats, but more will be all black in color, smooth coated, and small in size. The most popular among the Scottish shepherds is the small black-and-white type with medium coats.
– The Complete Dog Book, William Bruette 1921
Sunnybank Lad, Albert Payson Terhune’s famous Collie. Early 1900s.
It’s amazing how similar the dialogue is 90 years later concerning collies bred for show and those bred for work, although in this case the cast has changed slightly from “the bench show Collie”–what we now call the Rough Collie–to the show Border Collie and the “Collie of the hills” which is the working Border Collie.
I, of course, wouldn’t agree with the assessment that the overangulated, over-coated wedge head show collie is the most graceful and beautiful of animals, I much prefer old Haig to Laund Lukeo. Even if we grant collies their unique traits compared to Border Collies, you must admit that Albert Terhune’s famous Lad, pictured left, is a far superior dog to the bench collie of the era. He has a moderate and proportional head with large gorgeous and expressive eyes.
There is no hint of the “three point” or minuscule almond shaped “oblique” eyes that are now the trademark of the show bred collie. This dog’s ears are naturally set at the side of the head, a more pleasant and friendly look to the artificially taped ears of the show version.
The head is also less severe in the taper from snout backward, there’s a good deal of mouth up front. Many show collies today have severely undershot jaws to accentuate the angle of the head by narrowing the front elevation and to make the profile more shallow.
The show collie pictured above just a few years after the death of Lad has significantly altered conformation, and none of it for the better in my opinion. Lad was an exceedingly handsome dog that a child could instantly fall in love with, I don’t see the same thing happening with the door-stop beady-eyed fashion collie.
Albert Terhune with his dogs Lad, Bruce, and Wolf 1917
If you look at Terhune with Lad and his other collies, you can see that they are clearly of the Old Time Farm Shepherd mold, not of the Highland Rough Collie or even the Border Collie. To create this look today you’d probably have to cross an English Shepherd with a more moderately angled Rough Collie. You can find similar looking dogs in the yellow part of the spectrum of Andy Ward’s ingenious Collie Spectrum interactive graphic.
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Thanks for the link Christopher, great post as usual. I didn’t include Border Collies in my graphic for the sake of brevity, but there are Border Collies pictured in it. My motivation in creating it is the question I often get asked, What is the difference between these and English Shepherds? It’s just easier to understand the difference by looking at pictures than to try to explain the difference.
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Just fascinating Christopher! Sunnybank Lad has the domino or grizzle facial pattern. This pattern is characteristic of the sighthounds and is felt to have originated in the Afghan hounds and Salukis, and carried on through the Borzoi. This is further evidence of the borzoi in the background of the Collie. Since I have never seen a modern-day collie with this facial pattern, perhaps it has since been bred out?
There is a study published in 2010 by Schmutz and Dreger which found the MCR1 mutation that produces the domino or grizzle phenotype. Interesting reading and some good pix too:
http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/content/101/5/644.full.pdf?keytype=ref&ijkey=i9pTszkWidxgfn9
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The sable gene will also produce that pattern. I have a Saluki and an Azawakh/Sloughi cross that are most definitely not grizzle that have the widows peak over the eyes. The Saluki cannot be, as grizzle is a modification of the black and tan phenotype and he is red, and both the Azawakh/Sloughis parents were genotypically red.
AFAIK, the grizzle gene has not been identified in Borzoi.
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Hi Jess, check out the pattern on the dogs identified on this Borzoi site, under #13 (they are being identified as “sable” but in actuality have the “domino” AKA “grizzle” phenotype):
http://borzoi-color.batw.net/quick_color.html
Both your parents could be red but possibly could carry the at allele which is recessive? We have sables and red dogs who carry at recessively in Poms.
According to the Schmutz study, domino and grizzle are the same phenomenon and present in both Saluki and Afghan Hounds, and caused by the same gene mutation. I believe Liisa Sarakontu also lists domino as a pattern in Borzoi but I’d have to look to find that info from her. Yes you are correct, for typical expression of domino the dog must also be atat. Although the gene that produces the domino variant is in the family commonly denoted as “E”, so it is a variant of black masking and blocking of eumelanin. Just one EG allele is enough to produce the domino pattern from what I am reading, so it is somewhat dominant.
On reading the Schmutz study more closely, they did test some modern Collies and Shelties for the EG allele, because some dogs in those breeds have a pattern somewhat resembling domino as you noted (particularly among the dogs who appear to be sable). Those Collies and Shelties tested did not have the gene for domino. Neither did any Malamutes or Siberian Huskies who were tested. So there may also be some variant on urajiro at work across some breeds that is unrelated to domino/grizzle. (just my hypothesis here). They did not test any Sloughis or Tazis, that would have been interesting to see the results! However, as I said, I haven’t seen a modern day Collie with domino facial marking as distinct as those on Sunnybrook Lad!
Here is more on the coat color alleles from Sheila Schmutz’s website:
http://homepage.usask.ca/~schmutz/alleles.html
Thanks for the feedback I find the study of coat color just fascinating.
My red dog:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DvWTdZAsApQ/TiNuKlhJKDI/AAAAAAAAEjw/qaq63EjbR70/s1600/DoobieMorgie0625.jpg
HIs sire is cream, and dam red, nothing but red and cream behind him for several generations on both sides. That type of sabling is not uncommon in Salukis, but it often fades as the dog grows, leaving only the ears and sometimes some darker hair on the back (used to be called black fringed red or fawn.) I had a red pup in my last Saluki litter that maintained the widows peak until he was about three months old and then it faded completely. The ‘urajiro’ effect is extremely common in red, gold and cream colored Salukis, and combined with sabling, produces a dog that looks grizzle but is not.
How much sabling will fade (and whether the widow’s peak does as well) is dependent on genetics; there are some lines of Afghans that remain darkly sabled all their lives, and some lines of Salukis where the reds maintain the widows peak, and some that always lose most of the sabling as they mature.
Black and tan in Tazis (Persian and further East) and COO Afghans seems to be rare. I have never seen a photo of a COO Afghan that was domino, and only one of a grizzle Kazakh Tazi.
Sloughi colors are very interesting: http://sloughi.tripod.com/sloughiworld/Coatcolors.html
They do have black and tan but it is grouped in with ‘mantle’ even though genetically it is different. You can see partway down that page two head shots, on the left a ‘mantle’ (sabled) dog with a mask (not possible with grizzle/domino) and a black and tan dog on the right.
My Azawakh/Sloughi cross:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IXJjQWlSGos/TV2b2FPv0vI/AAAAAAAAETM/VMOizj3zSwo/s1600/NazgulHypatia0213.jpg
The little red dog is a Kazakh/Russian Tazi; you can see she has the urajiro thing going on.
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Here is my male Collie who has the domino markings nearly as distinct as Lad, although I wouldn’t call him a “modern day Collie”.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.480273643357.253323.588913357&type=1
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Yes he certainly does! You have lovely dogs!! I am green with envy!
Chris love this post, especially your comments regarding the change in ear set. This ear set is far more pleasant and functional for a herding dog. These ears folded we called this the tulip ear. Basically a functional ear to keep debris out when running in the fields. First time I saw a collie show. They ran the ring with their ears to the side. Being presented to the Judge the ears unfold tipped. This was due to a structural cartilage inside the ear like the rim of a cup. There also seemed to be alot more muscle tissues to perform this difference of function. Kathy
I should probably do a new post on the rumored Borzoi influence in the Collie, but until then there are some good comments about that issue on the Queen Victoria’s Collies post.
I don’t believe that there is any concrete evidence of a strong Borzoi influence in the collie. The elements of the oft repeated story don’t really line up either, the timing is suspect and the morphological “changes” that would be suspected to be caused by the Russian gift Borzois were already present in the breed before the gift was made to Queen Victoria.
As it is, I suspect that the characteristic head shape of the Rough Collie is more about exaggerating a feature that was already present in the breed than any sort of admixture.
The persistent rumor that Collie *must* have Borzoi in them to produce the long narrow head discounts how much selective breeding even within a closed population can change the appearance of the dog. They didn’t *need* Borzoi to produce that head, simply breeding long-headed dog to long-headed dog and then line-breeding on those offspring would produce it.
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It reminds me, actually, of the contention that the original Afghan hound imports would have grown big long coats if only they’d had a good shampoo and a proper brush, with the supposition being that ‘no, we didn’t actually breed for all that hair, it was already there.’ Well, no. The coat genes are there, in the native population, and the moderate amount of coat is maintained by including the very nekkid dogs in the breeding population instead of removing them. In the Western population, coat was bred to coat with the intention of producing more coat, and after the Bell Murray dogs lost popularity, the sparsely coated dogs were removed from the breeding equation.
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I have a Borzoi x Collie draft post that has been sitting around for a looooong time. I was talking to a guy who was going to get me some genetic data to help disprove it but he was busy and never got back with me. I’ll have to be a pest and bug him.
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Sure there is, because every time I walk down the street with my Borzoi, someone calls him “Lassie”! Therefore they must be related, since the extreme head of the modern show Collie couldn’t possibly have been achieved via selective breeding. #endsarcasm
On a completely unrelated note, I was once informed by a random woman on the street that Borzoi are the only breed that can kill bears. I was standing there with my Borzoi & one of my Central Asian Shepherds at the time. Found it interesting that she considered the tall, slender speed demon dog to have a better chance in battle with the ultimate land predator than the brawny fur-covered tank with the head of a bear standing right beside him.
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I don’t know who the author is but this website has interesting info and pictures.
http://webspace.webring.com/people/bf/farmshepherd/qv.html
I don’t doubt that there was a strong possibility of crossbreeding to achieve a different style, as folks back then didn’t think twice about crossing to get the type of dog that they wanted. Even the picture of “Lassie” (I would assume that to be Rudd Weatherwax’s “Pal”?) on your page looks to be a totally different breed than any of the other Collies in that collage!
At any rate, I doubt there was any pedigree information kept “back in the day” either, so we will probably never know for sure! Sadly, we can see a more extreme and rapid “evolution” in today’s Collie even without crossbreeding, so your theory, Chris, is of course a distinct possibility too. Thanks!
Here’s an interesting web page, I don’t know who the author is however, but it does have some great photos. The dog called “Doon Eclipse” looks like he could have been a first or second generation cross.
http://webspace.webring.com/people/bf/farmshepherd/qv.html
I think it is certainly not impossible that crossbred dogs went into the makeup of the modern show-type Collie. “Back in the day” it was common to cross breed for desired characteristics. Pedigrees were rarely kept, so I guess we’ll probably never know for sure. It is still common practice in Great Britain to breed “lurchers”; which is usually a cross between a sighthound and herder.
However, I have seen pix of old Collies who definitely have the longer skull although still with a pronounced stop, otherwise vbery similar in type to today’s dogs. Considering how much the modern Collie has “evolved” without any crossbreeding, it is certainly possible that just breeding for the desired skull type could have produced today’s dogs without any outside influence.
Thanks for the links, Jess, I am going to check them out more thoroughly now!!
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A book from 1903, “British Dogs by W. D. Drury”, speculates that the Collie’s form resulted from crosses of sheepdogs with greyhounds:
The English form of Sheepdog is described in earlier times than is the Scotch Collie; and it is not improbable that the latter may be in part derived from the former and the Scotch Greyhound. The Collie at least partakes of the form of both, having the strength of build of the English Sheepdog and the lithe, graceful action of the Greyhound. This is, of course, a mere suggestion, and not even much supported by the fact that intermediates in form between the Collie and both of these are seen in litters of what are called pure Collies.
More from this book:
Amongst those in authority who believed that our modern Collie is a degenerate as regards intelligence was the late Mr. D. J. Thomson Gray. He said: “The craze for high-set ears and extra long heads has given us not a Collie, but a long-coated Greyhound, with all the latter’s stupidity. Fanciers in breeding for outward points have ignored intelligence, so that the most intelligent dogs of the breed are found in those outside the prize-lists. As a watch, as a companion, and as a sporting dog, an intelligent Collie has few equals, and what makes him the more valuable in the eyes of the non-fancier is that he is as guid as he is bonnie.”
It’s interesting to speculate, but I don’t suppose the true background will ever be known. However, lurchers have been bred for eons so it is not inconceivable that something like that would have been a force in shaping the Collie.
I think the Scottish Deerhound is the most likely source of any sighthound blood in the collie. Not that some people haven’t tried crossing the two breeds, no doubt they have, but I doubt that any such cross has made any significant contribution to the breed as a whole.
Andy Ward recently posted..British Collies in 1897: a Pictorial
I was looking up info on the “Scotch Greyhound” and found that there was a rough-coated variety that was regarded as similar to the Scottish Deerhound.
It all depend on what is being selected for. In my breed, there has been just one or two crosses with other breeds specifically for the merle trait , and now in selecting for that trait through the past few years, we have hundreds if not thousands of merle pomeranians.
To my knowledge, no one has proposed any kind of cross to get the very changed head of the bull terrier. Selective breeding can do a lot to transmorgify a breed in short order. OTOH, crosses, either intentional or accidental, are often a shortcut to gain the same goal. I have no doubt a cross or two to “improve” collies was done, but unless some unique DNA marker was also tansmitted (as with the MDRI gene and the longhaired whippet), I don’t see how one could prove anything one way or the other. What’s sad is that so many insist the normal head is ugly or “plain” or coarse, while praising a head shape that is known to deform the eye socket, among other things. The concept of what is “beauty” in conformation rather consistently appalls me.
Peggy Richter
Bull terriers were derived from English white terriers. These were ratting pit dogs that had some whippet or Italian greyhound ancestry. If you look at the photos and paintings of early Hinks strain bull terriers, they were more gracile and long muzzled than staffies and other bull and terriers that were being bred at the time. The best way to describe an English white terrier is a solid white Manchester terrier.
The colored variety of bull terrier (and by extension, the colored miniature bull terriers) were mixed with staffies in the twentieth century. One of these was a first cross between a bull dog and a Manchester terrier, which is why there are a many colored bull terriers that are black and tan, tricolor, or black and tan variants with brindle.
In forty years of owning a lot of Bull Terriers I haven’t noticed the eye shape doing any deforming of the eye. The eyeball itself is a normal dog eye, the opening is triangular and small. The shape of the head, while maybe not beauty in all beholders eyes, has not caused any problems. I think breeders have forgotten you need width – when viewed from the front the head should look like an egg. It’s very easy to breed a very extreme profile with no width and no strength head on. Breeding a strong head with a lovely profile and strong muzzle is not easy.
I agree regarding there crosses to create bull terriers, but disagree that these were to obtain the “egg shaped head” which is my point. None of the dogs used in creating the bull terrier had the peculiar “egg shaped” head that is currently considered “correct”. Equally, modifying the head of the show collie could have been the result of “selection”. Ditto for the change in the GSD — the original dogs were essentially larger more robust versions of the Belgian herding dog — none had extreme banana backs or sickle hocks, yet by 1920 you see the start of sickle hocked dogs. Selection for an extreme seems to have sufficed. The problem with conformation – or any “winner take all” type competition is that it tends to reward extremes as soon as one eliminates the obvious problems. In a relatively homogenous group of competitors, only the extreme stands out. If one then only breeds to “winners” then the bell curve keeps shifting to the more extreme examples.
Peggy Richter.
The first modern bull terrier was Lord Gladiator (b. 1917). He was the first one with no stop at all.
But the tendency toward egg-shaped heads is decades older.
This trend already existed in English white terriers: http://chestofbooks.com/animals/dogs/Terriers-UK/Chapter-III-The-English-White-Terrier.html
Wolf shall always be my favorite of the Sunnybank collies.
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I grew up with four breeds my first dog was a Border Collie, he was a genius to smart for us this was in the late 50s early 60s. We didn’t have enough for him to do so he escaped. I would go out and find him he came when called and I would put a leash on him and then he would drag me home every time as if I were the errant one. My next dog was an old farm type Rough Collie, bred by my Grandmother. She had been breeding them for generations and they were known in our local area for their intelligence and heroic acts. In fact the Great Grandmother of my dog had heroically saved my aunt when a baby. My dog was as intelligent as my Border Collie, but never ran off and felt it was his job to escort me everywhere I went protecting me on several occasions he looked like the pictures of Lad, that I have seen with a pronounced stop between his eyes like a Shetland Sheepdog and my Border. I also had a German Shepherd at the same time almost as smart and just as protective, the kids who picked on me at school wouldn’t come near when they saw those dogs. Years later when I was 16 I got a U.K.C English Shepherd, he was smaller then the other dogs at 23″ inches taller then the Border, but he was smarter more athletic and even more heroic. He herded our cattle he saved me from being crushed in our barn shed by a cow and kept the herd back while I spread the hay. He saved my two brothers on two separate occasions from rattle snakes, he could leap a 5 foot fence he was incredible. I read a book a year or so later that said animal behaviorists after testing more then 400 breeds of dogs determined the English Shepherd, was the smartest and ran several training tests on them, from this I learned some of my training methods. A little more then 10 years later a second group of behaviorists testing a smaller group of breeds excluding the English Shepherd, determined that the Border Collie, was smartest the Rough Collie, and German Shepherd had dropped. I have owned both they were both incredibly smart and I do believe the Border Collie, as a breed is brilliant, but give the A.K.C time they will ruin them too some of my herding friends say the A.K.C dogs are no longer able to be trained for herding. In my experience I would pick my English Shepherd, he was the total dog.