The fight to save the old-fashioned collie is on. Just where it
will lead we cannot say, but it is bound to be interesting. It involves
the big question of breeding for intelligence rather than external show
points, and that leads toward the controversy between the advocates of
bench shows and those who are endeavoring to promote field trials in
this country. We hope to have some interesting things to print along
these lines before long. Meanwhile, here are a few more letters
inspired by Mr. Barnum's communication in our December 15th issue.
To the Editors:
I showed the reproduction of an old-fashioned shepherd dog, which
appears in your December 15th number, to a farmer who, ten years ago,
owned a remarkably intelligent dog of this breed. His dog's name was
Shep, and as I showed the illustration in your paper to the man, he
said at once: "Yes, that is the very dog! He's exactly like mine was,
except the markings. And that queer drop of the lower lip is just the
way my Shep curled his lower lip when he came toward you wagging his
tail. We called it 'Shep's smile'."
The farmer said that one day he was plowing, and after coming
home he missed the dog. All the next day passed and the dog did not
return. On the third day the farmer went in search of him, and in a
field he found Shep guarding the coat which the farmer had hung on the
fence when plowing, and had entirely forgotten. They had called the
dog, who must have heard them, but he refused to leave his master's
coat. "It would have been of no use to send the hired man for the
coat," said the farmer, " for the dog wouldn't have let him touch it."
"We used to send Shep," said he, "to bring the cows home from
the pasture at milking time. One day he failed to return, but barked
toward the house from a hill-top field. I went up to see what was the
matter and found that one of the cows had a calf down in the hollow and
would not be driven by Shep, and that her calf had got under the fence
into another field. The dog ran to this spot, which was a thicket, and
back again to me, to show me where the calf was, and why he couldn't
perform his usual task.
"He used to follow strangers into the house and sit near them
and watch their every movement. He guarded the children, and would
permit them to maul him about till they got too rough, when he would
walk to another part of the room out of their reach. He was the most
intelligent dog I ever saw, and had an affectionate nature very
different from that of the sharp-nosed collie."
This farmer got this shepherd dog from a fancier in Harrisburg,
Pa., about ten years ago. Possibly an advertisement in the papers in
that locality might discover some dogs of this breed.
The fine dog in your illustration has something of the look of
the Newfoundland or St. Bernard. Could this shepherd dog be the result
of a cross between the collie and St. Bernard? It would be a great
shame if this breed of dogs should die out.
Columbia, Pa.
L. Miller.
Well-earned repose--the old-fashioned collie in the old farmhouse kitchen, after a hard day's work with stock
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To the Editors:
I have just recovered from a severe illness, and while ill in bed a neighbor sent to me a copy of Country Life in America
for December 15, 1911, in which she said there was a life-like picture
of my dog. It had a picture of an old-fashioned shepherd dog in it
which is such a perfect reproduction of my dog Scott that at least a
dozen persons I have shown it to remarked at once it was a picture of
my dog. Of course, I held my hand over the explanatory matter under the
cut while they looked at it. No more perfect reproduction could be
made, and it is safe to say that ninety-nine persons out of a hundred
would declare it to be my dog.
I am a lover of the old-fashioned shepherd and have owned one
since 1898. The one I own now is six years old, is a perfect type of
what you are after, and is the most noble, lovable, faithful animal I
ever saw. I bought him of a Hartford milk dealer at a dog show in
Hartford, Ct., in January, 1906. The old angel lies on the front piazza
of my house now, guarding the place, and he would stay there a week
until he saw me go out. I would not have one of those snipe-nose
aristocrats on the place, but this shepherd I have now is the
perfection of animal friendship.
Bristol, Conn.
Frederick Calvin Norton.
To the Editors:
In the Stable and Kennel department of your issue of December 15,
1911, I note an inquiry of Mr. Otis Barnum in regard to the
old-fashioned shepherd dog. For the information of Mr. Barnum I will
say that there are quite a few of these dogs in this section of North
Carolina. They are not quite as tall as the modern type of collie, but
stouter and heavier. The best ones are mostly tan undercolor with black
tips on the hairs, and with white collar and markings. In disposition
they are very affectionate and playful with their masters and the
children they know, but they are pretty hard to get acquainted with and
will rarely notice a stranger.
A great many people in this section are of Scotch origin and
this breed of dogs is supposed to have been originally brought by them
from Scotland.
About all these shepherd dogs that I know of are bred and owned
by cattlemen who keep them exclusively for use in their business, and I
know of no one who makes a business of breeding them for sale, but
frequently a good puppy can be picked up from some owner who has more
than he has use for.
E. G. Finley.
North Wilkesboro, N. C.
To the Editors:
My dog is a registered Scotch collie, Maxwatton Fanny 2d (114057),
sire Laddie Masterpiece (91579), dam Maxwatton Fanny (101135), all
pertaining to the old-fashioned type of collie. She would be criticized
in a dog show chiefly on the forehead being too full and the eyes being
too prominent and the head in general too short.
It can easily be seen that these so-called faults are mostly
very good indications of intelligence, the keen eye showing life and
energy, the full forehead indicating large brain. Nevertheless, I have
seen some good working dogs among the more aristocratic show animals. I
got Fanny from my brother when she was two months old, having been
whelped October 4, 1906, and she has been around stock ever since. She
received her early training in the Shenandoah Valley while I was in the
employment of H. B. Sproul, Esq., Staunton, Va., a dealer on a large
scale in sheep and cattle; consequently she was at work nearly every
day and soon became very popular among the stock men of the valley.
Manhattan, Kan.
Leslie Ross.
"Me and Bill." The boy-and-dog combination has existed as long as
have boys and dogs--and somehow we always think of the dog as being an
old-fashioned collie
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