Before the Farm Collie Movement propagandized the intermixing of their farm collies with everything else in the farm dog world, we had a bloodline of English Shepherds that weren’t predominately collies. Here’s an article from the April 1952 issue of Dog World Magazine titled “They Are Not the Same.”
Interesting point of fact; none of the 13 dogs from the Old-fashioned Black and Tan English Shepherd bloodlines which I have tested through Embark Vet have any of the breed-specific genetic conditions which are typically associated with collies and today’s farmcollie-dominated English Shepherd breed.
GenSol[1]https://www.gensoldx.com/ is a DNA testing lab. For the Rough Collie, GenSol recommends these diseases be screened:[2]https://www.gensoldx.com/product-category/rough-collie/?449323_tax_types_of_tests%5B0%5D=196&449323_device=laptop&449323_filtered=true
- COLLIE CYCLIC NEUTROPENIA (CN)
- COLLIE EYE ANOMALY (CEA)
- DEGENERATIVE MYELOPATHY (DM)
- HYPERURICOSURIA (HU)
- MULTIDRUG SENSITIVITY (MDR1)
For an English Shepherd breed dominated by farm collies, GenSol recommends these diseases[3]https://www.gensoldx.com/product-category/english-shepherd/?449323_tax_types_of_tests%5B0%5D=196&449323_device=laptop&449323_filtered=true be screened:
- COLLIE EYE ANOMALY (CEA)
- DEGENERATIVE MYELOPATHY (DM)
- HYPERURICOSURIA (HU)
- MULTIDRUG SENSITIVITY (MDR1)
- PROGRESSIVE ROD-CONE DEGENERATION (PRA-PRCD)
Notice the overlap. To re-state, none of the 13 dogs from the Old-fashioned Black and Tan English Shepherd bloodlines which I have tested through Embark Vet[4]https://embarkvet.com/ have any of the breed-specific genetic conditions which are screened for in collie breeds. To be fair, thirteen is hardly a large enough population for a scientific conclusion. But imagine a scenario where the proponents of a dying breed absorb all the farm dogs they can find and proclaim “those are all our dogs.” This is basically what the farm collie movement did to the Old-fashioned Black and Tan English Shepherd bloodline.
The English Shepherd Club and it’s registry have been great for the Farm Collie Movement. And Facebook has become the de-facto commercial sales and marketing arm of the farm collie movement. But proponents of the Old-fashioned Black and Tan English Shepherd should come to realize two important points. 1) Every black and tan dog sold on Facebook becomes part of the farm collie movement. And 2) every dog registered with the English Shepherd Club Registry becomes part of the farm collie movement. It is great that they were able to resuscitate the farm collies by exploiting the black and tan shepherds’ genetics. (They really created something all together new, but that’s an aside). But the problem is, it was “all take and no give”. So now the farm collies thrive, while the black and tan shepherds’ bloodline is on life support.
Tony
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