BC Museum: Border Collie Cousins

THE BORDER COLLIE MUSEUM Permanant Collection

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(Sequenced by Barry Taylor, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.)

BORDER COLLIE COUSINS

Above, Highland's Willy Scott, the editor's first Border Collie, ca. 1979, herding ducks.
Willy displayed the typical herding style of the Border Collie:
tail down, head down, belly close to the ground, creaping forward,
and using "eye" to move the stock.

We think of the Border Collie as a diverse breed, at least in looks. But the Border Collie evolved from the working collies in the 18th and 19th centuries. These dogs were as diverse in looks as the Border Collie is today, and more so; but they were equally diverse in working style. Farmers, shepherds, and drovers selected and bred their dogs for the kinds of work for which they needed them, but also by personal preference, and no less according to what was available to them in their sometimes remote and isolated areas. From this diversity a number of types developed that today are considered seperate breeds. Some, like the Border Collie, developed in Britain, others, like the Australian Shepherd, developed from the working collies that were brought to the United States or Australia and New Zealand. Some, like the English Shepherd, look today very similar to the Border Collie, and some, like the Bearded Collie, look quite different, or at least different enough so that you can distinguish them from the Border Collie by just looking at them. Where they differ most from the Border Collie (and sometimes from each other) are in their working styles. Still, they are all collie breeds, and therefore cousins.

There are ten collie breeds (including the Border Collie) in the world today:
the Australian Shepherd, the Australian Kelpie, the Collie, the Koolie (a.k.a. Coolie or German Coolie),
the English Shepherd, the McNab, the Shetland Sheepdog, the Bearded Collie, and the Welsh Sheep Dog.
This set of web pages is being slowly built, but for the most part, for information on these breeds,
we will be referring you to Linda Rorem's excellent site

Herding on the Web www.herdingontheweb.com
or to the histories of these breeds on other websites.