historic collies Archive
Questions Searchers Ask About Scotch Collies
Reading over the analytics report for my website over the last 6 months I noticed that a lot of people come here looking for answers to specific questions. So I have decided to answer a few of these questions here. The following are actual questions people have asked search engines and been brought to thisRead More
The Field illustrated 1915: The Scotch Collie
Without doubt no dog has been more talked of and written about than the modern Collie. He may have degenerated, as many dog show people feel, having been inbred and pushed too much for certain points, but after all, Buffon’s statement that the shepherd dog was the original dog from which all others descended isRead More
Landrace vs. Purebred Scotch Collies
Q: Why do some Old-Time Scotch Collies look more like modern Rough Collies and others look more like Aussies? Short answer: Old-Time Scotch Collies are a “landrace breed”. Read on to learn what constitutes a landrace breed, how they differ from “purebred” dog breeds and how we can maintain this healthy, hearty and intelligent population.Read More
Scotch Collies and Sheep Dogs – 1919
The early Romans had their Shepherd dog (canus pastorales) but no line of descent can be traced to help us to identify the exact type of Shepherd dog of that day. Dr. Cains, author of Tretis of English Dogges (1570) is the first writer to refer to Shepherd dogs. In that work he says: “OfRead More
Richard Ansdell, Early Collies in Art
When discussing early paintings of Collies the name most often heard is Edwin Henry Landseer, yet looking through the examples of his work online he doesn’t really paint too many Collies and they are usually obscured or in the background. The lesser known contemporary of Landseer’s who really painted the Collie is Richard Ansdell. Ansdell spentRead More
Wandering Willie
Note: The story below is about Willie, a “Northumbrian collie” from the Cheviot Hills, no doubt a representative of the regional shepherd dogs that would become know as the Border Collie in later years and not a true Scotch Collie. Read more about Britain’s different regional shepherd dogs. Many a touching story has been told of theRead More
Burpee’s Farm Annual for 1891
ROUGH-COATED SCOTCH COLLIES. THE MOST FAITHFUL, MOST INTELLIGENT AND MOST USEFUL OF DOGS. Descriptive of these popular dogs, which we are breeding extensively, we cannot do better than republish the following, condensed from an article in The Century Magazine:— “The outer coat is long and rough, expanding into a frill or ruff about the neck,Read More
The Colley, The dogs of Great Britain… 1879
One of the most beautiful and useful of all dogs is the Scotch sheep-dog or colley, excellent engravings of which are given, pp. 125-128. With a fine muzzle he combines an intelligent-looking and rather broad head, and a clear but mild eye, a pricked and small ear slightly falling at the tip. His body isRead More
Albert Payson Terhune Home Movies
Amazing home video of Albert Payson Terhune and his collies.
Queen Victoria’s Collies
Much has been written about Queen Victoria’s Collies, one can hardly read a history of the breed without some mention of how she made them popular or how she bred Borzoi into them. In my research I have so far found no information to indicate that she made any significant contribution to the popularity ofRead More
Where is the Old English Sheepdog?
The more I research old articles for this website, the more questions crop up and each new epiphany leads to another. For example, I started out researching historic articles about farm collies, but I soon realized that the term “farm collie” was not in general use prior to the 1980s, the old term for theseRead More
What Did Pre-Dog Show Scotch Collies Look Like?
It has been said that the English Shepherd represents what the Scotch Collie looked like before show breeders ruined them. Because this was touted on some fairly reliable websites I believed it myself until I began doing research for creating this website. Once I started looking at historical sources about these dogs I found aRead More
