CHAPTER IV. 



THE SMOOTH-COATED COLLIE WHERE HE SPRINGS FROM 

 His VARIETIES AND TYPES His COLOURS SOME OF 

 THE BEST DOGS A SAGACIOUS BlTCH PUNISHMENT 

 OF A DOG THIEF. ^ 



.SUAL allusions have been made earlier on to a 

 variety of collie the coat of which is short or 

 smooth, an active, useful animal, valuable in all 

 descriptions of farm work where sheep and cattle are 

 concerned. These smooth dogs have been found most 

 numerous and of greatest excellence in the north of 

 England in Durham and Northumberland especially and 

 although choice specimens may occasionally crop up else- 

 where their parents in nine cases out of ten are found to 

 have sprung from the counties named or the localities 

 bordering thereon. The farmers in the Weardale district 

 are particularly fond of this smooth-coated dog, and some 

 of them have bred it with great care for many generations, 

 with a result that they are produced true to type. I do not 

 find that the advent of dog shows has improved them one iota, 

 nor have exhibitors thereat contrived to breed specimens of 

 this smooth variety to as high a standard of perfection as 



