CHAPTER XXII 



ROUGH-COATED COLLIE 



HEN Buffon stated that the shepherd dog was the original 

 dog from which all others had descended, he was a good 

 deal nearer the truth than in a number of his theoretical 

 assertions, many of which have been proved erroneous. 

 One of the earliest dogs man must have had was that which 

 took care of his property and protected his flocks from wild animals. The 

 mistake all are likely to make in considering this claim of Buffon's is to 

 assume that the particular sheep dog with which each one is most familiar 

 was the one Buffon meant, whereas every nation has its sheep dog, England 

 alone having three, and by England we mean, of course, the British King- 

 dom. Buffon could have known little or nothing about the sheep dogs of 

 England, and much less of that of Scotland, hence neither of the three is a 

 competitor for the right to be considered the most .ancient of all breeds of 

 dogs. But no matter what the age of the breed may be, there is no question 

 as to the high rank in popularity enjoyed by the rough or Scotch collie at 

 the present day. 



If we are to take the records of the American Kennel Club as an in- 

 fallible guide, he is beyond question the dog of the day, Volume XX, of the 

 "Stud Book" showing that 267 pages were required for the record of 

 collies, while 140 pages sufficed for setters, 172 for Boston terriers and 106 

 for pointers. The whole of the spaniels were put on seventy-two pages, 

 and the one-time leader in popularity, the fox terrier, filled the same number 

 of pages as the spaniels. While not absolutely correct as a guide to the 

 number of setters, so many being bred for use only and never registered, 

 yet there is no throwing out the evidence of the great popularity of the 

 Scotch collie in this country as well as in England. 



Where the collie came from is and always will be a mystery. He 

 could not have gone north from England without also having gone into 

 Wales or Ireland, and every vestige of the breed could hardly have dis- 

 appeared from England had it once been in use there. They ask us to 



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