20 THE OLD ENGLISH SHEEP DOG 



therefore to be remembered that, according to our 

 working standard, a perfect coat is the most important 

 individual item hitherto reached. We have thus 

 accounted for seventy points. 



The body, which includes loins and hindquarters, is 

 credited with twenty points, and is consequently the most 

 important item of all to be considered in comparing one 

 animal with another. 



With the addition of ten points for colour, we reach 

 the total of the possible hundred. 



This question of colour is purposely left to the last, as 

 being the only detail in which very considerable latitude 

 appears to be left to individual taste. Elsewhere the 

 right and wrong are so clearly defined that careful 

 consideration must find a decisive answer. But as 

 regards colour the only rule laid down is that any shade 

 of brown or sable is to be considered distinctly 

 objectionable. 



From this it may be safely argued that, if the only 

 fault an expert critic can find with your dog is that he is 

 either too light or too dark in colour, the animal can hold 

 his own. For the matter is merely one of the expert 

 critic's individual taste. 



There remain two items, both of them important ones, 

 with which the scale of points has not concerned itself, 

 namely, action and size. And it seems to me that the 

 controversies which arise from time to time as to the 

 improvement or deterioration of the breed centre on these 



