The Collie or Sheep Dog. 125 



It must not, however, be taken for granted that 

 the collie as he is now seen, obtaining valuable prizes 

 at our kennel exhibitions, is the exact counterpart 

 of the dog met with on the sheep farms, and with- 

 out which the shepherd could not get through his 

 work. The former has been treasured for his beauty 

 alone, and most likely for generations his ancestors 

 had never known what it was to assist the farmer 

 in his duties. So his descendants gradually drop 

 out of the work, and when they do come to be 

 trained, are not nearly so docile and intelligent as 

 they would be had their progenitors been good 

 workers. 



We occasionally do see, at the various trials with 

 sheep held in different parts of the country, a hand- 

 some dog that is a fairly good worker, but such is 

 the exception, and I am sorry to write that, so far 

 as the shepherd's work with the collie is concerned, 

 the handsomest dogs are usually the worst workers 

 at any rate in public. It was, however, gratifying to 

 find at the Llangollen Trials in 1893, one descended 

 from bench winners proving successful. This dog, 

 Mr. R. S. Piggin's Ormskirk Cha'fl e, won the all- 

 aged stake there in excellent style, beating pretty 

 well all the cracks in the country, and afterwards 

 was awarded the Special as the handsomest dog on 

 the ground. Ormskirk Charlie, bred by Mr. Richard 



