The Bob-Tailed Sheep Dog 383 
as companions, there are too many good-looking dogs of other breeds for 
an oddity, such as the bob-tail most undoubtedly is, to succeed with Amer- 
icans. 
Our opinion is that the English fancy is developing a dog too large 
for use. A small or medium-sized dog is far better for sheep work than 
one of the large, carthorse style, which will wear himself out through his 
own excessive weight. The late Doctor Edwardes-Ker, who was the 
recognised authority on the breed, was of the opinion that the dog was 
formerly much larger, and that the short back and thick-set body, making 
the dog “a little big ’un,” showed this. In place of this being so, the size 
has increased astonishingly, through better rearing and feeding, and he 
has left his companion, the smooth dog, behind in the race for size. On 
this question of size we quote from a short contribution by the well-known 
English exhibitors, the Tilley Brothers, from whom so many good dogs have 
come to this country: ‘We are satisfied with the type of the breed in all 
features but two, which are size and lack of courage. Bob-tails are now 
too large (i. e., the winning dogs) to be of great value as workers. A large 
and heavy dog tires far more quickly than a cobby and more active one, 
such as the original sheep and cattle dogs were.” Another quotation from 
Mr. Tilley may perhaps be considered as supporting our contention as to 
the origin of the breed: “They make splendid dogs for the gun, having 
a keen scent, are easily trained, will face any fence, most obedient to com- 
mand, and ready and natural retrievers.” 
The exhibition bob-tail is a dog having no resemblance to any other 
member of the dog family. Naturally a short-coupled dog, he looks still 
shorter in body, owing to his coat giving him additional size or bulk of 
body. He stands slightly lower at the withers than at the loin, which 
gives him his bear-like appearance of body and movement, and this is 
added to by his gait being a pace, or perhaps it is more of racking than 
pacing, being an independent foot movement in all his slow paces. At his 
fast gait he gallops with great power and determination. 
As much difference in texture of coat is to be met with as in wire- 
haired terriers, but the right thing is a coat with a bit of a kink in it. Mrs. 
Fare Fosse got it about right when she wrote: “A hard, shaggy coat, 
not curly or straight (which is worse), but broken in disposition—that is, 
with just one twist in the hair, as two twists make a curl.” It is a very 
difficult coat to describe, as there is nothing to compare it with in any 
