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THE SHEPHERD’S DOG. 
which it is brought up, the Sheep-dog is perhaps the most untiring of our domesticated 
animals. 
There are many breeds of this animal, differing from each other in color and aspect, and 
deriving their varied forms from the Dog with which the family has been crossed. Nearly 
all the sporting Dogs are used for this purpose, so that some Sheep-dogs have something of 
the pointer nature in them, others of the foxhound, and others of the setter. This last cross 
is the most common. Together with the outward form, the creature inherits much of the sport- 
ing predilections of its ancestry, and is capable of being trained into a capital sporting Dog. 
Many of these animals are sad double-dealers in their characters, being by day most 
respectable Sheep-dogs, and by night most disreputable poachers. The mixed offspring of 
a Sheep-dog and a setter is as silently successful in discovering and marking game by night as 
he is openly useful in managing the flocks by day. As he spends the whole of his time in the 
SHEPHERD’S DO G.— Canis familians pecuarius. 
society of his master, and learns from long companionship to comprehend the least gesture of 
hand or tone of voice, he is far better adapted for nocturnal poaching than the more legitimate 
setter or retriever, and causes far more deadly havoc among the furred and feathered game. 
Moreover, he often escapes the suspicion of the gamekeeper by his quiet and honorable 
demeanor during the daytime, and his devotion to his arduous task of guarding the fold, and 
reclaiming its wandering members. It seems hardly possible that an animal which works so 
hard during the day should be able to pass the night in beating for game. 
Sometimes there is an infusion of the bull-dog blood into the Sheep-dog, but this mixture 
is thought to be unadvisable, as such Dogs are too apt to bite their charge, and so to alienate 
from themselves the confidence of the helpless creatures whom they are intended to protect, 
and not to injure. Unless the sheep can feel that the Dog is, next to the shepherd, their best 
friend, the chief value of the animal is lost. 
It is well observed by Mr. Youatt, in his valuable work on these Dogs, that if the sheep 
do not crowd round the Dog when they are alarmed, and place themselves under his protection, 
there is something radically wrong in the management of the flock. He remarks, that the 
Dog will seldom, if ever, bite a sheep, unless incited to do so by its master, and suggests that 
