“Old Faithful” 
THE COLLIE OF TO-DAY AND WHAT HE WAS YESTERDAY—POINTS 
THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW-HOW TO BUY A GOOD “SHEP” 
Photographs by the author and Jessie Tarbox Beals, Inc. 
A LOT of poppycock has been talked 
and written in the last few years 
about the deterioration of the Collie. 
’Round the dinner table one hears 
laments over the passing of the “dear 
old Shep” of the farms of our youth, and 
at the bench shows certain wise ones 
hold forth on the “pernicious influences 
of alien crosses’’ that have changed the 
Collie into a monstrosity and a misan¬ 
thropist. The modern Collie is indeed 
a very different looking dog from the 
chunky, scraggly-coated, thick-skulled 
dog who brought the cows home thirty 
years ago, nor can it be denied that Collie 
breeders have employed cross-breeding, 
not only with Russian wolfhounds, but 
also with Gordon setters. But the trans¬ 
formation of old Shep into the aristo¬ 
cratic show dog of to-day has not been 
accomplished by turning a sound, intelligent, faithful dog into a 
short-tempered, half-witted freak. 
This well-gnawed bone of contention about the ruination of the 
Collie’s disposition and intelligence is hardly worth digging up. 
Nobody doubts that the longer head is more attractive, and the 
fact that the skull, though it looks narrower because it is longer, 
is not actually so, disposes of that pretty theoretical bugaboo 
that the modern dog is lacking in brain space. 
Those who know the show Collie well know him to be an 
uncommonly clever dog, and, although the five-thousand-dollar 
Miss McCurdy with Pinewood Pilot and Ormskirk Sensation, two blues that show the increased size of the modern 
dog. Note the well-boned legs and short, straight, strong backs 
The good Collie should have a blue grey coat, mottled with black spots and with tan freckles on the face. 
Some fanciers, however, prefer a rich, golden sable, with a broad white collar and a narrow white blaze 
up his face 
show beauties are not ordinarily called upon to play drover, still 
prominent bench winners have proved to be good working dogs. 
Ormskirk Charlie is a famous example. He won in hot classes 
at the bench shows and was a champion in the Sheepdog trials. 
The less favored brothers and sisters of great show dogs have 
time and again shown that the highest bred Collie strains have 
not been bred away from farm usefulness. It is mainly a matter 
of training; not of any fanciful result of breeding. The most 
intelligent of dogs, if he lives his life between the show benches 
and his individual pen in some great kennels, will never develop 
a modicum of his mental capabilities. Over 
a hundred years ago the picturesque shep¬ 
herd-poet, James Hogg of Ettrick, speaking 
of his Collies, pointed out that those kept 
solely as sheep herders, while they attained 
great skill and exercised the nicest judgment 
in the performance of their professional 
duties, were not so companionable nor so 
nimble-witted as those who lived with a 
cotter’s family and accordingly had a more 
varied experience. 
As to the Collie being treacherous, this is 
plain libel. If one is bound to pick flaws in 
the sun, he might say, if he would use this 
adjective, that a Collie is too “bark-ative.” 
Lie does bark more than most dogs, but the 
supporters of the smooth-coated variety, 
which is becoming more popular, claim their 
favorite has in this very matter a great ad¬ 
vantage over his better-known, rough-coated 
cousin. But as for treachery, there is none 
of it in the Collie’s make-up. 
In one thing the improvement in the 
modern Collie might well be questioned. 
This is the increased size. On a ramble 
through the Border Country several years 
15 
