Re: When does a Mutt become a Purebred?

"Tee" <crappolagozhere@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> "Julia Altshuler" <jaltshuler@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:KOOdnYvl1LwoCnTfRVn-3Q@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> While it seems that it would be the appearance that would make the breed
> I've been told that's not the case at all which makes it more confusing to
> the lay person. I've seen pictures of Border Collies that look like mangy
> mutts with god-awful coats and that look nothing like Melanie's Solor or
> Fly. I've seen purebred Labs that look like some kind of 4th generation
> mutt with Lab somewhere in the lines. Then there's the McNab. Diane and a
> few others tried to patiently explain it to me and while I understand the
> basic concept I can't say I fully accept how you can have a breed where
> members don't even look related to each other. I won't even attempt to
> explain that one but there are some knowledgable people here who understand
> it.

I'll try to contribute to this one, and perhaps someone like Melanie
can step in and correct me if I stray too far.

A couple hundred years ago, there were many different types of herding
dogs in the British Isles. Each locality had their own versions of
livestock dogs, which were also differentiated by function and working
style.

Shepherds in the hill country between England and Scotland needed
dogs primarily for gathering flocks that were scattered over large
areas and rough terrain.

While there have likely been herding competitions for hundreds of
years, the first recorded one took place in Bala, Wales in 1873. From
those trials, and the ones that followed, came the International Sheep
Dog Society (ISDS) in 1906.

The border collie breed were simply the offspring of the dogs who won
those early trials. They were highly sought after by farmers and
shepherds because their working ability was proven in a fairly
objective way. Physical appearance was never much of a consideration,
and many of the dogs that were considered the foundation of the breed,
like Old Kep and Old Hemp, didn't look much like each other at all.

The name "border collie" was adopted sometime after World War 1 to
distinguish those working dogs from the show collies of the Kennel
Club.

The McNabs were started by a Scottish immigrant to California,
Alexander McNab. He brought a pair of short-haired herding dogs from
Scotland to California in 1885. That was before the border collie was
really recognizable as a distinct breed, but these would have been the
same stock from that which the border collies came. More imported dogs
from Scotland were added to the McNab line, but always short-coated
dogs as they were better suited to the heat and burrs and foxtails of
the California foothills.

I'm an enthusiast, definitely not an expert. Most of the above came
from my memory of the Coppingers' book, "Dogs", plus the following
websites:

http://www.flyballdogs.com/personal/mcnab.html
http://www.gis.net/~shepdog/BC_Museum/Permanent/BC_History.html
http://www.bordercollies.nl/eborstam.shtml

--
Stafford A. Rau
<raudog> <@> <rauhaus.org>
.

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