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Dogs and All about Them
·
Robert Leighton
75
As
to
his
origin,
there
is
considerable
conflict
of
opinion,
owing
to
the
natural
difficulty
of
tracing
him
back
to
that
period
when
the
dog-fancier,
as
he
flourishes
to-day,
was
all
unknown,
and
the
voluminous
records
of
a
watchful
Kennel
Club
were
still
undreamed
of.
From
time
immemorial
a
sheepdog,
of
one
kind
or
another,
has
presided
over
the
welfare
of
flocks
and
herds
in
every
land.
Probably,
in
an
age
less
peaceable
than
ours,
this
canine
guardian
was
called
upon,
in
addition
to
his
other
duties,
to
protect
his
charges
from
wolves
and
bears
and
other
marauders.
In
that
case
it
is
very
possible
that
the
early
progenitors
of
the
breed
were
built
upon
a
larger
and
more
massive
scale
than
is
the
sheepdog
of
to-day.
The
herd
dogs
of
foreign
countries,
such
as
the
Calabrian
of
the
Pyrenees,
the
Himalayan
drover's
dog,
and
the
Russian
Owtchah,
are
all
of
them
massive
and
powerful
animals,
far
larger
and
fiercer
than
our
own,
though
each
of
them,
and
notably
the
Owtchah,
has
many
points
in
common
with
the
English
bob-tail.
It
is
quite
possible
that
all
of
them
may
trace
their
origin,
at
some
remote
period,
to
the
same
ancestral
strain.
Indeed,
it
is
quite
open
to
argument
that
the
founders
of
our
breed,
as
it
exists
to-day,
were
imported
into
England
at
some
far-off
date
when
the
duties
of
a
sheepdog
demanded
of
him
fighting
qualities
no
longer
necessary.
Throughout
the
nineteenth
century,
one
finds
conclusive
evidence
that
the
breed
was
very
fairly
represented
in
many
parts
of
England,
notably
in
Suffolk,
Hampshire,
and
Dorsetshire,
and
also
in
Wales.
Youatt
writes
of
it
in
1845,
Richardson
in
1847,
and
"Stonehenge"
in
1859.
Their
descriptions
vary
a
little,
though
the
leading
characteristics
are
much
the
same,
but
each
writer
specially
notes
the
exceptional
sagacity
of
the
breed.
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