Bearded Collie
Bearded Collie
Main page
2182509

Bearded Collie

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Bearded Collie

The Bearded Collie or Beardie is a British breed of herding dog of collie type. It was formerly used primarily by Scottish shepherds, but now commonly kept as a family companion.

Weights are usually in the range 18–27 kg (40–60 lb), while height at the withers varies from about 51 to 56 cm (20 to 22 in).

The legend of the Bearded Collie's origin is that the ancestors of what is today the Polish Lowland Sheepdog were abandoned on the shores of Scotland, and these dogs then bred with native herding dogs. A variant on this story is that Kazimierz Grabski, a Polish merchant, reportedly traded a shipment of grain for sheep in Scotland in 1514 and brought six Polish Lowland Sheepdogs to move them. A Scottish shepherd was so impressed with the herding ability of the dogs that he traded several sheep for several dogs. The Polish sheepdogs were bred with local Scottish dogs to produce the Bearded Collie.

The first written reference to the Bearded Collie occurs in 1891, when D.J. Thomson Gray describes them in his book The Dogs of Scotland as

A big, rough, ‘tousy’ looking tyke, with a coat not unlike a doormat, the texture of the hair hard and fibry, and the ears hanging close to the head.

It is generally agreed that Mrs. G. Olive Willison founded the modern show Bearded Collie in 1944 with her brown bitch, Jeannie of Bothkennar. Jeannie was supposedly a Shetland Sheepdog, but Mrs. Willison received a Bearded Collie by accident. She was so fascinated by the dog that she wanted to begin breeding, so she began searching for a dog for Jeannie. While walking along the beach, Mrs. Willison met a man who was emigrating from Scotland; she became the owner of his grey dog, David, who became Bailie of Bothkennar.

Bailie and Jeannie of Bothkennar are the founders of the modern show breed; there are only a few other registrable blood lines, preserved in large part by the perseverance of Mr. Nicolas Broadbridge (Sallen) and Mrs. Betty Foster (Bredon). These are based on Turnbull's Blue—a Bearded Collie from pure working stock, registered in ISDS when ISDS still registered non-Border Collies. He sired three litters of registerable Bearded Collies.[citation needed]

While the registered breed lines can be traced to a limited number of bloodlines, there are still many unregistered Bearded Collies in Scotland, some still working as herding dogs.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.