Bearded Collie

The Bearded Collie or beardie is a herding breed of dog, once used primarily by Scottish shepherds, but these days mostly a popular family companion, bred almost exclusively for dog shows.

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History

It is difficult to distinguish between fact and legend in looking at the history of a breed, but it is believed that Kazimierz Grabski, a Polish merchant, traded a shipment of grain for sheep in Scotland in 1514, and brought six Polish Lowland Sheepdogs to move the sheep. A Scottish shepherd was so impressed with the herding ability of the dogs that he traded a few sheep for a few dogs. These were bred with the local Scottish dogs to produce the Bearded Collie.

What everybody seems to agree upon, is that Mrs. G. Olive Willison founded today's breed with her brown bitch Jeannie of Bothkennar. Jeannie was supposed to have been a Shetland Sheepdog, but by mistake Mrs Willison received a Bearded Collie instead. She got so fascinated by the dog, that she wanted to start breeding, and started looking for a mate for her Jeannie. A man who she met one day while walking along the beach was about to emigrate from Scotland, so Mrs Willison became the owner of his grey dog David, who was to become Bailie of Bothkennar.

These two dogs are what we today refer to as the founders of the modern breed and there are but a few other registerable blood lines, preserved in large part by the perseverance of Mr. Nicolas Broadbridge (Sallen) and Mrs. Betty Foster (Bredon). These are based on a dog named Turnbull's Blue, a bearded collie from pure working stock registered in ISDS, at the time when ISDS still registered non-border collies. He fathered three litters of registerable bearded collies.

The breed has become more and more popular over the last half of the 20th century, in part propelled by a Bearded Collie, "Potterdale Classic at Moonhill", winning Best in Show at Crufts in 1989. The Bearded Collie Club celebrated its Golden Jubilee year in 2005; where "Bumbleridge Original Oka" (Bred by Sue Nichols-Ward, Owned by Sue Unsworth & Andy Miller) won the "Most Handsome Bearded Collie" event.

Working life

The Bearded Collie was used to herd both sheep and cattle. As such it is essentially a working dog, bred to be hardy and reliable, able to stand up to the harshest conditions, and the toughest sheep. The "working bearded collie" became less common in the last few decades and might have died out, but thanks to the efforts of relatively few shepherds such as Tom Muirhead and Peter Wood and breeders like Brian Plummer the "working beardie" has survived and is becoming more popular. It has been exported to Australia and the United States, and finds favour among those looking for an independent and intelligent sheep dog. The purpose of the Working Bearded Collie Society is to preserve the working abilities of the non-registered working dogs from 'bearded' ancestors. The web site Shepherds with beardies contains a lot a valuable information on the few remaining working beardies.

The KC registered bearded collie has fallen into disrepute with the shepherds of Wales and Scotland (and elsewhere), because of the show breeding communitys lack of attention to 'hardy and reliable', and because of the tendency of show bred lines to develop excessive coats. However, in some countries, notably Sweden and the United States, herding programmes have been developed for the breed. The breed clubs in those countries are these days actively encouraging breeders to pay attention to non-exterior qualities.

It's possible the beardie gained its epithet of the 'bouncing beardie' because dogs would work in thick undergrowth on the hill, and would bounce to catch sight of the sheep, or because of the characteristic way the beardie faces a stubborn ewe, barking and bouncing on the forelegs. However that may be, the bearded collie is an enthusiastic herding dog that needs structure and fostering, and that moves stock using both body, bark and bounce, should that be required. Very few beardies show eye] when working, most are quite upright.

Books about the bearded collie

ALL ABOUT THE BEARDED COLLIE, by Joyce Collis, Pelham Books

THE BEARDED COLLIE, by G.O. Willison, a Foyles Handbook

THE BEARDED COLLIE, by Chris Walkowicz, publisher Alpine/Denlinger

BEARDED COLLIES, by Carol Gold, publisher TFH

BEARDIE BASICS, by Barbara Rieseberg and B.J. McKinney, publisher Alpine

BEARDIE BASICS AND BEYOND, by Barbara Rieseberg and B.J. McKinney, revised by Jo Parker, publisher Alpine

THE COMPLETE BEARDED COLLIE, by Joyce Collis and Pat Jones, publisher Howell Book House

TALKING ABOUT BEARDIES, by Suzanne Moorhouse, self-published

References

• Beardie general information
• Bearded Collie club of the UK