Over in MPSIMS, I was musing on an incident when I couldn’t tell if a bunch of white critters grazing in a weedy yard were sheep or dogs, so of course that got me thinking about sheepdogs. Here are some pics.
Okay, I get how certain dogs are bred for certain jobs – dachshunds are short-legged and short-haired to go after badgers, etc.
What are the advantages of these dogs having this much hair? Wouldn’t it be easier for shepherds to tell the dogs and the sheep apart if they looked more different from each other?
It’s not always easy to figure out why a breed came to have its traits. Sometimes, it just happens that way. The thick coat on an OE Sheepdog, though, is said to protect it from the teeth of sheep-eating predators. We could also say that it’s camoflage, to fool the predators. However, a herding dog usually doesn’t mingle with the flock.
You mentioned the dachshund being bred to follow a badger into a burrow. The smooth coat may be useful for that, but there are also shaggy dachshunds.
A tangent: My brother told me of a couple who, before getting married, were both sheepdog breeders. At the rainy outdoor wedding reception, all of the revelers eventually clustered in one corner of the tent. They weren’t gathered around the couple or the bar; the dogs had quietly nudged everyone into a flock.
You don’t see thse dogs used for this purpose in the UK, they are rather large and not really nimble enough, and the coat is far too easily matted, the dog would need a fair bit of maintenance, and definately more than the type usually employed for this task. I can only assume that over the years, breeding has changed this dog significantly so that it isn’t really suitable for herding, my guess is that at this size, they were more likely a form of guard dog.
Most sheepdogs seem to be rough coated , border collies are used extensively,
I think that perhaps there is a clue that the breed has changed over time, look at this 1862 description, note the descprition of the muzzle, and also of the general build of the dog
The build is similar and the coat sounds to me to be more dense, and it does fit the old English well in many aspects, especially the size. It would seem that when serious predators of sheep in the UK were hunted out the use of a large dog for shepherding fell out of use in favour of the smaller collies.