Catu Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 I have seen just one smooth collie in my entire life, and it was a german dog, handled by an italian that I saw in Spain... yeah, round-about. Then occurred me the follow question: You working lines breeders... when you are looking for a sire or a dam for your next litter, do you mind the length of the coat? I'm not meaning as in a show dog, but if you have a smooth coated dam, do you look for a smooth sire or is the same if he is long coated as soon as he is a good worker? At wich point smooths and long coated are different lines? Or you can find all the spectrum of coat and just classify the dogs in one type or another in a subjetive way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fosher Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 Although some western ranchers have a preference for smooth coated dogs because they have fewer troubles with burrs and stickers, generally when a breeder is looking for mate for a dog or a bitch, she's looking for a dog whose working traits compliment the other side of the pair. You don't usually want to over emphasize one particular trait too much -- breeding a very strong eyed bitch to very strong eyed dog could be seen as chancing pups that are not free to move. So you might breed a strong-eyed bitch to a dog that was a little more flanky. Similarly, you don't breed weakness to weakness if you can help it. If a bitch is overly sensitive, you might not want to breed her to a very sensitive dog. Among working breeders, coat is a tertiary concern at best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stockdogranch Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 Not to mention, that just because you breed a smooth coat to a smooth coat, you won't necessarily get all smooth coats, anyway--you'll get a variety of coats in the litter. As Bill said, we breed for working traits in the hopes of making a worthwhile contribution to the breed. Anna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca, Irena Farm Posted November 22, 2006 Report Share Posted November 22, 2006 Rough coat is recessive, so once you have bred two roughs together the smooth gene is gone from those pups. So you can get "rid" of smooth very easily. They did it in the Aussie/New Zealand show lines, where smooth coats are disallowed (among several other characteristics which we take for granted). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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